As you all probably know, the highlight of my Vintage year is a trip to Twinwood Festival at the end of August.

Having gone for the past 7 or 8 years, I look forward to it literally as soon as I am driving back from the end of my last day at the current event!

Planning for the weekend starts several months before August; buying or commissioning new items, what to wear, what to take, who to meet up with and where etc.

This year was all going to plan until 2 weeks beforehand when I took a step forward whilst walking to my car and ruptured my Gastrocnemius.

If you don’t know what it is, its the big muscle that makes both your knee and your ankle flex.

Pretty important really.

Given that this was on my left leg and my right knee is already knackered, it left me pretty legless.

Twinwood was Off!

I was absolutely gutted about it. Being bed bound I didn’t really have much of a choice at all.

Fast forward two weeks, and I whilst I was still struggling, I had a masterplan!

Borrowing my Mum’s mobility scooter that she no longer uses, I literally had 1 day to get ready for what I was going to wear for the following three days.

This actually turned out to be much easier whilst strangely being much harder at the same time.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to walk much at all, I needed clothing that would be comfortable whilst sitting down for long hours. This ruled out corsetry for the most part and also I couldn’t spend a lot of time hunting for items that I may want.

With the help of the family I was able to gather together the items I needed for each day and stored them all on Little Chicks bed as she was away for the weekend.

Each morning I got ready before putting my outfit change for the evening in the back of the car.

This was also filled with chairs, blankets, parasols, picnic and LOTS of bottles of non-alcoholic beer and cider. Add in some medical bits and pieces, walking sticks, crutches and the scooter and I was ready to go.

So what exactly did I wear?

Saturday started off absolutely scorching hot and instead of wearing a heavy outfit, I chose a very light cotton top and skirt from Hell Bunny that I got in the sale.

The Ukulele outfit is both colourful and very cool to wear. I added some brown lulu hun shoes, a vintage sun hat and a mixture of bangles from Bow and Crossbones, Splendette and Luxulite.

Sitting in the wonderful English countryside, in the sun, with a cold drink has to be one of life’s pleasures, especially when listening to live music courtesy of some of the best bands and orchestras around.

Because it was hard to get around, even on the scooter, I decided to sit and chill whilst spotting friends and chatting with them as they wandered by.

The day flew by quickly helped along by a mix of cold drinks, olives, anti-pasti, fresh rolls and a mix of cheese. Cake and chocolate was also on the menu and I was happy as a clam.

Around 4.30 I made my way to the car to get my change of outfit for the evening. Rather than trying to get between some of the different venues, I planned on getting a good seat at the Century Club and watching the cabaret until it was time to drive home.

My outfit for the night was the stunning bespoke dress and cape ensemble that I had made for the recent wedding in Chicago. Adding the Miss L Fire fuchsia shoes, and a couple of stunning new hair flowers that I had purchased that morning from Shazam, I was all ready to go.

Happily sitting in the club, I was watching Dusty Limits do his show alongside a lovely cold 0% cider when the chair I was sitting in collapsed.

I went down and the cider went up, covering me and the lovely Lucy who was sat next to me!

The shock completely overtook me as I lay on my back like an incapacitated turtle.

Some of the organisers rushed over to help me and check I was alright. I am happy to say that ONLY my pride was injured but I couldn’t stop tears of embarrassment from running down my face.

I was sat right in the front row and everyone saw what happened. Complete mortification came over me and I was really tempted to leave there and then.

However, I sat and calmed down and put a smile on my face.

Apparently the chairs are hired in and the gentleman in charge who came over several times to check on me, told me that another chair had broken the evening before.

Guess I must have been the unlucky one, that night.

Either way, I took some more pain killers and relaxed as I listened and watched the dancers enjoying the music in front of me.

There were a couple of highlights of the show.

One of the bands (I am sorry that I cannot remember the name) said they were going to do a number they had created which was a combination of Flamenco and Jazz/Funk.

They invited any Flamenco dancers to get up and do their thing.

One lady did!

She literally got up on the dancefloor and Flamenco’ed her little heart out to the music and she was AMAZING!

I (and I suspect most of the crowd) were blown away.

Finally the last band had performed and it was now time for something new; Open Mic Night.

Usually at this time of night, it was The Cockney Sing-A-Long with Champagne Charlie and Tom Carradine. However they had taken a year off from Twinwood and the gap had been filled with the opportunity for people to get up and show their skills.

This was going to be interspersed with a mini sing-a-long with Dusty Limits.

So, was it a rousing success?

I should say so!

Unfortunately my brain is rubbish at remembering a lot of little things but there was a great rendition of an Elvis Mash-up featuring ‘Its Now or Never/Oh Sole Mio/Just One Cornetto which had the crowd joining in.

Then a beautiful lady who I can only describe as coming from the ‘BFF’ decorated hut in the main arena. If you know, you Know!

She got up and blew the roof off with ‘Pearls A Singer’ and was simply outstanding.

There were a few other performers, a bit of Tom Jones (I think) and then it was time to make my way back to the car to head the 25 minute ride home, before preparing for day two.

Till next time,

SPSG xxx