Performers from street theatre group Close Act at the Croydon festival, Aug 1st 2009

Jayne and I went up to Croydon today for the World Party day of the summer festival.  It was a tough decision because it clashed with Brighton Pride, but we ended up making the short trip North rather than the short trip South.We got to Lloyd Park in good time, before the party actually started, giving us a chance to wander round and see what stall were there.  We saw a good range of food stalls: ostrich burgers at the South African barbecue, Thai noodles, jerk chicken, curries and just about every ice cream van in South-East London.   It was a bit overcast and although the weather forecast was a 70% chance of rain we were hoping it would be wrong, or that the rain would be light.

We saw the first act – a local act called the Gospel Music Workshop Choir – before going for another wander.  Over in the Community Stage we just caught the end of a load of youngsters giving a demonstration of latin american dancing.  They were very good and so, so young.  I wish we had got there a bit earlier.  The last few must have only been about eight but they all looked so confident.

Alejandro & the Magic Tombolinos in Croydon. 1st August 2009

It started spitting with rain a bit so we went into the World Tent just in time to see Alejandro & the Magic Tombolinos.  These are a band that sound a bit like Gogol Bordello, with members from all over: Portugal, Argentina, Greece, Slovakia and Britain I think.  They were very lively and I’m sure they would have packed the tent out even if it had not been raining outside.

After that we went out and caught the end of Bishi on the main stage and then saw the dinosaurs outside the World Stage.  These were pretty cool.  Obviously not as good at a 40-foot time-travelling elephant, but the next best thing maybe.

The dinosaurs (a street theatre act by a dutch group called Close Act) attracted quite a following as they paraded around the field.   We saw them again as we were watching Kanda Bongo Man and trying to pretend that it was not persistantly drizzling.

Eventually the rain got too heavy to ignore and we bottled out and came home.  As we got to the tram stop it became torrential.  I would have like to have seen the Proclaimers, but not enough to get totally drenched.  Maybe we should have gone to the Pride parade in Brighton after all, although I hear it rained there too.

Here is a short video clip of the Saurus…

Again there is nothing so vulgar as any sort of payment involved, but I do get a free book out of it – more than likely a trade proof copy.

The reason is that, although I did not realise it, I am still one of the top 100 reviewers on Amazon. This was a real surprise. It is probably more than a year since I last reviewed anything on Amazon and I had really expected that lots or more motivated people would have overtaken me ages ago.

When I started writing reviews on Amazon it was my only real way of exercising my writing muscles and when I started up on Blogger that soon took more of my attention. I kept at it just to see if I could get in the top 100 and stopped when I reached 99.

It turns out that I have actually improved in my absence and currently occupy the position of 92. I might have to start writing a few more.

They do say that things come in threes, so I wonder if anything else will come along to complete the trifecta. Will Mercury FM ask me to fill in for Chris Oxlade? (no) or Crawley Town ask me to play in goal? (lets hope not) or the BBC ask me to appear on Never Mind The Buzzcocks in a line-up alongside a long-forgotten one-hit wonder? (even that is a bit ambitious)

Of course if you count the Brighton Evening Argus asking to interview me the other day then I have already had my three media opportunities.