The Hay Festival Not-Vlog Day 2

If you weren't here on Monday, then I wouldn't be surprised if you have absolutely no idea what's going on right now.

Ah, well. You can click here if you want to read the first part of my Hay experience (plus an explanation of why on earth the writing is so non-linear and the photographs are so terrible), which of course you should, so you know ... I'll wait.

I'm kind of reluctant to write an introduction now because - well, if you're a good little reader, you should have hopped over to the other post first and know exactly what's going on. Because what's a blog without a little unashamed blackmail, right?

Oh, fine. I'll at least tell you what the format is - since I am by no means a vlogger or even the kind of person whose face looks remotely non-alien on camera, I needed to come up with an alternate way of documenting my incredibly literary trip to the Hay Festival. This random, haphazard combination of jotted-down notes and questionable smartphone photography is it. For the sake of organic-ness, I have edited very little and only plonked in a couple of comments afterwards (in italics, for your reading convenience). 

Good luck making sense of it all.

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12:47 - This is the Tata tent, which, as you may or may not be able to tell from the picture, is massive. I'd honestly call it more building than tent. Who knew that this many people would be interested in a talk about grammar?

As you can well imagine, this particular grammar nerd is overly excited about the whole thing.

12:58 - LET'S GO GRAMMAR LET'S GO!

14:16 - Well that was utterly fascinating, I must say. I'd never thought much about why we use different kinds of grammar before, and I think I'll probably be writing something on it at some point - when I can actually sit down and put my thoughts together without being in such a hurry.

14:22 - Well, if I wasn't pumped enough already for a talk by Anthony Horowitz on the new Alex Rider (what a trip down memory lane, amiright?) the stage looks a little bit like the set of Matilda the Musical.

15:38 - The talk was AMAZING, but I am now in the world's longest signing queue and I doubt I'll get to the front before our lecture on modern spying. Ah, well. I've got the book at least.

15:40 - I've also just realised I'm the only "child" in the queue above the age of 10.

15:59 - Well, as predicted, there was no time to get anywhere near the apparently very famous Horowitz (who knew?), but I'm excited about the next talk AND I got a free bookmark, so never mind.

17:16 - Well ... that turned into a tent full of people moaning about surveillance and discussed no actual methods of present-day espionage. Kind of dull, as it turns out.

We're having dinner now though, so that should be good.

18:09 - That ice-cream was so good I forgot to take a picture. Oops.

(A scoop mint choc chip and a scoop strawberries and cream, for those who were wondering what flavour I would get on Monday.)

18:49 - More grammar to come! More excitement!

20:41 - That was an absolute stonker - and to those of you unfamiliar with what is probably slang exclusive to Northern England, that means good. As the entire talk was about resisting the slow takeover of American English, I'm trying very hard not to use the word awesome right now.

Although apparently even the word reliable is an Americanism that was determinedly resisted by Victorians, so I feel I am rather unable to win.

20:53 - I appear to have accidentally bought rather a lot of books. Oops.

I'll sign off now and separate them in a vain attempt to prevent breeding, but I should probably close with some sentimental stuff about how brilliant the last two days have been.

If you're a bookworm and ever find yourself anywhere near Hay-on-Wye in May half term, then get yourself there. You'll thank me.

(Even if it's, like, mid February or something, still go. They call Hay "The Town of Books" for a reason - I think it has the highest concentration of bookshops anywhere in the world. Most of them are independent and all are FABULOUS, if a tad inaccessible. If you happen to be a wheelchair user or person who finds stairs tricky at Hay, then definitely go down to Richard Booth's - it has a lift to all three of its floors, is big enough to spend hours in, and utterly beautiful, so you still get the lovely independent bookshop feel. Also has a cafe, so ... yay.) 

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In the comments: So, are you people enjoying the format? I know I keep asking this, but feedback is super important when trying new things, as you know. I NEED IT.

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Labels: Not-Vlogging