The Green Gathering was excellent, music, crafts, workshops, ukuleles and politics – what a combination; outdoor festivals are a pretty good option for the immunosuppressed. However, it’s doesn’t always go to plan. On the first evening, we popped into one of the tents to watch some stand-up. We’ve been to the GG before and we knew the set-up in that tent, we anticipated that there would be a couple of tables tucked to the side, not ideal for viewing (a little side on), so they would almost certainly be free and separate from the main audience; this proved to be the case. This was perfect for us, I was not near to anyone, Shirley acted as my ‘buffer’ and we could see and hear well enough. The MC came on stage, at this point the audience was fairly sparse - it was early in the evening – so the MC was trying to get people into the tent for the next act, then he noticed Shirley and I off to the side. Usual, stand-up stuff, he started hassling us a little to join the main audience, we shouted back about there being a ‘medical-issue - I doubt he heard us – and then the next act came on. Fifteen minutes later the MC returned, the audience was still light, we were still off to the side, the MC had decided he wouldn’t let it drop. More comments directed to us, ‘why won’t we move’, etc., we were fine with the initial banter, but this was getting a little much, especially for Shirley, she snapped. She walked up to the front and asked the comic his name, let’s call him ‘Walter’ (not his actual name), Shirley let rip: “So, Walter <expletive> <expletive>, just so you know, my husband has stage four cancer, he is immunosuppressed, we are sitting over there so he doesn’t get infected and die!”; I love my wife so much, she’s so direct. Walter is a little stunned, the ‘small’ audience is clear sympathetic to us, Shirley returns. We are now subjected to a shower of apologies from Walter: ‘he didn’t know’ - well why would he; ‘he was very sorry’ – I didn’t really care much about that at this point; ‘everyone, show some love for that couple over there’ – disingenuous; if only, he’d picked up on our initial reluctance to move and then left us alone, thinking ‘there might be a reason’. Overall, I give the score as 10-0 to Shirley, the poor comic did seem quite embarrassed – good!
Beyond that the festival was great fun. Zack Polanski was there, we saw him last year at the GG for a leadership hustings; Clive Lewis MP, always interesting, lots of other ‘green notables’ in the campaigns area giving talks. We enjoyed the processions, the art installations, the relaxed family atmosphere, the crafts and the music, we particularly liked ‘Efa Supertramp’ and ‘Joe Solo’, great protest songs. Our new ‘camper van’ set-up did us proud – we sleep so well when we’re out and about at festivals.
So, we returned on Sunday evening, a little tired but very relaxed, to prepare for the start of our training course on Monday. This is a three-week capacity building programme in Industrial Process Chemistry and Engineering. It is for participants from around the world, we usually have 32 from 32 different countries. We run this programme for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (the OPCW). I have been delivering this programme since 2000, Shirley since 2002. I designed it in 1999 and was programme director until three years ago. It’s now led by one of my best friends, John, but Shirley and I still contribute significantly. Our first session with the participants was Monday afternoon. As I am spending three-weeks with all of these people, often in relatively small training rooms, I shared my situation with everyone during my introduction. I was able to explain about my infection risk, that in some of the training rooms I would wear a mask and that I would maintain a sensible ‘social distance’ when chatting; it’s all gone well so far.
The final element of this week was yesterday (Wednesday) evening with the arrival of our nephew Ronan from Australia. He’s moving to the UK to try and get established in the music business. He’s had a fairly successful, if small-scale, start in the industry in Australia, he now wants to get established in UK / London. We’re so lucky and honoured to have him staying with us, it’s going to be fun to see how he develops and progresses – once he’s slept-off the jet lag.
Well, what a busy week, time now to get in the headspace for Chemo five!
