save me Mustie! Alcestis is picking on me, he might give me a chinese burn or something.

lol. he called me a name. I'm so concerned <yawn> anyway thx for sticking up for me grom (any chance of a "delivery" anytime soon m8 btw nudge-nudge and all that?)

I am highly aroused.

Anyway to make myself happy I just sing
Happy happy joy joy happy happy joy joy happy happy joy joy and/or watch that vidio with naked Thai men wearing lettuce leaves over their privates and dancing.

Grom - you say glastonbury is the happiest city on earth for 5 days - but that can be counted i suppose too.

There is one reason i haven't gone....well - 2 actually.....

1) Doesn't it also become the city with the highest crime rate? I always hear about its liberation and liberal attitudes. Some people like to be liberated by the festives, whilst others like to liberate during the festives. Liberate anything you leave in a tent!!

that doesn't keep me from going though, it just reinforces why not to go. The main reason is large crowds......i hate them. Claustrophobic? Not really - unless i cannot get out , think it is a kinda being "trapped" in a crowd etc. Also explains why i hate flying too (although i want to be a pilot). Actually - sounds more like i hate not being in control than spatial problems

Would love to go to more concerts/festivals, its just that I really do dislike crowds over certain sizes. I end up watching on TV and seeing the atmosphere - and wishing. Mind you - my mates are trying to get me going this year. All the years i shoulda gone (well, to leeds anyway) - I missed G'n'R and also Metallica in last few years - both of whom my mates saw and said were blinding

Chips thats not claustrophobia its a form of agoraphobia, cos I get it too. its not fear of open spaces per se, its a form of anxiety attack brought on by large numbers of people (that you dont know and potentially could be hostile!) I'm totally paranoid about crowds and cannot socialise other than weith a small group of people I know well (I am a social cripple, thats why I have Little Miss Popular for a wife - its true actually, i'm not being sarcastic at all!)

Theat's perfectly reasonable, Taw. I hate large crowds for various reasons, but I also worry about the mob mentality that is common to such gatherings and, of course, de-individuation which isn't good for anyone.

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I am a social cripple

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I'm the same in big groups of people I don't know. I just ball up and say nothing, get me in front of people I do know though and I'm quite extroverted. I need to get to know people on an individual level before I'll make a d*ck out of myself infront of them.

Amen to that

I follow anybody I do know around like a puppy for a while, till I realise I'm doing it.

I'm not into crowds either...my gf thrives on them and just can't understand when I say that I hate packed places. Its one of the reasons I hate london...she just doesn't get it. Personally I think its an intravert thing.

@chips glastonbury crime...aaah now theres a subject...let me tell ya a little story....one of the times I was there, I think it was 93/94 (kind of a blur ), we were camping quite close to a little wood thats in the centre of the glast. site. This would was well known for being the place to buy your "stuff" if you didn't dare bring any with you. Each dealer has his own "patch", sort of a small group of trees where he can scream "ggggggeeeeeet your smoke, ganja, pot, mary jane, gear, grass, sensimelia, northeeeerrrrrrrnnnn lights, marijuana, cannabis HEEERRRREEEE.....buy one get one bag of mushrooms free" etc etc as loud as he wants to. There are thousands of police there....often surrounding that area....they just let it go on....as long as there's no trouble and there's no one selling anything other than "naturals" they don't care. (kinda why it makes me laugh when I hear politicians talk about "Police attitudes to cannabis", but anyway thats an entirely different subject) This particular year one of the dealers strayed from his patch into another dealers area. The other dealer wasn't happy and an argument insued. The argument got more and more heated and eventually resulted in the p*ssed off dealer pulling out a small pellit gun from his jacket and shooting the other guy in the ass. The police collapsed laughing as the guy hobbled around clutching his buttocks...they ushered the shot guy off (he eventually went off to soak his rear end in ice and life went on as normal) and I remember clearly seeing one of the policemen approach the guy with the gun, wag his finger at him and then buy a joint. Nothing to report at all, but it was hilarious to watch. Now 3 or 4 days later I arrive home to be greeted by a flurry of answerphone messages from my parents in distress....so I immediately call them....and they proceed to tell me...

1. My picture was in the "Mail on Sunday".
2. It was taken in what looked like a moment of sheer panic...apparently I looked really scared.
3. The picture also showed 4 police men and a guy holding a gun.
4. Headline read "Festival scarred by Drug-fuelled Gun Riot"

Luckily my parents are quite understanding and believed the true story. This was especially backed up when the monday papers came out with an odd mixture of headlines...

"Shotgun Maniac on rampage at Festival" (I think that was The Guardian)
"Guns and Roses" (The News of the World led with a picture of a bunch of roses that had been laid at the trees after the "incident"....they managed to cut off the woman who was sat next to them flogging them)

and surprisingly, The Sun was the only paper that managed to get anything close to the truth, and ran with "SCARRED" and picture of the guys arse.

My longwinded point is this, every year I read the same old crap in the papers about the festival...and all it comes down to is a bunch of fuddy-duddy cigar smoking, whiskey drinking fat bald men in fleet street don't like the festival. The truth is this. There is crime there yes. But its mostly petty theft - the kind of stuff you'd find in any large crowd/city....and its in proportion. 5 years I had no incidents, 1 year I saw the "shooting" and one year I had my tent nicked! The honest answer is this - you couldn't be safer, they put one policeman on duty for every 5 people...they're literally everywhere (but they don't seem imposing for a change)...if you go, you take NOTHING with you that you consider to be valuable...and that includes your tent. Make sure your tent is old and crappy and no one will nick it. Mine was nicked because it was about a week old and straight out of the box. You spend a lot of time away from your tent so don't leave anything in it. And thats it! simple rules they really are! The amount of people that complain when they leave their tent for 3 days in the middle of a campsite with expensive cameras, clothes and walkmans etc sat there ready for the picking, and some opportunist comes along and takes something. Truly pathetic really. 500,000 people...you only need 5 thieves....know what I mean?

Anyway sorry about the length of this post, hope you enjoyed the story

"Scarred"

..and my @## has never been the same since..

1995 or round abouts. me dad took me to this temple thingo. one of those ancient culturl temples you see in postcards from korea. its real-no kidding. just one structure but still, real, all the beams an'all. just with modern features like heating systems put in.

in front of the colourful structure is a field of gravel (grass don't grow in a country with such varying climate) that stretches about 60 metres out, to be met with water. its a lake.a huge one at that.i'd stand at the edge and just stare out. there's an island on the other side, filled with trees to the top. (at least thats how i remember it, it might be all messed up now)

then i'd feel all so calm. its autumn, my favourite season, (shortest one too ) and the cool breeze just makes everything perfect. i even saw some silly guy plunge his remote-controlled plane into the water.


then the other times when i'm feeling really good is when i play badminton. all i care about is getting the bird over to the otherside. occasionally aiming for bodily parts(it always gets them! ) i like squash too. especially when i successfuly get that deafening and noticeably high-pitched boom off the wall when i hit hard. the ball doesn't even touch the ground when it gets back. it rebounds off the back wall and nearly half way out before it hits the ground.

but alas, its all gone, taken away from me. but i won't burden this thread with my misery

Loving the sound of that temple Kimk....sounds like a very calm place.

Its all gone? Sounds bad...why don't you start a thread?

cos he doesnt live in Korea anymore, but in the East Indies.