31st December 2010, Start the New Year

The month of December, a busy month for me including time in bed with the flu . The start of the month, the 4th was heralded by the first Miracle Street Gig of the Christmas Season in the town of New Milton in the New Forest, Hampshire. The day started off in a freezing state traveling to site and arriving in the rain, landing on frozen roads, making it fun getting to site. When I arrived the Stage had to be set up in the middle of a major road junction and so I had to wait until the road was completely closed. Eventually with a local assistant and in the pouring rain we soon get the stage set up and are quickly receiving the first act. (see picture above) Once we've set up the rain stops but I have to stand around in the cold, very wet keeping an eye on the stage, making sure it's safe. Over the afternoon the acts pass over the stage and even though the weather was not good the public still came out to support the event. Each act on stage received a good audience that stayed for the duration of the act. (see picture opposite) After dark there is a recovery called for when Santa gets stuck on a roof and needs rescuing. It comes down to the local fire appliance to perform the act

Eventually Santa's recovered from the roof and so for a while the event continues. But after Santa's recovery the public start to depart and come 1800hrs the decision is made to terminate the event an hour early, just as it starts to rain again. So in the wet the stage is dismantled and put away ready to go to Woolston later in the month..............

The next trip was a family one, off to see the rock band Bullet for my Valentine at Wemley Arena.

It involved driving over to Hailsham, picking up two passengers in Hailsham, driving to Caterham and picking up two from there and then driving through the centre of London to get to Wembley. With the carpark already paid for it was nice and easy to get parked up and we were soon qued up ready to get in. Not long after we started queing the doors opened and we were soon being checked into the foyer. At 1900hrs the inner doors are opened and we're able to go in and find our seats, with the support acts starting not long after. With two support bands performing. it does not seem long before Bullet come on to start their performance. The sound would have been better if it had not been so distorted, but as you'll see from the video, the light show was awesome (click to see video) After the gig it was round the M25 and back to Hailsham with all four passengers and a quick few hours sleep before getting back to Southampton ready for the next Miracle Street Gig locally in Southampton.
Once back from Hailsham it's only a matter of hours before I'm off to the farm to pick up the mobile stage and a fellow worker and head off to Woolston, an area not known very well by me, but I managed to get to the site very easily and in a very short time. Soon the truck's parked across the road and the stage and canopy are set up along with the PA kit. At 1600hrs a school choir arrives and are quickly positioning themselves on stage ready for a prompt start. Fifteen minuets after the start time the choir do their performance with the following hour awaiting for the next act on the stage to get ready. During this wait I get asked if I could set a PA up at the other end of the site for the Mayor to use at the switching on of the Christmas lights. After moving the PA kit to the other end of the site, I end up having to wait for 45 minutes before the Mayor arrived and switched on the lights and the public had a sing song as well. Eventually the lights and singsong finish and I'm soon rolling the PA back to the truck in time to get set up for the first of two bands, this the local school funk band, out of the two, the easier to listen to. On completion of their set it's clear the stage for the last act of the day, another band, this time of the rock type who seem to take an age to get set up and get going. By the time they get started most of the public had cleared off, including the organisers and police and so there was only a small group of intoxicated youngsters and shop staff listening. After the band got packed up, we end up the last ones left on site packing up and those at the other end of the site re-open the road before making sure the road was clear. So trying to pack up and keep safe we work around the moving traffic, but end up stuffing the awning in in a messy state as we didn't have enough space to fold it up and stay safe. Eventually we got everything away and went to start the truck, but disaster struck..... On turning the ignition key the engine will not turn, the dreaded flat battery. Not being able to jump start it as could be done off the internal leisure battery, it was a frantic call to a local friend to come and give us a jump start. Fortunately he arrived very quickly and we were soon under way, back to the farm and ready for the off to Leeds and the potential for a snowy adventure.........

Well the snowy adventure to Leeds didn't look like it was going to happen, all the way up the M3 there was no sign of snow, it was not until I was on the M25 at the Heathrow turn off that the snow started, but not for long, on creeping round to the M40 junction in the snow, it suddenly stopped and the traffic on the road just continued to creep along up to a maximum of 40mph. Eventually arriving at the M1 junction, I thought I'd be able to get up to speed, but to no avail. For some reason those in control of speed indicators decided to keep the speeds down and for what seemed like hours speed was not allowed to get above 40mph. Once through junction 13 at the end of the latest batch of M1 road works there was no sign of snow on the road and so the traffic was allowed to get up to road speed. So the time starts to go and rapidly the junctions start to pass and soon it's pass over the top of Leeds to come off at the last but one junction on the M1and head into Garforth and hunt for where I need to be. After looking in the high street and not finding the correct road name I go back on myself and turn down a road without a name at the junction, turn round at the bottom and stop to look at the map. As it happened I'd stopped in the right place first time but not having seen a street name I drove around looking for it before ending up back where I'd stopped previously. When I'd parked up I found I'd been spotted and I was soon in the warm enjoying a mug of tea and starting to relax. Eventually the rest of the team arrive and we're soon talking through what was going to happen tomorrow. Then as time is getting on I get transported out to my lodgings for the night and am soon settled in bed for the night. In the morning I have to get myself up and then have to walk up the high street back to meet the others and then we all went round to the Coffee Shop in town to prepare for the session on the stage outside. As usual my expertise is called for when the building juts out and we need to get the awning under it. After aproximate measurements it just fits and so we get the setup completed and are soon ready for the start. Eventually the band arrive, people start assembling and the afternoon is soon under way. With the stage show keeping people in the area the gospel is preached and carols are sung and pleanty of coffee is consumed from the coffee shop. Soon the event is over and the gear is quickly cleared away and I'm quickly on the road back home, and unknowingly heading into the snow in the Milton Keynes area. So on the M1 there's no sign of any snow until getting into the area of Milton Keynes and then the traffic slows down and then comes to a standstill, creeping along occasionally. On arriving in the area of the Newport Pagnall services I find that all the artics that were heading southbound were stuck in the dip at that place and were slipping like mad causing all the other vehicles to pull out into the third lane and hope they would make it up the slope the other side. When I start to manouver through the dip it worked in my favour that I was fully laden and the truck was rear wheel drive, as I was able to keep slowly moving and got through the difficult area. Even though the snow was still deep I managed to get back by 0300hrs having left eight hours previously at 1900hrs without any problems. Christmas was spent with the Gordons in Hailsham, East Sussex with New Years Eve spent with Dorothea and John in Hove, East Sussex, getting home before midnight so I was not driving after the tax had run out. New Years Day was spent on my own and from there to Easter period I've had enough work to have Eliot and Simon Gordon come over to help me. Life in general is good even though my life has had to change with the diagnosis of Hireditary High Cholisterol and God is so good, life wouldnt be the same without him. So this is where I'm up to and so it's time for me to get this posted before it's six months old. So good bye and take care.