So... Ladyfest!

It was brilliant - I had such a great time! Although it wasn't without its stresses, timetable confusion, drama, equipment failure, etc. etc. But looking back, it was all very much worth it, especially as I got to know lots of new people, or got to know people I'd only met a couple of times loads better.

As I've been involved mainly with organising all the workshop stuff, I was mostly just running around between different venues making sure people knew what was going on, the facilitators got fed, participants went to the right place, the equipment was working (or not as the case turned out to be in some instances!). Friday was the most stressful and least enjoyable for me. Not only because I was hungover (embarrassing story there which I won't go into...) but probably because it was the first day and I was so worried things were going to go wrong. But on Saturday I started just relaxing and enjoying myself more, knowing that things weren't going to run perfectly, there were going to be minor hickups and delays, but that we were all there because we were all passionate about diy culture and activism, feminism, learning and discussion. Everyone who came to the event (and loads of people had traveled from other parts of the UK and Europe) knew we were all volunteers rather than professionals getting paid so they had lots of patience anyway.

I did my workshop on white privilege on Saturday afternoon which was not half as scary as I thought it might be. About ten people came to it and we had quite a good discussion I think - all very informal, but so nice to get a chance to talk about this topic in a British context (rather than reading about it from an American perspective all the time).

The gigs were great as well. The evenings were the times I could really relax as I didn't have anything to do with organising the music. It was so cool to go the gigs in the evening and bump into all the people I'd been meeting during the day. When I got back to london I had to stop myself from smiling to strangers and striking up conversations with random people - i forgot i wasn't at Ladyfest anymore!

Hardly got any sleep the whole time I was there so I'm still completely knackered - work yesterday was painful! But it doesn't matter. It was such an inspiring and energising experience. I'm still on some kind of high where i'm thinking about all these projects I want to do, events I want to organise, people I want to talk to more. I hope I can keep the enthusiasm alive now that i've got to get back to real world and find a full-time job...

And... on monday it was my birthday and my lovely boyfriend had got me an ipod!!! I was so chuffed! So i'm currently in the process of uploading all my music onto there. I've been doing it continuously all last night and today and i've got loads left to do. He also got us tickets to go on a wine-tasting afternoon on the south bank! I'm intrigued... I wonder if you get to drink it or if you're meant to spit it out afterwards.

ahhh - Lucy is lying on the floor next to me and she must be dreaming about something because she's doing that funny sleep-barking thing. I love it when she does that!

Anyway, I know i've been neglecting my livejournal quite a lot - an entry was definitely overdue. Maybe now that Ladyfest is over I'll have some more time for updating and commenting on other people's entries.

And a final thing - my old email account will be expiring within the next 24 hours so anyone who might need to email me please use my new address: teresecrossingborders @ googlemail.com