Gayezing into the sun

We went to Audley End House today for a Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra picnic concert with guest star Alison Moyet. We drove over with Gaye and Alan, probably not using the most direct route and plagued by roadworks. At one point we were second car to arrive at a set of roadwork traffic lights. It was one of these daft set of lights on a minor road where there's excellent visibility and the roadworks covered no more than a parked car. Half an hour later (probably actually closer to a couple of minutes) we were still sitting at a red light - obviously dead lights, but the car in front wouldn't move. Mrs L got out the car and they took the hint.

Arrived, unpacked the kitchen sink and met up with David and Clare who'd got the towels down to reserve our picnic spot. We went for a wander round the grounds, the house wasn't open, but looks like it could be worth a return visit.

Back for the picnic and it soon became obvious that the three ladies had each catered for six, so we attempted to get through enough food for eighteen. Dave's contributing a birthday cake for the three ladies whose birthdays are all within a month of each other.

As we settled down to the concert it soon became obvious that the stage's positioning wasn't ideal as the sun was setting behind it and blinding the audience. However that was soon solved by a wander down to the front. We'd seen Jools Holland in May last year and the set was quite similar, it was the first time I'd seen Alison Moyet and I just loved her voice then finally a fireworks show finished off the evening.

So after a really enjoyable afternoon and evening we got home but the day still wasn't over, there was still three and a half hours of recorded European Championships to get through - well done Jess, fortunately we could skip through the chat so probably got to bed around 2am.