A Mars Bar and a packet of Crisps, that's what I could buy if I had a penny for the number of folk who've said to me in the past, "Aye ye should do the Minehoff man, it's a good do". I would've preferred that around 1700 folk had told me, then I could justify a bottle o' Jack ;-), or if 17 folk had told me and I'd charged them a pound...... aye, anyway...."Oi, stop bletherin' pish an' get on wi' the rally coverage." Aw, a'right then.

As I said, for various reasons, none of which interesting enough to write down, nor remember, this was the first time I'd done the Minehoff do. Apparently the last couple of years have been pretty wet and gloopy, legendary talk of trench foot an' things of that ilk. Still it didn't seem to dampen the spirits nor the enthusiasm of regulars to return.

I thought I had a good idea where the site was as I'd worked down that way in the past. Naw !, the site was 'herfishully' in 'the middle of feckin' nowhere'. The Minehoff folk had done a splendid job of signposting it from Haddington, even putting "Slow" signs up, which were actually there because of a bad bend or particularly cantankerous gun wielding sheep hiding in the hedges, but I kept thinking "slow" meant I was approaching the gate, after nearly finding meself in several empty fields I eventually found the site. What cracking site it was too, a shallow valley flanked by trees on each side. No coo shit in site, they must've hoovered for us coming.

Ye put yer left leg in, yer left leg oot

After a few pots of stovies, yes Jackies stainless steel (coz I don't know what she calls it) food stall was there, corned beef stovies line yer guts nicely for the impending evening consumption of (more) intoxicating liquor.

Friday night's bands were 'Spank the Plank' and 'Broken Spoke'. I don't recall much of either band as I was bletherin' and having a good time, there was a good party atmosphere in the marquee, the fine weather, yes I'll repeat that for the hard of hearing, f-i-n-e w-e-a-t-h-e-r dear, meant that many folk were sitting around outside enjoying the fine evening.

The Beermonsters crew seemed to be having a particularly good time, of course the Saints and Sinners had a large contingent, wot a surprise ;-) and a few 'Fat Bastards' too.

After working our rally last week my mission, that I gladly chose to accept, was just to kick back, get bladdered and enjoy meself. 'Mishun akumplished cap'in', as what happened after that is a bit of a blur shall we say.

I arrived at about 5pm on Friday so I managed to get a 'flat bit' to put my tent up. Now puttin' me tent up is a pain in the arse, the only thing worse is takin' it down again. What we really need is poleless instant erection (phwarr, haud on, quiet in the cheap seats!) biodegradeable cheap tents, you could either throw them in the bin on Sunday morning, or if they made Bacon Butty flavoured ones ye could have them for breakfast, would save loads of grief.

I bumped into Vix and Christine and decided it was a good place to pitch (why? have I lost my mind? ;-). The generous offer of "Here, try this, you'll like it, it's peach vodka", ws accepted, oh yes it was tasty enough, just like fruit juice, a pint of it later made puttin' me tent up look like the Bolshoi Ballet doing origami through a letter box. Italian 20% proof, look out for these wimmin' they won't help ye put up yer tent, they'll just laugh at ye trying to pour Peach Vodka with the top still on the bottle. You've been warned ;-)

This is a traditional 'marquee in a field affair', a 5 poler with a bar on the end. Plenty of room to sit, lie down, fall over and dance, simultaneously.