Tag Archive for: glastonbury

That time I met Dynamo and made him sign my ostomy bag…

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This year, Timm, the kids and I headed off for a week at Glastonbury festival and had a whale of a time! We hadn’t been with the kids in 10 years and so it was lovely to revisit such an awesome place with our now teenagers, it was a lot less stressful than taking three under 7s!

We saw a lot of bands and had a very chilled out few days in the sun (yes! No rain!!), one afternoon we headed up to the Kids Field where the children still weren’t too old for a lot of silliness and painting and a lot of time sat in a big tent listening to them trying a ton of different instruments.  Then our youngest pointed over to a little tent that had been hosting a variety of children’s entertainers for the day, “Look!” he shouted “Dynamo is playing there!”

We looked at the small space that currently had a man making balloon animals and told him that it wouldn’t be the REAL Dynamo!! He insisted we went in and as we squeezed cross legged into the tiny tent we waited for a low budget version on Dynamo to grace the stage and low and behold, out steps the one and only real life Dynamo! Thom’s smug face screamed ‘I told you so!’

dynamo glastonbury kids field

So we watched a world class magician play to maybe 100 kids in this little corner of Glastonbury and were blown away.  Apparently he plays it every year and only kids are allowed at the front, he doesn’t do it for money but to instil a bit of magic into the lives of children.  How beautiful is that??

So afterwards, Thom points over and says, we can go meet him now! So we joined a little queue and waited, and out came Dynamo!  The kids met him and gave him a hug and got things signed and then pushed me forward – ‘tell him about your blog mum!!’ they shouted.

dynamo crohns disease ostomy bag

 

Dynamo has Crohns Disease and the way he has spoken about it has inspired so many people to not be quite so embarrassed of the condition and so I told him about the blog and just how wonderful he was for speaking out and then (and I know this is super weird!) I asked him to sign one of my ostomy bags!

 

And he did!

dynamo crohns disease ostomy bag

I never thought I would meet Dynamo, and I certainly didn’t expect him to sign my ostomy bag!!!

Sam xx

 

My perfect family… Glastonbury 2017

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“You have such a perfect family!”

I got told this after sharing photos of our trip to Glastonbury this year and so I thought I would share a few pics of my perfect family.  We never argue, the kids are always on perfect behaviour, our home is a sanctuary of calm, peace and love.  There is never a raised voice, never a curse word muttered.  We all just live in harmony.

glastonbury perfect family parent blogger sam cleasby sheffield

glastonbury perfect family parent blogger sam cleasby sheffield

glastonbury perfect family parent blogger sam cleasby sheffield

glastonbury perfect family parent blogger sam cleasby sheffield

glastonbury perfect family parent blogger sam cleasby sheffield

glastonbury perfect family parent blogger sam cleasby sheffield

I mean, of course, that is all bullshit.  When I got told how perfect my family are based on these images, it made me think about how we come across on social media.

Yes, we had a wonderful time but I didn’t take photos of the guilt I felt when I had to nap every day. I didn’t take photos of the ostomy bag leak and me crying my eyes out. I didn’t take photos of the arguments the kids had or the time my eldest lost my youngest in a festival or the anxiety attack I had at 4am. I didn’t take photos of the difficulties of raising teenagers and the conflicts they are going through. 

I didn’t take photos of three kids in a car, arguing over who is manspreading leading on to a battle over why the term man spreading is or isn’t sexist and a discussion about who had the biggest balls.  Nor did I photograph the sheer anxiety of letting your 16 year old into a mosh pit alone, or the look on the youngest’s face when he found out the big two didn’t want to take him to see a band.

I didn’t take photos of my worries that my hernia was returning or the feelings of sadness and fear I had despite having this lovely family time. Or the struggles in keeping a relationship going through years of chronic illness.

I love my family, they are wonderful and I am so lucky to have them. But photos on social media only show the best of times so when you have those feelings of worry when you see everyone else having a seemingly perfect life, remember that we are all fighting our own battles and comparison to others is unhealthy and really doesn’t help!

Are my family perfect? Hell no!!!! But we get through each day and share the happy photos to celebrate the times it goes well.

 &  Sam