The other night I decided to play Whitesnake Live At Donington 1990. This was one of the first of many visits to Castle Donington in my younger years. Also the first Rock Festival I had ever been to. I started going to concerts in 1989, and just could not get enough of them. At the time I was only earning £50 a week as a photographic lab technician, so money was not flowing the way I would have liked, but I managed to go to hundreds of gigs over the next ten years as I changed jobs and my salary increased.
The concert recording brings back so many memories of being there, the smell of the burning rubber as people had bonfires, the smell of all the different foods from hot dogs and burgers to falafels and other vegetarian delights. The hot sun filled day slowly turning colder, and above all the exhaustion from a full day of music, beer and fun.
One of the many memories was the flying plastic bottles, usually full of pee, yes, pee. Imagine a crowd of 72,500 people, three quarters probably men, needing a pee, and having large bottles that had beer in them, then instead of queueing for the toilet which would be miles away, then the bottles came to hand and were refilled. Certain songs would make people go a little mad and the throwing of the bottles began, with NO lids on them, so I am sure you could imagine the carnage, and how wet we ended up. I admit, I often used a bottle, and of course joined it. It was all part of the experience of a rock festival. It never put any of us off either, we all had changes of clothes with us in the cars, so could bag all the smelly muddy ones. Each year we went we knew what would happen, but this never dampened our spirits or enthusiasm to be there, however, it did dampen our clothes.
So, I share with you the headline act from 28 years ago that invokes so many good memories, and somewhere in that crowd is me.
The so-called “Beast from the East” arrived overnight and we finally got about 3 inches of snow. Now, those of you know my blog, know I love snow and have been waiting for a good snowfall since 2010, and today it arrived, but it did not last too long as the sun came out and the temperature reached a whopping 1c and the sky turned blue. Over the rest of the week, we should be getting more snow, but I doubt it will arrive, this was a rare event here. M shot a video of me and the dogs in the snow, this is Mazinkeens first proper snow. Harper has been in the snow before when we have been up in the mountains. It is a shame Lilu was not still with us as she loved playing in the snow, and we have many videos and photos of her enjoying it. I think my love of show rubbed off on all my dogs.
Saturday Mazikeen went to a puppy party. The party only had 6 puppies at it, as the organiser keeps it to that level so it is not too overwhelming for all the dogs there. Mazikeen had a great time, and again gained lots more confidence in doing things and with the other dogs there. It seems a little odd that she is so shy with other dogs, yet at home, she is a beast and chases Harper all over the house, and play fights all the time. Outside though she seems a little anxious about other dogs, but slowly she is gaining her confidence. The lady who runs the classes and the party noted that she was skittish, and is working with me at getting that sorted out.
M and I went for lunch on Thursday with two of my cousins, and all our dogs. We have a pub that is totally dog-friendly, even to the point of bringing a bowl of water for them to the table. I had scampi, M lasagne, and the girls had nachos and chicken and bacon salad. I was driving so had zero alcohol beer which was delicious and seemed no different than normal beer in taste.
Mr Knitter 