I went to the Cheltenham Folk Festival on Saturday. I was out fiddling for a while, it was very cold, but I got to see some people I hadn't for a while. In the evening I went with my sister and her boyfriend to the ceilidh. They were supposed to meet up with a group of friends in a pub before hand, but these things don't quite go to plan, so we found a cheap pub and started drinking. We headed for the ceilidh and they met up and introduced me. Fantastic group of people. They made me feel like one of the crowd. It's one of the warmest welcomes I've had by strangers. I was soon dancing with some nice young ladies (I hope their toes recovered). It's a long time since I've had that much fun. The band (random) were brilliant, nice lively music, it was clear they were having fun too, so I bought their CD.

On the Sunday I went out and fiddled for the group, and seem to have been adopted as a remote member. So I'm now off to IVFDF to meet up again. There are 2 ceilidhs that weekend, and one of the bands sounds quite interesting. I've listened to some samples on their website, a metal ceilidh band. Didn't think I'd ever hear those words together, but it does seem to work . I have realised this could be an expensive hobby though. My grandparents gave me a little money to help pay for fuel, and it seems that between the 4 of us in the round it all got drunk (the money was drunk, but I was stone cold sober, honest)

Looking forward to seeing the Raggies more often.