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The V Experience and The People We Met

The day starting with an excellent blast from the past.  Denise and I arrived at the V stage just in time to catch the end of the Proclaimers.  All together now… “When you go-o-o will you send back, a letter fro-o-om America-a-a.  Take a lo-o-ok up the rail track….”. 

Then it was off for stage orientation.  We practiced that well-known step in the people traffic – the concert shuffle.  Not quite a dancing but if you’re creative…

Okay now it’s time for a rant…bar tokens… Were the organisers trying to encourage everyone NOT to drink?  We waited in an hour-long queue for a few tokens.  The odd ratio of 5 token sellers compared to the 20 bar staff…no wonder the bar staff looked bored!

Rant over, back to the music…The 4 Music stage hosted The Fray (How to Save a Life).  They were good but not rocky enough for my liking.  So with Bacardi Breezer (aka lollypop drink, thanks Denise) in hand, I tramped off to Sinead O’Connor. 

Laura – I can’t believe I didn’t see you in the JJB tent!  There were only a couple of hundred people there, right?!  I was standing near the very bouncy Irish contingent at the back of the tent.  Does that help?! 

Then it was back to the 4 Music stage for JET.  What can I say, except for, AWESOME!  The boys really rocked.  Definitely worth missing Kanye West for!, even though Denise reliably informs me that he was excellent.

Back to the V stage…where I found Denise chatting with a fellow Kiwi, Hamish (who’d only been in the UK for 5 days).  Hamish…who knew the words to every Pink song.  Did his bottle of neat vodka help?

Pink sounded and looked amazing.  Where did she get those boots? – I want them!  There was another trade off, missing The Holloways.  There was no way I was missing the end of the Pink set. 

Denise and I met brothers Andy & Chris in between Pink and Snow Patrol.  Denise & Andy hit it off straight away…literally!!  Thanks boys for letting us share your “king of the castle” part of the floor.  It did seem a little unstable though, as Denise in particular, kept pitching forward.  Do you know anything about that Andy?! 

Finally, Foo Fighters – OMG!  They ROCK!  I’ll be buying the back catalogue. Just owning the “In Your Honour” album is not enough.

Rain!  It didn’t dampen the crowds spirits.  Denise’s magic raincoat seemed to stop the rain when she wore it.  It’s a shame you weren’t wearing it during the Foos!!

Toilets – congrats to the organisers for the flushing, not nearly as stinky as expected toilets.  Toilet paper was a bit of an issue as usual.  Well done for providing more, though I don’t think you meant it to decorate the sky along with the inflatable balls during the Foo Fighters!

We’re very sad to not be there for Basement Jaxx on Sunday.  I saw them at the O2 festival and they were amazing.

So V is over for this year.  I’ve got the T-shirt, the programme, the aching feet and a list of albums to buy!  Are the weekend tickets on sale for next year yet Denise?

Saturday morning, 5.30.  Anna’s alarm rudely awakened me from my slumber.  Ouch!  That hurt!  Was it the sound of the alarm that caused the pain or the 2 pints of cider and half bottle of red from the night before?  Who knows, but the cup of tea that followed was extremely well received!

So what was calling us out of bed so early on the weekend?…BEER…err, um, no I mean a cultural excursion to Brussels…honest!

We made it up to London just in time for the Eurostar minimum boarding time – Phew!  Having First Class tickets allowed us to skip past the huge queues of Disneylanders and through the priority-boarding gate.

Then it was onto the train with expectations of Bucks Fizz along with our breakfasts.  By this time we were absolutely Hank Marvin, so the aeroplane style breakfast, though slightly disappointing, disappeared rather swiftly.  Nice sausage!  The Bucks Fizz was AWOL, so we give thanks to Mick for supplying a bottle of Pink Champagne to start us off in our educational exploration of the lovely Bruxelloise.  (Thanks again Mick, it’s shame you couldn’t join us.)

Next stop, the Buffet car for Duvel beer and Kronenbourg.

JOKER!

Once we arrived in Brussels, we headed directly-ish (dependant on your opinion of our tour guide!, I still say we should have given him a flag!) to the nearest historical site of beverage supply. 

Here the brew of choice was Corsendonk.  Okay okay, yes I did pick it cos the name made me smirk!

However, here’s the detail for the connoisseurs amongst you:

This is a Belgian abbey-style beer, probably falling into the 'tripel' style, from the Corsendonk monastery. It has an incredibly tenacious, rocky head, which tastes of vanilla ice-cream. The nose is also rich in vanilla, with some spicy notes (coriander?) and some zest. In the mouth it is initially quite sweet, with zesty bitterness (limes) that becomes more pronounced towards the finish, along with a spirit-like kick - more vodka than brandy. The finish itself is reasonably short, though the light honey malt flavour lingers for a little longer, but leaving the palate clean. This is a superbly balanced, well-rounded beer.

JOKER!

Anyway onto the next pub, where the imbibing continued with Grimbergen.

Again, for the connoisseurs:

This is a strong abbey-style beer from the Grimbergen monastery, brewed as an Easter ale but available all year. It has a rich, heavy, complex nose with malt, black treacle, petroleum, and possibly pepper. Flavour is quite sweet, chewy, cloying and puddingy, but the sweetness is counteracted by a malty, treacly bitterness. There is a fruity, port-like quality to the palate too, along with a cheesiness towards the finish, all of which suggests that this would make a good after-dinner beer. Incredibly complex, it is something to savour (rather than quaff) at the end of the evening.

For the rest of you, it was ABV 10% and rather yummy!!

There was addition fun to be had in this establishment, fussing a pussy… cat! 

Craig said “I bet you purr”. 

I wasn’t sure if he was talking to the cat or if that was the best chat up line in the world.  Kevin, you had an opinion on that one (he’s such a JOKER!) but I think Lindsey has other ideas!

The afternoon flew by with the obligatory visit to a few chocolate shops (my eggs made it all the way to my front door before succumbing to gravity), some snaffling of strawberry and chocolate covered waffles and some more beer consumption – La Divine.  Yes that is the name of a beer and it was rather well christened!

Then with rumbling tummies some of the weary travellers decided it was dinner time. I contemplated having some fish…perhaps…hmm…something like…Barracuda….!!!

JOKER!!!  So Lindsey, what was your prize for purloining the largest amount of cards??

And which one of you sent the train footage?  That made interesting viewing on a slightly bleary Sunday morning.

I hope you all enjoy the photos.  Feel free to play “add a caption”!!