Nothing doing...

...'til the Chania rock festival in Crete on August 8th. Blimey, it'll be hot.

After a pleasant evening's eating and drinking in the lovely city of Riga we headed off through a landscape of seemingly endless forest to the Fonofest - a bit like a heavy metal jamboree in a wooded clearing. Sadly it was pretty sparsely attended - a shame as it was organised by some very nice enthusiastic young Latvians who let us have a country house for the night. I hope it was enough of a success to warrant many more - those in attendance were having a whale of a time. Jamie very kindly toured the site offering strawberries to the punters, advertising his wares by having them smeared on his face, an approach which left many wary as to the motive behind his display of fruit-based altruism.

We arrived at the With Full Force festival near Leipzig to the sound of Motorhead playing and Les wondering loudly why we weren't pissed (he'd gone ahead as part of the advance drinking party). It was a standard German rock festival - big and well organized. Anathema played at half past one in the morning but plenty of people stayed to listen. The stage crew were pretty tetchy but that's hardly surprising as they'd been there for three days dealing with petulant musicians and road crew who'd forgotten to bring mains adaptors (for example).

Poland this weekend.

Riga

Waiting for everyone to emerge from their rooms so we can head out for some food in Riga's old town where our hotel is conveniently located. Perhaps we'll head for "Hospitalis" where diners sit in gynaecologists' chairs at an operating table while waitresses dressed as nurses spoon feed them "curious European cuisine variations." Or maybe "Gauja", a "tiny cafe that brings back memories of the Soviet way of life during the 70s." There, one can eat authentic Soviet era cuisine served on authentic plates whilst listening to cold war era Soviet music, all the while tended to by waiters wearing period clothing. Steak and chips will do for me.

The photo above (look carefully - that's a magazine she's holding) was taken on the train from London to Leeds.

Fonofest and With Full Force...

Heading off for the weekend, first to Latvia for the Fonofest, then to the "With Full Force" festival in Leipzig. If anything interesting or amusing happens I promise you'll be the first to know.