After spending three days at the Rewind Festival, (see previous BLOG) we returned back to Sparkling's house. It has now been five days and it feels sleep has been more along the lines of grab-it-when-you-can. The fourth night was the night before Mr K's funeral and Sparkling was not able to catch up. She tossed and turned and had a lot of things on her mind. Maybe we managed four or five hours at most each night. But remarkably you can still function. Or just about function with very little. Yesterday was the fifth night, again there was little sleep to be had as Rock Chick had been to the family gathering after the funeral and got back late. She and Babyfro, who is very much a baby-baby rather than a Fro, slept over. Except in her need to debrief Sparkling and discuss all the events it wasn't until after two in the morning or nearly three a.m. we all hit the hay. I am reeling backwards now from the lack of shut-eye. So this morning I began the return trip to London and am ready to close my eyes.
The Festival was the highlight, it's almost been like an out of control train and a matter of just seeing what happened and enjoying the ride. There was talk of doing the Festival again next year and if we do prepared will be the main word. A new tent might be of use and certainly warmer sleeping bags. Rock Chick has even shown some interest.
The funeral of Mr K came next. It was a Humanist funeral and his wish was for no one to buy flowers. He considered them a waste of money. It is the first time I have been to a humanist funeral and it was actually pretty considerate to the nature of the attendees. I recall my grandmother's funeral and grandfather's both of which were Christian funerals. The attendees didn't know what was expected of them, they felt awkward and very few were able to bring their selves to sing the hymns. To tell the truth it is somewhat hypocritical to have religious funerals when most people don't go to church or practice religion. Therefore Mr K's passing in this fashion was wonderful. I learnt more about him and wished I had known him a lot more as a person. My wish would also be to have a humanist funeral as I've got to believe religion is no more than hocus pocus and the likelihood of there actually being any kind of supreme creator is non existent. As Christopher Hitchens would say "God does not exist" and as L & B man would say "get over it." After the funeral a number of attendees went to a club for some refreshments. I spoke to a couple of people to try and learn more about Mr K. One person described him as a pain-in-the-arse and immediately I heard this phrase I warmed even more to the late Mr K. People who are a pain in the arse are always characters worth getting to know. Mr K was noted to carefully take of his glasses and delicately put them into the case before he head-butted someone who had crossed the line. I had two pints of Guinness and in a gesture of personal goodbye a glass of port, which was Mr K's favourite tipple. I felt emotional and know it was a combination of alcohol and death, which always does it to me. As do little baby grand daughters and happy, contented parents.
So now is the sixth night, and I know there should be no disturbances from revellers outside my tent, there will be no talking till two a.m. or disturbed sleep. I'm going to be missing Sparkling and the gang in Scotland until the next time I get to see them. As I love them all very much. Sleep is calling, I can hear it singing in my ear like a mermaid capturing the hearts of sailors as the drift closer to the rocks. Except this mermaid is a bed all soft warm and inviting.
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