Nope, no cold germs in my car, but I did bring back a couple of Canberra flies. They came out today as I was driving. They wouldn't leave, so they are now ex-flies.

I don't have a cold, but I did finish up with a good dose of "festival throat", from which I now seem to have recovered. I also seem to have come through remarkably well after 5 nights of sessioning till 5 or 6am. It was certainly worth it though. I don't think I've ever sung so much or enjoyed it so much. I particularly liked the really late night sessions in the stairwell and the session bar. There were some very good shanty singers from other parts of Oz whom I had never met before - particularly a guy called John from Western Australia, and a guy called Robin from Tasmania, as well as Fritz, who is always there, but I never see him anywhere else. We were singing at full volume for hours, so it's quite amazing really that my voice lasted as long as it did - it was just starting to get a bit scratchy around 5am on Monday.

Probably the hardest part of the weekend was pulling up all the tent pegs out of the rock-hard Canberra ground. John had put up a very large tarp and secured it with lots of heavy duty pegs. It was a good structure though - big enough for my tent, John's van and all of the Roaring Forties to practise under.

The Roaring Forties, with the help of Don Brian and John Dengate, performed the story and songs of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, with the emphasis on the Australian connection. John Dengate spoke the parts of the unpopular authority figures, as only an ex-schoolteacher can do, and was pleased to garner many boos and hisses. It all went over really well. I'm hoping to get them to do it at my folk club soon.

Apart from that, there were all the stalls, street theatre and concerts we could handle, but as usual, I missed a lot of the concerts I had intended to get to. You set out to go somewhere, and on the way you run into so many people you know, and end up stopping to chat or have coffee, and all of a sudden, it's 2 hours later - but that is really the most charming thing about festivals. There's so much to do, and not enough time to do it, but in the end you don't care because it's friends getting together that makes the experience really special.

So now we get to do it all again on a smaller scale at St Albans festival (Alison's festival) in less than 4 weeks' time. I can't wait!