The Streets Relentless Boardmasters Festival 2009

Newquay, England, 7 August 2009

On Twitter I asked Mike what to do: Rock Werchter or Newquay? Rock werchter was on July 3rd. Wireless was on July the 4th. I already booked everything for Wireless. Might have been a struggle to get from Belgium to England in time for both festivals but I would have tried, but Mike’s answer on Twitter made me change my mind.

Emma said to me, READ TWITTER NOW!

WOW, I jumped up from my seat started running through the living room. I cried, but with tears in my eyes from happiness.Mike I’ll come to Newquay. My house mate was laughing at me. He was really happy for me and impressed by that tweet. (this happened a while ago)

On Thursday the 6th

We took the train from Bloemendaal to the airport. We flew to Newquay via, Gatwick by Easyjet & Plymouth by a propeller plane. The shortest flight ever Plymouth – Newquay. 12 minutes. Not a very pleasant flight tho, the plane made a lot of noise, but the seats were very chill and laid back and from leather. Glad it didn’t take too long.

When we arrived, we got the bus to the Winward hotel, as Mike booked a double room for me for 1 night, for the Friday night. That is the night after the festival, but its so far away, we decided to make a long weekend of it. Ozzy phoned the hotel and asked if we could make a twin room from it, and if we could arrive a day earlier and leave a day later. That was no problem.

When we arrived at the hotel, the owner Sue remembered Ozzy‘s name. WOW You left a good impression Oz! The owner Paul, showed us around, he showed us the breakfast tables, the bar (very important!) and the room. OH MY what a view! What a lovely room! Nice beds! They slept very good! The bar was self service. AND across the street there was the beach!! Just perfect.

I sent Mike a Direct Message on Twitter (DM) to thank him.

We got changed and it was time to go to the beach and we waited for the two Emmas to arrive. After a few hours they arrived, but Emma P had to drive the 6 hours, so she took a little nap. That evening we met up in the bar and we went into town.

I liked it, but there were 2 extremes there in the sailors pub. Or surf dudes, what else do you expect there? And very slutty dressed girls didn’t feel comfortable there. We were overdressed. We decided to go to another pub, but when we were walking down the road, we decided to get a taxi back to the hotel, ‘cos we had a festival the next day, we didn’t want to feel too rough.

That night neighbours complained about loud noise, I didn’t hear it. The owners came over to us, to tell us to be quiet, but it wasn’t us, we didn’t have our tv on. And we were in bed already, we weren’t talking, they woke us up. So they left.

7th of August 2009:

The day of the festival, we had an English Breakfast we got changed and dressed up for the festival… the taxi driver who took us into town last night, told us it would be a 10 minutes walk through the field, along the coast, the taxi driver who brought us back to the hotel last night, told us it would be a 20 minutes walk…. but it was about 10 minutes not too bad.

We had to wait until the doors opened, ‘cos we were a bit early. It was sunny, and warm, so we didn’t mind much. But when the doors did open, we met up with Rod had a few drinks, sat down relaxed a bit in the sun I gave Rod his birthday present (it was his birthday on August 3rd). Rod left, then Kevin walked around the corner and joined us for a little chat, but after a while Rod came back with Lexxie and her friend Emma. another Emma, there were 3 Emma’s now. Emma Jones, Emma Pope and Emma Richardson (Chester now)

We drank a bit more and Emma 3 said to me let’s go and do a ride OK COOL!! Someone who wanted to join me YAY but she didn’t have money with her, well if I have to choose, I’d prefer the Catapult, that was 15 pounds! Very Expensive, but I couldn’t go alone, so I decided to pay for Emma as well, so I could go anyway. IT WAS BRILLIANT!! I loved it!! It was worth every penny. Then we went back to everybody else to collect more money to go in the other one that one was only 3 pounds I didn’t like it too much it hurt my shoulders they were sun burned, they hurt my shoulders a lot! Then we went back to the others.

After a while we saw, Mike, Cassell, Chris, Wayne & Kevin walking by, Rod called them, but they didn’t hear it, they joined the bumper cars. I decided to join too, if I didn’t drink, I wouldn’t have done it I think, but I did, and I don’t regret it! Emma 3 joined me again. Ozzy filmed it! and took a few photo’s.

OH MY this was fun!! I really had a good time! When the cars finished. We got a photo taken with Mike. I thought I didn’t need a photo with Mike I have 5 already, but he wanted to get on a photo with us. Well, OK, cos you ask so nicely (sorry I cut Emma of the photo, no offense).

After a few hours, I thought it was time to try to get to the front but that wasn’t possible yet which was good, cos Mike, Magic, Wayne, Cassell, Chris & Kevin were standing there. I gave Cassell his belated birthday present as well (it was his birthday last week on July 31st, while we were at Kendal Calling). I said hello to Magic.

Then Mike came over to me and asked me how and where the hotel was.  I thanked Mike personally, he said the office booked it, I said true, but it was your idea. yeah. Mike didn’t have a lot to say about that ha ha so thanks Mike!!

He also asked about Deichbrand, and what we were doing there. Still a good question, it was a birthday present from Oz, but what was he doing there? Mike said: “I got paid to be there”hahahahahaha fair enough….

It got busier, more people walked over to Mike to have a chat, I think it got a bit too much, and he left. I went over to Wayne. I met Abbie and her friend Portia. Abbie recognized me from Beat Stevie from the Nottingham gig, She even knew my last name. She said: “Are you Tess de Jong?” How weird is that?! but funny in a way tho. They were in that Beat Stevie as well. The huge champagne bottle was from them. Abbie nearly got run over by the car in that video. “Looks great on Youtube” Ted said in that video.

Wayne said “you are famous now Tess!” and he gave me a cuddle. Then Abbie said “aw, that’s so sweet”. And Wayne said. “Yeah we’re friends now.” Aw! I like that!

I tried to go to the middle and to the front with Abbie & Portia, but it was too busy, so I joined Ozzy on the side, there were tiny and young girls in front of me, they didn’t bother me really. After a while someone left, and a couple moved to that spot, so I pushed their friend their way, so I could stand front row. And again, a great gig!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!

After the gig we met up with Emma & Emma again, The Emma’s wanted to go back to the hotel. So did I. Ozzy said: “you can go back, we will stay”.  Well… we could talk about this first, I think I’d like to go back as well. I decided to join the Emma’s and walk back to the hotel. Ozzy joined us. Sorry Oz.

Saturday the 8th of August 2009:

The next day Ozzy & I spend a day on the beach and had lunch in the Mermaid Inn. After lunch we went to the hotel room and relaxed a bit, we also went to the hotel bar for a drink, and back upstairs Emma P. came over and gave us some crisps, and we decided what to do for dinner. It was going to be the Mermaid Inn, they had lovely food over there. Why go anywhere else?!

Sunday the 9th of August 2009:

On Sunday, we had breakfast and we got ready, we said goodbye to the Emma’s, they had a long journey ahead in the car. We went down to the beach and to the Mermaid inn for lunch, we had a little walk along the coast and went back to the hotel to wait for the taxi.

That taxi brought us to the airport. We had a direct flight to Gatwick with the propeller plane, then a plane (Easyjet) to Amsterdam. My mum picked us up and at about 11pm we were home. My mum dropped us off in Bloemendaal. (bless her). Time for bed. I needed to wake up early for work in the morning.