Back to the Eisteddfod

I had hoped that the second day (for us) of the Eisteddfod would be a bit easier than the first. Naïvely I assumed that we could leave our stuff on site. But we couldn't! Because we had to bring all the kit in anew on the second day, we still need vehicle access, and we still needed to be up really early to be off site by 7:30. So again I was picked up at 5:20. 

The setup was quicker now! We knew where to go, and what to set up where. And this time we had less. We didn’t have Martyn with his dressing up box, and because of the very windy weather forecast we hadn’t brought the microscope setup. So it was mainly animal tanks and bags for painting. The big debut this time were brittle stars; we hadn’t had had these the previous time. 

Look, brittle stars!

There’s one

We again had quite some time for coffee in the beginning. And possibly because of the weather, it would stay quieter for a while. It was windy and thus cold! We were both wearing not only our summer jackets but also a warm jacket over the top. And we had tried to make sure nothing would blow away in the wind, but we had to keep updating these measures. The wind kept trying them out. And I had brought a chair so I didn’t have to be on my feet all day. 

When the time approached we would do the print-shells-onto-cotton-bags, Dei set it all up. But then it was 11:30, the start time, and there was literally nobody there. But some 10 minutes later the first family arrived. And then they kept coming. Not in overwhelming numbers, but enough to keep us busy. Some kids made smashing bags! 

We had to be quick cleaning up, as the next activity was due only half an hour later. There was paint everywhere!

Guidance

After that I wanted some food. I ate my sandwiches (made the night before) while Dei did the talking. And then we swapped places. The weather also warmed up a bit and the big jackets came off. And when there were quiet moments, we started to ferry stuff over to the car. 

When we got close to 4pm we wanted to pack up, but just then a gaggle of kids appeared, who were wild about starfish. We managed to deal with that by letting them help us put the starfish back in the bucket in which they would travel back home. They loved it!

Then we could pack up for real. That was relatively quick! And then we could leave. The work was done. How much did we achieve? No idea! But we tried. And now we needed a break…