[Camp Triangle: A Lovely Spot To Get ROBBED!]

Really sorry to hear this. My advice would be to contact the organisers of and explain your plight. I'm sure they'll have a whip-round and sort you out some money and supplies. You should at least give them that chance before you brand them all robbers and thieves and leave on bad terms. They may restore your faith in humanity and you may go on to have a great weekend. They may jib you and leave you hungry and wet as well. But. You'll never know until you give it a try.

Upon our arrival at the site by shuttle on Wednesday, while we were waiting to get off the bus, our sleeping bags, which had been put in the storage of the bus, were stolen. This was the start of our fabulous Glastonbury experience.

We pitched our tent in . Meeting several people during those first moments. We set up, took a nap, then went out to grab something to eat and walk around for a few hours. On the way back to our tent, we purchased blankets, so we didn't freeze to death, and headed back to our tent. It was roughly midnight on Wednesday night.

Although we had put some of our things in lockup, we had our wallets and money with us in the tent. When we woke up in the morning, there was water by the entrance, and the zipper was open. We didn't think anything of it, but soon we discovered that our space had been completely violated, while we slept two feet away. Someone came into our tent, went through our clothes and one of our bags, and took 400 Pounds, our Credit Cards, ATM Cards, and my fiance's US passport. Basically what we had brought for our 3 week trip to Europe, which was to begin with a fun 5 days at Glastonbury festival.

Thursday, instead of walking around exploring, our day was spent trying to find where the police headquarters were located. 99% of the people on site, including security, that we asked, did not have any clue as to where it was. Using my brain, instead of the brains of the morons who were just happy to be on site with a free ticket, I thought perhaps it was up by the main farm. We walked that way, and finally, the last person we asked, about 5 minute walk away from the farm, knew how to direct us.

We have spent the past 2 days contacting our cards to have them cancelled, contacting the US consulate in London, to arrange an appointment to get my fiance's passport sorted, and calling the airline to get a sooner flight back home, since we were now basically broke. This has been our complete Glastonbury experience, and thankfully, our last.

There apparently is a lot of crime in the area where we're staying, although being the skeptical person that I am, I can no longer trust a single person, especially those surrounding us at , including those who may have seen my prior posts, and figure us as easy, naive American tourists.

Though this happens all over the world, it is something that I perhaps expected was rather the exception than the norm, and a place like Glastonbury, which I thought was supposed to be about Peace, Love & Music. I guess you have to add Theft to that list. The kind of theft which not only ruins your entire Glastonbury experience, but in our case, the 3 week trip we had planned and saved for. We are now returning home to California on Monday, after my fiance gets a new passport at the embassy on Monday morning. We're leaving Glastonbury first thing on Saturday morning, because we are miserable here, and seeing everyone having such a grand time, while we are cold and broke, is making us more upset. Anyways, our misfortune is not going to mean much to anyone else, and other than the occasional "we're sorry, sounds bloody awful" that we get, there has not been much assistance provided to us. Lots of run around, but no assistance of any consequence. The people at the Welfare office and the lockup, were the only ones who really, sincerely made an attempt to provide help.

I'll expand later, but right now we have to head back to our tent, before the torrential downpour expected at 4:00 arrives. My fiance had absolutely no desire to attend Glastonbury, as she had a miserable time 2 years ago. But neither I nor she, ever could have imagined this year's events, and now we Both have ZERO interest in ever visiting this SH&*HOLE again. So those of you who have trouble getting tickets, will have less competition from us foreigners in the future. I just want to get out of this country period, as quickly as possible, and never return, except if we must to fly into and out of London to elsewhere in Europe.

We will be sure to tell all of our friends and family back home about our experience in England. Thank you so much for the hospitality.

[How long did it take you to get there?]

17 hours!

Nearly 13 hours in stationary traffic.

I lost the will to live a few times.

[politics and issues]

I think the point being made is that the videos present a idealistic solution that relies on humans having a generally logical and kindly disposition. The problem with theories like these is they rely on people being as the authors WOULD LIKE people to be not how they actually are.

The videos make a good case for the fact that the 9/11 'terror' attacks were staged and provide compelling evidence that the buildings were systematically demolished, but most people will not believe the government were involved because they don't want to. They will disregard any and all scientific data that doesn't fit with what they want to believe. The O J Simpson murder trial showed this clearly, the prosecution proved scientifically he was involved but the jury didn't want to believe it and so rejected the science and aquitted him. The 'venus project' described in the videos is basically a new version of communism and assumes everyone wants the same thing, even in the utopian world described there would have to be limits on population, for example, as the earth cannot support an unlimited number of people, it would be decided by computer how many children you could have, but what if you wanted more? Suppose you had one more than you were allowed? Would that be a criminal act? Individual human desires will always come before the needs of society, you cannot run such an 'ideal' world unless you deprive humans of their uniqueness. Having said all that, the videos do a great job of describing where we are now and of understanding the religious, political, financial system and so are well worth a view by anyone.

[politics and issues]

Unfortunately any reformed/new system has to understand some basics of human nature that are probably cast in stone. For example, lets say (somehow!) you could give 100 families exactly the same house, exactly the same gardens/land, exactly the same income, exactly the same education etc etc but would they all live the same lives? The answer is no. At least one family would, say, decide to grow veg, and they might have some left over. Even if the rules say they can't sell it, another family might be good at carpentry, so they make a table and swap it for some veg. Someone else makes good home-brew and wants a table, so they swap for some beer. I'm sure you see the idea. Eventually our veg grower needs a hand so they get one of the others, who is willing to work but has neither acumen or interest in producing something themselves, to help in exchange for whatever has come on from the veg "sales" - and hey presto, we're in business. It's what we all do every day, only we use vouchers to represent the goods until we need them - money! An then there are those who don't want to work, but think they know best. They start telling the others how "things should be done" (despite not having a clue ;-) ) and somehow persuade the others that they need their brains - so we now have politicians. Back to our veg grower - they have now have used all their available growing space, so they get an agreement to use next doors rose bed and we now have a corporation. Lets say the original helper thinks I can do that, demand is outstripping supply, so he starts up - a small business. Of course there's always one who can't be bothered, but still wants the rewards the others are generating for each other. So he nicks what he wants, and then someone has to keep an eye on them, because the others don't think it's fair he should just be able help himself - now we have policing, and inevitabley some sort of judicial system.

The above is the big hole in the true (there never has been a true socialist government anywhere) socialist/idealist ideal - some people just make things happen, sone don't. You can give that a label such as capitalism, you can call our successful veg grower a corporation, but, as proved in the ex-Eastern Block, the only way to stop people trying to get a better life is to stick them in prison or similar. Certainly a small group, what we'd call a commune I suppose, may have some success - but I wonder how many of the communes formed in the 60's are still going, and how many have all their original members. Not a lot, if any.

Any system that assumes it's population are all equal is doomed - people are all different (thank god), and it has taken a long time to establish the rules that attempt to keep the lid on. I do agree though that there is a big issue over excesses, and as a society we have been lax on imposing morals on those who don't have any - but enforcing equality is never going to work. People want the goods I sell, but to be able to do it I have every penny I have invested - I feel that I am not being unreasonable in getting (one day!) a reward for my taking the risk and making effort, not least as I could easily lose everything tomorrow. I also understand that there are people who live in, say, London who have no idea what life in a small rural village is like (except from the sterotypical media perception), and indeed (though I did work there for 9 months) vice versa, who may bang on about using public transport without realising that there is, and never can be, effective public transport here - the point being that we all have often wildly differing needs and a blanket ban (or enforcement) of this or that is never going to work. Any political ideal that does not take into account the above is heading for failure, however nice it may seem in theory.

[politics and issues]

I meant a fully joined up alternative, policies on the NHS, education, military, local authorities, festivals!! etc etc. For example, we have UKIP who seem to still think the UK is a major player in the world (you could well think some of their supporters think we still have an empire) and could survive on our own despite having almost no manufacturing capability and the most soundly smashed banking system outside the US. An amazing number of their supporters support the country they profess to "love" by flying the cross of St. George in the front garden while buying German or Japanese cars with no UK content - i.e. they are in it for themselves and have nothing to offer the unemployed/low wage earners for a future.

Then we have the LibDems who, joking aside, can say what they like since they have no chance of being elected, or gaining sufficient seats to have any real influence on policy.

Single-issue/single philosophy "parties" have nothing to offer that I can see as they often ignore the majority as somehow irrelevant (because people don't agree with them), and the two major parties are so close together that they are reduced to squabbling about who had such and such an idea first.

I have no idea what the solution is, but until I hear senior politicians say "Well that idea didn't work, let's try something else" without the opposition trying to make political mileage out of it I fear change may come from the streets, which could be messy.

Just my 2p.

[politics and issues]

I was around then. Thatcher didn't do any great favours and was decidedly unpopular for her policies, but Brown and Blair have totally discredited the actual mechanisms of government, side stepping Parliament on almost everything, appointing unelected (slime ball) Ministers, effectively supporting and encouraging sleeze, and simply lying. Even Thatcher couldn't manage to destroy confidence in the whole political/government system to the point where many, many people simply don't believe a single thing that any government department says.

And the really depressing thing is that there is no alternative on the horizon.

[Glaston Webcam Watch]

The lights are on, and looking great!

[Post one picture or video]

This is my favourite from the Flikr Glasto group. Something about erect nips and leg warmers gets me every time.

Christ knows what all the brown paper bags are for though.