Month: September 2022

I would like to share over the next few weeks some excerpts from my debut Romcom Novel, Tara Tree, which is awaiting publication. I hope you enjoy them.

Today’s note on my calendar is, ‘I am carved to imperfecktion.’ I love how my favourite Irish word, ‘feck,’ is silently woven into the word ‘imperfecked’. My calendar is homemade as I was bored with generic daily affirmations and felt the need to celebrate and record my spiritual journey with quotes that resonate with me. Three hundred and sixty- five of them on A7 cards. Some are tongue in cheek, such as, on St. Patrick’s Day – ‘Seek your cock of gold’, ‘FIIF – Feck it, it’s Friday’,’ Seaze the day’- for my love of the sea or my favourite one ‘The sea is my frequensea’ which I got embroidered onto my swim robe. Others are more philosophical such as ‘Love yourself today and spend your spiritual currency wisely’. Embracing positivity and being nice is my daily goal; however, it can be exhausting.

Looking at the clock, it reads 7.17 am. I am reminded of the short story competition I want to enter to get some interest from publishers for my book. It has been finished for some time now, and I keep putting off submitting it to agents and publishers. Procrastination and imposter syndrome envelop me whenever I feel the urge to put it out there.

 

All the best

Stay fab

Adele

I promise that this is the last Electric Picnic blog. Maybe I am still too excited about it as it has not been on for three years. Sunday had torrential rain forecast, so we decided to head home after the Artic Monkeys. We packed up early and brought our stuff to the car so we could leave without hassle, as the Monkey’s gig did not start until 22.30.

I donned my mad flower hat and was thrilled to happen upon a random and wonderful Mad Hatter’s Tea Party table in one of the fields. We meandered to the Manifesto tent in Mindfield and then spent a few hours lolling around in Body and Soul. The band Cruel Sister was another lovely surprise.

The Coronas were awesome, particularly as the lead singer Danny ‘O Reilly brought his Mam, Mary Black, onto the stage. She sang a few bars from No Frontiers, and I have to say I shed a few tears. His sister Roisin O and the guitarists from All Twins and True Tides supported him. I love that many bands and artists are now collaborating with their peers.

I have never seen a front man overcome with joy and emotion as Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol. He literally could not stop smiling. They had never played Electric Picnic before, and the crowd were singing along to all of their songs. You could tell that he was completely overcome. The crowd sang two verses of the chorus of Run, and he said that he had never heard a crowd sing two verses in all his years of singing this anthemic song.

Arctic Monkeys started with Brian and then sang no further hits until we left, seven songs in. I have since seen the setlist on Twitter, and they only played ‘Bet you look good on the dancefloor’ at the very end.

https://www.hotpress.com/live-review/live-report-snow-patrol-in-fine-form-at-electric-picnic-2022-22927228

The torrential rain began at 11 pm, and we decided to leave. It was difficult for Artic Monkeys to top The Coronas and Snow Patrol, but I still feel that they could have played more of their hits. I had seen Alex Turner in his other band, The Last Shadow Puppets, in Glastonbury in 2016, and they were awesome. I completely lost it when they played the song, The age of the understatement. He is an awesome frontman, but he did not engage with the crowd at all.

It was and is a truly awesome festival regardless of the rain or the trek to get in and out. I always say that it is the most fun you can have in a field in Ireland.

All the best

Stay fab

Adele

Electric Picnic has two seated areas, in front of the main stage, for vintage picnickers, like myself and my friend. This is where we were headed to watch Dermot Kennedy in all his glory.

Megan Thee Stallion, and what a stallion, was the act before Dermot. If twerking were an Olympic sport, she would take the gold, no problem. She brought up a load of little hotties from the crowd to twerk with her. Much to my delight, every second word was ‘ Mutha f*cka’; therefore, I used this phrase for the entire evening, much to the annoyance of my friend. Perhaps going to the coffee truck and asking for ‘A ‘mutha f*ucka Caffe latte’ was a step too far, but as they say, I like to live and learn.

On Saturday, Becky Hill ( awesome) and Ann Marie treated us to amazing sets. Following these, we trotted off to Trailer Park and then onto Hazelwood, finally finishing in Fishtown, R.C.A.G was a wonderful surprise. One man with a set of drums and maybe foot pedals that acted as a base? He gave a performance that could rival The Chemical Brothers.

The side acts of burlesque dancers of various shapes and sizes were a joy to behold. Maybe stapling paper hearts to one’s boobs, fanny and ass was a step too far? Not at all, as the next lady proceeded to skewer her neck with metal star lights and then light them. Frank and Walters were, as always, their spectacular best. The fact that Radiohead was their support band in the very early 90s is still my favourite rock trivia fact.

All the best

Stay fab

Adele

I was so excited. After four years, I was going back to Electric Picnic with my best mate, and it was her fourth and my fifth visit. As a festival junkie over the last two decades, I was about to enter my idea of Nirvana. However, this was not to be the case.

As usual, we had booked our glamping (old fogeydom is beckoning) and were looking forward to not having to pitch a tent.  We knew the trek to the site would be about an hour or so, but in the end, it took us two and a half hours. I had tried everything the night before to download a map, but it was impossible. As one of the Picnic stewards informed us, the Electric Picnic app needed to be downloaded a week before as it was not working properly on Friday. I was not Appy. As a result, we went to the wrong campsite, which was at the other end of the field, 3kms away.

This steward was one of eight that we asked for directions to our campsite. None of them knew where anything was, and it was as if they were mimicking Dougal from Father Ted. Walking through the Jimi Hendrix campsite was like a scene from Mad Max crossed with Armageddon and the night of the living dead. When we got to our campsite, the registration tent was closed, and we had no clue where our tent was. The field had about fifty tents, and we slowly checked each one to see where we could rest our weary bones. When we had started the trek to our tent, I had joked to my friend that it would be like climbing Croagh Patrick. Little did I know that the quip would come back to bite us in the arse.

The campsite organisers had texted my friend with vague directions but failed to mention that there would be nobody to check us in at the end. Miraculously, my friend found our tent after some time. We threw ourselves down onto the inflated mattresses and rested a while before entering the main arena to see our favourite acts.

All the best

Stay fab

Adele