Just quick writeup or I'll get so far behind I'll never catch up ! Last Sunday (Aug 21st) Charlie, The Puzzler and I elected to go to the Isle of Wight for the Garlic Festival. Owing to it being such a stupidly long trip to get out there (but then London traffic's like that), we actually only spent 2 hours there – but what a richly rewarding 2 hours it was !

We fulfilled one of my life's other ambitions by the means we used to get over there – I've now been on a HOVERCRAFT ! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Garlic festival was pretty good – we saw that there's more than one type of garlic available, and we managed to try some garlic bread, which tasted NOTHING like what one typically imagines when the idea of garlic bread comes up. Very very nice indeed. Sadly, there was no garlic icecream or garlic beer left by the time we got there, so we had to make do with regular ice cream. There were 2 independent icecreameries represented, and they both did an amazing vanilla. One of the companies was cammed Minghella's, and the owners are the parents of Hollywood actor, Anthony Minghella.

It's weird, isn't it ? It seems that all nondescript actors that have a smalltown background are called Anthony. Admittedly, the only one I can think of is Anthony LaPaglia.

Anyway, other highlights of the afternoon included finding the kid dressed up like a big tomato.

We weren't sure if he was working for someone, or if he'd just thought it'd be a bit of a lark to go along dressed as a giant tomato.He was the consummate professional however, and if he'd happened to have been selling something that doesn't make me sick, I'd have bought some.

Some of the more mysterious entertainment on offer was a weird German bloke in spandex who climbs up a 200 foot high pole and then swings from side to side, doing handstands and the like. There was also a bloke in knight's armour walking about on stilts shaped like peasants. Random. The absolute standout hightlight though was the Computer Palmistry stall.

Now clearly real palmistry's a bit of a pseudo science, so the best thing one could do to lend it credibility is to somehow COMPUTERISE the process, and thereby get the complex software to provide a scientific basis for the mystical art, and do away with all the guesswork of archetypal palm reading techniques.

The moment that I'll never forget was after the guy had printed out about 2 pages of my “analysis”, after which I piped up and said “So, should I put my hand on this box now then ?”…

Guess you had to be there.

I was there, and it still doesn't make sense. I'm going to plead insanity, and that it's past midnight. So that's all you're getting. Over & out.

2005-08-31 : Every summer we could rent a cottage in the Isle of WIght (if it’s not too dear).
🌳 Buy me a Tree