Gravel, pebbles, catch-up and apathy solution

Well this weekend was again a festival challenge. We were at Firevolt festival in Stockport, South Manchester, now running its 5th edition and run very nicely indeed by our hosts Stret and Bev who always make their guests and audience feel extremely welcome.

 Some really cool bands booked, we were attending Friday only due to family commitments Saturday and Sunday, and from the line-up on Friday my favourite was Renegade featuring Darren Wharton, ex-keyboards with Thin Lizzy. It's the second time I've seen him doing a Renegade set, also joined for a guest spot by Ricky Warwick. Really enjoyed it and I reckon my fave song was the Lizzy classic Massacre. Big kudos to Darren's two guitarists who did a really good job of the Thin Lizzy songs especially the twin harmonies which I have always adored. The New Roses were also very good, this was the second time seeing them also.

Turning to the health side of things, without wanting to sound like a broken record mobility was again an issue and this time the different feature I came up against was a large layer of gravel/pebble under foot which probably if we were suffering from a lot of rain I can imagine the drainage is good but the gravel/pebble was quite uneven and I struggled to walk, quite painful in quite a short space of time. I'm not complaining, Stret and Bev, that's not the point, it was just that this is reality in my blog, life with Parky's in my experience. By the way, I won't hesitate to go to Firevolt again, gravel or no gravel. It's recommended.

One of the very very good things about this festival this time is that we had quite a lot of people that we know from our own SOS festival in attendance and also for me the large portion of people coming over to say hello, asking me how I'm doing, it is absolutely brilliant. Lots of people like to know and it's an absolute joy to meet people that you don't really see that often. Much of it these days is contact online on Facebook and Instagram etc, so it's such treat to chat face-to-face. Especially those that I haven't seen for a long time, such as Martin Shires and Col Grainger a pair of North East renegades. Bizarrely I had a really good long conversation with Martin but I'm ashamed to say at first Col when you came over I didn't recognise you. I guess that's why we didn't speak for too long, sorry mate.

Apathy update. You'll probably remember last time I talked about hitting up against apathy and I discovered that apathy is in fact one of the most common non-motor symptoms of the disease. I quoted what I had found out - that little method whereby I break down the chosen task into real small pieces (the first one being 'open laptop', yes that basic). Have been using that technique on and off during the past week and in the main it's working. Just gives you that little reward hit which is normally enough to help fight off the apathy and get the job done.

Thanks for reading, thanks for the support, great to meet you at the festivals. Will you tell a friend about my newsletter/blog? If you think they'll be interested, will you please send them my way?! x