The Daisies were Rocked

So Friday started with me waiting and waiting to be collected from work by my family. Instead of the expected 4:30pm, they arrived after 5:30pm. Gee thanks, nothing like working LATE on a Friday. :/

Knowing my husband and his planning skills I had conscientiously printed off the directions before hand. The trip was noted as a 45 min drive. As we headed out of town I saw that Marine Drive is indeed the R27 and told Richard to head in that direction. But NO, he knew a superior way and decided the N7 would be a much better choice...

Now please note that Richard has one of the worst senses of direction EVAR. Granted, once he knows a place he is the master of route (or travel time) optimising, but it takes him a while to figure it out and to be involved in this process is excruciating!

So we fought our way to the N7. At this point I ask if he'd got the rolls, fruit and beers he was meant to pick up on the way. No. Now even as a girl, I know you gotta have beer to be at a music festival. I mean come on!

By this time it is almost 6pm, and bottle stores close at 6. Richard wanted to turn around and go to Canal Walk to get some. I, nice wife that I am, told him I would kick him in the head if he turned around. Really, that's what I said... but in a nice way ;) so we soldiered along the N7 and found a truck-stop type bottle store, dashed in and procured some beer just before the place closed.

Now it was time for our journey to start in earnest. We drove and drove and then Richard turned off towards Table view and the worst of the Friday traffic. He turned around after a while and went up and down and finally pulled over at a petrol station in Atlantis to ask a guy, whose booze breathe I could smell from within our car, where to go. Sigh! To cut a long story short we finally got there at 7:30pm, with me insisting on driving next time. We then had to pitch 3 tents in the rapidly descending dark, wind and cold, with 2 tired and hungry kids. We somehow managed to get the tents up and the beds laid out, and ham sandwiches made and eaten, and then it was time to check out where we were.
We made our way to the festival village area, and checked out the stalls (shopping always comes first you know) and then went down to the stage. The mood was pretty mellow and relaxed. It turned out that the event was not all that well attended. There were enough people to have a nice vibe, but due to the wind, cold and rain I think a lot of people stayed away. It would have been nice to have had more, but it was better than if there was a huge crowd.

We stood quite near the front and danced and listened to the music, we let the kids stay up quite late and Griffin in particular was having a great time dancing and grooving. We put them to bed after the Finkelsteins played at well after 10pm. They enjoyed recognising a few songs which have had radio play, and to be able to see the actual band playing the song. Unfortunately they couldn't stay up late enough to see the headline act, The Parlotones, which were after Cassette, hey are undoubtedly one of SA's most popular bands at the moment.

They are really good, and their music is excellent. The band's front man Kahn Morbee has a real presence and seems totally absorbed by his performance. He is quite dramatic and interesting to watch. Their recent songs 'Colourful' & 'Dragonflies and Astronauts' are great and I simply LOVE 'Here comes a man'. It is a cover of an eighties song, although I can't find who did it originally and I loved it back then too. My kids know this one well too, from me bellowing in the car when it plays. ;) Anyway I really enjoyed that.

Richard and I decided to head to bed after The Parlotones, old farts that we are now, despite there being more bands scheduled. We listened to The Beams from our tent and they were pretty good and very British sounding, a bit like the Cure mixed with Talking Heads (yeah
yeah I know that talking heads were American, but they sounded British to me too!), both of which I like too. I went to sleep to the music of some UCT DJ.

There was not too much noise or mayhem during the night, unlike at Vingerdstok where drunken students were yelling and stumbling over everyone all night - I don’t think I will ever forget that blond bimbo with a HEAVY Afrikaans accent saying 'G'Day mate, let's put another shrimp on the barbie!' several hundred times day and night. I really wanted to throttle her. But there was none of that this time just really fun and cool people - and one large tattooed guy wearing a gimp mask!

The funniest thing was lying in the tent hearing snippets of conversations as people walked past. One of the funniest was regales of giggles followed by 'You're so stupid you just got hit by a parked car!'. Richard and I chuckled over that.

The next morning the kids woke up and went exploring. They came back telling us they had found some friends and wanted to take their soccer ball and cricket stuff there. We said it was fine. Then Richard jokingly said, it's not the man with the funny black mask is it? They told us yes it was!

So we quickly made coffee and went over to meet our strange neighbour to make sure he isn't an axe-murderer or something. He turned out to be a really nice guy, and his friends were great too. They were a bit goth-cum-hard-rock looking but really sweet, kind and friendly. They basically adopted our kids for the week-end and were very patient playing soccer, and cricket and answering a million questions. The gimp mask was apparently a prank gift from a friend, and he was there for his birthday.

He told us that we are really cool parents, and said that Quinn is really clever. *grin*

The event was sponsored by Smirnoff Storm, which looks and basically is the same as Smirnoff Red. Quinn thinks they are called 'Smell of Red' and kept asking me if I want a Smell of Red. LOL.

On Saturday we went into Darling to get some more food, and then went back for a late Brunch fry-up. Bacon, sausage, eggs, banana on thick slices of bread. It was surprisingly delicious.

In the afternoon there was a comedy hour. It was hilarious. Dave Levenson (who we have seen before) started. We were seated right in the front and centre.

Now please understand that I am pretty liberal, and am raising my children to be the same. They understand that there are things that are ok for adults (swearing, sex, drinking etc) which are not for kids - but I don't try to pretend that the adult's world does not exist. I believe in exposing them to stuff as appropriate and explaining it to them and giving it context. I am not trying to make them be naive kids for as long as possible, I am allowing them to move along a path to maturity and responsibility so that it is a natural progression, rather than a sudden event when they are 'the right age'. I have seen people who were sheltered and protected and suddenly thrust into the world, and they do not cope well.

Anyhoo, so Dave Levenson looks at us and the kids and says, 'Right I see there are kids here, so we won't be having full on sex of stage or swearing ok? …No fucking way!' and he starts thrusting. He then says 'ok anyone who is not a kid block your ears', so Griff blocks his ears, and was told that he could listen. Then Dave says to them, 'Sex is a special type of wrestling that 2 people who love each other very much do.... except when it is Daddy's Birthday, cos then he gets anal' !!!! OMG. LMAO. Thanks Dave! After that he says, 'You guys are going to have such a FUN talk later!'. Teehee.

Anyway the points is, with kids most stuff goes right over their heads, because they don’t get the innuendo and insinuation until they are 10+, so this actually meant nothing to them. The other comedians were pretty good too, and most commented on Q & G.

On Saturday night the music went on for ages, and sounded quite trancey at one point - damn I should have stayed up! and then in the early hours a huge rain storm hit and we were all pelted with rain and heavy wind. Our tent withstood it well, but the kids were wet and the kitchen quite soaked the next morning.

On Sunday the weather looked warm and sunny so we all changed into summer gear and then a freak storm hit again with even harder rain! many people hastilly packed up and left, but we decided to ride it out. Once it cleared we got organised, and then went to enjoy some music once more before making the much shorter and quicker journey directly home.

I have uploaded a few pictures on flickr, and some other pics can be found here and here, including this one taken of Griffin.