Five Things I Wouldn't go to Greenbelt Without

The Big Green Amorphous Caterpillar  bides its time...

For all Greenbelt  afficionados - you'll have noticed a new feature on this year's  GB blog: My Greenbelt Five, where folk are asked to list the five things  to  which they're most looking forward  at this year's festival and why.

I thought I'd do one  here.  Thanks to a technical blip (partly my memory, partly my bank) I've not yet been able to download the programme, so I've no idea yet what I'm excited about - unless you count my first bath for six days after I get home. But nil desperandum, I've been inspired to make my own, alternative Greenbelt Five: Five Things I wouldn't Go to Greenbelt Without (Five Things Without Which I wouldn't Go to Greenbelt? ) Here we go:

1. Duct tape - Or should that be Duck?  After the rain we had on the Friday  night last time, there'd easily have been enough water on site to provide modest  leisure  facilities for any number of our little feathered friends.  After jamming my porch door on the first evening I was extremely grateful for its sticking powers. (The tape, not the ducks!).  It also held up the legs of my makeshift camping table  - lovingly forged from an old Sylvanian Families tin tray that used to belong to my daughter.  It's mended the frame of my 'Granny' trolley, (another festival must have, great for lugging all your clobber on site)  and I can imagine that it'd come in handy for mending torn canvas and snapped tent poles. 

2. My cosy green fleecy blanket with pretty tasselly bits.  You can go glamping in a pop-up tent as well, you know. Who needs teepees, oriental rugs and firepits!

3. My Kelly Kettle. Never try to separate a Greenpatch from her supply of boiling water and teabags! (Fairtrade, of course). Everything Stops for Tea, after all! It will work this time, of course it will.

4. My Rohan merino base layer top, (woolly vest for the unsophisticated). A couple of these saw me through a mammoth five week walking trip last year and yes, they really can be worn for days at a time without ponging too much. A real Godsend on those chilly evenings on the campsite. Worth every penny.

5. My faithful bog standard Nokia phone gets its annual workout at Greenbelt. It can't email or tweet  - I leave that to the dawn chorus - just good old PAYG calls and texts.

If I can just sneak in another one: on Mr GP's advice, I'll reluctantly add earplugs. (Who wants to sleep with wodges of greyish gunk stuck in your ears?) But needs must - I'm volunteering this year and suspect I may be pitched rather nearer the centre of the action than I was last time round.

So there you have it.  Any Greenbelters reading this, I'd love to know what you'd put on your list.