One hour to go! I was up at 6.30 this morning bouncing round the motor-home going "Sunshine, it's Burning Man day, it's Burning Man day!" I feel like it's Christmas.

Got my goggles, got my dustmask, got my sunscreen, got my costumes, can't wait to get to the gate and see the greeters....Yay!!!!

Good God...210 leaves and two re-designs later and my dryad outfit is finally finished. Today I got up at 6am to sew on the last few leaves, but it looks fucking cool...and in 23 hours we are Going to Burning Man, Going to Burning Man, Going to Burning Man, Going to Burning Man, Going to Burning Man, Going to Burning Man, Going to Burning Man! Yee fucking Ha!!!!! Am absolutely beside myself with jibbering excitement....

Nick gave me some goggles last night for the dust storms - they are well Mad Max. When I tried them on it hit home that we are actually going...

10 whole days in the Desert. In the Desert where Bugs can't even live...

Fuck. Hagey's has been shut down by the police, the fire dept and the dept of health. We have had no less than 4 news channels here reporting on the situation. Everyone is basically scattering all over Reno as we speak. I am going to sleep in a Casino parking lot with Fish and Sunshine. I'm v. lucky to have the offer of their couch. Gotta go now as we have to pack everything up and leave. Might not post again till after the Burn, but I'll try...

Today I baked in the sun, sewing on leaves to my costume practically all day long from 7am.

I did help load our artcar onto the trailer which was quite fun. (never driven a golfcart on a real road before - especially not one that's dressed up as a United Nations vehicle.)

Then, tonight I went to a fire conclave in a downtown Reno parking lot with Nick, Shaun, Jason, Pheonix, Pascale and Ian. It was quite cool, they had drums and techno and all that tribal stuff.

There was one guy who was sort of combining fire-spinning with some B-boyish moves. That was interesting. There was also another person, Chris, with Poi the size of a cannon ball. That one was quite scary, especially when he did the limbo whilst spinning it horizontally above his face.

Am going to bed now and when I wake up in the morning I know there will be at least four or five new faces that have arrived at Hagey's overnight. I love it. Apparently there is a guy with a jacuzzi bus arriving soon, I've spoken to him a couple of times on the phone. He's gonna be taking it out to Burning Man. Looking forward to that one...

There is also a woman who's affiliated with our camp who creates a rose palace with all drapes and silk roses and cushions and serves rose vodka. My sort of place methinks. I was chatting to her today when she came round and cleaned the bathroom here at Hagey's (?). Much appreciated - even though she's not even staying here.

2 days to go!!!! Yay!!!!!

Oh, and the other amazing thing is that the Burning Man community has started a International Burner Hostel Disaster Fund due to all our stuff getting robbed and the donations are pouring into a paypal account we have. It is just so amazing. Apparently there are lots of discussion groups regarding it on various forums.

We have now replaced everything we lost - vehicle, carpets, we've got a shade structure twice the size of the stolen one - all through donations from Burners and the Borg and now we have cash too. Wow, these people are so amazing.

Anyway, yawn.....zzzzz

Some guy who has never even met anyone associated with the hostel has just come round and donated us a truck that can hold tons of gear.

This community is so astounding...

Bad day here at Hagey's.

Last night his suburban (car that carries 8-10 people) plus utility trailer was stolen. We had our entire shade structure, tarps cables and posts and all our carpets for Burning Man on the trailer. Ths means that potentially we would have 150-200 people out in the desert with no shade, which essentially means that there would be no theme camp. We also had a visit from the dept of health as the neighbours have complained.

However, the health inspectors were happy with what they found, and lots and lots of people have come to our rescue regarding tarps and other shade structure materials after Hagey posted an emergency message on the E-playa. (burning man online.) In fact the head of Burning Man (Andie Grace) has organised it so that we will have a shade structure put up for us by the Department of Public Works. That is just so amazing. Crisis over.

Anyway, I had better get back to work, having skived a good deal of the afternoon in the pool with Sunshine, Santa and Shaun...Good skiving though.

Last night I found myself in a casino at 3am eating a proper sit down dinner with Nick and Shaun. (New guy from Brighton just arrived at Hagey's House)

Shortly before that we had been on a bar crawl culminating in Appletinis consumed sat on comfy round banquettes in front of a fire that flickered out of a blue pool of water.

Whilst at the Fireside, Nick told Shaun and I about the Weathermen who were an underground terrorist organisation in the US in the late 60s/early 70s. Very interesting that the issue that has rocked the UK of late (ie homegrown terrorists spawned in part due to foreign policy, shock,horror I don't think) has already happened relatively recently in the US and no-one is referring to it. Talk about a media clamp down.

Anyway, on to lighter things.....earlier we had fun in the pool. I splashed Santa and he bit me. Then we played catch with water balloons. It was nice.

I've got a nasty fag burn on my bum cheek which Princess Sunshine had to administer first aid to. Hopefully it will heal before the Burn.

I am currently creating my costumes which is fun, and Shaun and I have got a new art project which is to paint the Burner Hostel logo above the windscreen on Hagey's RV. (Recreational Vehicle)

Am gonna go now and spraypaint some stuff gold....

Consider this...

Pyramid Lake is -

15 Miles long

11 Miles wide

350 feet deep

Prone to sudden winds that cause 4 foot waves

On the Paiute tribe land

Has an area named "Hell's Kitchen" due to the fact so many people die on it

It is 2am. I have just got home from being stuck out there all day because the motor on our speedboat cut out and refused to restart. It was such a fun adventure though.

I think it all started to go awry when everyone except me and Nick dropped acid at about 12pm. Shortly after that, we made a stop at a 35 foot calcium rock outcrop so that we could jump off. (Not me though, oh no. I stayed in the boat). Everyone climbed up to the rock and then Cathy got stuck up there because she was tripping so much she couldn't jump off or climb down. She was up there for three hours.

During this time we all swam around, got burnt and persistently tried to coax her to come down. She didn't, and then the motor cut on the boat. The lake has very strong undertows so we drifted about a mile away from her in no time at all. Diarmud then swam to the outcrop with two lifejackets to rescue her, Hagey started lighting flares and I ate some cheetos. (Mmm, flamin hot flavour...)

Diarmud and Cathy made it back to the boat, and as the sun set over the mountain, no help had arrived. The tide had washed us up on the shore by this time and we had seen some lights in the distance so we trekked a couple of miles through desert-scrub to the source of the light and found it was a sweet couple trying to have an isolated and romantic night out camping. Not anymore they weren't...Luckily, the guy had a CB radio in his truck and we radio'd the Sheriff who came and rescued us.

It was such a cool adventure though, I loved it. This is real Nevadan life. I was quite happy being stranded on the boat as we had a cooler full of beer, the aforementioned cheetos and some potato salad..I mean, what more do you need for survival in the desert?

Reno by Night...


Last night it was Nick's (Hagey's adopted son) birthday and we got him a huge rainbow frosted cake from Walmart. Later on in the evening he took me on a tour of Reno by night. First we drove up to the 12th floor of a multi storey car park for an ariel view and then we went to Circus Circus, Reno's biggest casino and watched the show which consisted of four
female chinese contortionists.

After that we went to a proper Nevadan bar where they had a local band playing, slot machines built into the bar for every punter and no less than 9 TVs all on different channels. The proprieter ID'd me, and as I didn't have my passport on me, the Bar woman judged my age by the wrinkles on my hand using a torch. Shortly before she did that she popped her breasts out in my face for absolutely no reason at all. It was like being in a Tarantino film.

We got hungry after a bit and went for chinese, which was well good. In the lift on the way back to the car I enthused over a Tom Jones poster (he's playing Reno at the end of August) and went in to my "Land of my Fathers" mode. Nick popped the poster out of it's casing and I have a special plan for it.

It was a really fun night and I think I like Nevada. Nick's a muso so he told me loads about the East/West Coast divide and different punk & Ska waves in recent years. I learnt a lot. Glad I didn't bring my CDs now cos I'm hearing so much amazing new music.

Yesterday during the day I had my first taste of playa dust when we cleaned out the kitchen stuff from last year. It really gets everywhere. Then me & Princess Sunshine (camp mum) went shopping for Nick's cake. She really is a sweetheart. Also, I was touched when Fish (Sunshine's husband & Vietnam veteran) gave me a special necklace that he'd made himself. I am so lucky to be living and working with these amazing people.

Oooh, and also, I go hold of Warren G's home number. The real G-Funk one that is. Am going to have to call him and see if it really is....That's v exciting.

Today was quite a lazy day....it was very very nice though.

Here are some of the things I did...

Chopped up tons of fruit and vegetables to fill the freezer for once we get out into the desert.

Learnt to play the didgeree doo in the pool under the midday sun.

Got a fake tattoo of Bandit (Hagey's dog) on my ankle.

Chatted with someone who says "Hella Good" with no trace of irony.

Had a massage on my feet from three men, two of them simultaneously.

Bought cigars from a drive-through cigarette store in the massive fuck-off truck.

Sat on the verandah through the evening drinking Sangria under our newly installed chandelier.

Created a gigantic spider (plus web) out of discarded copper wire to hang from the aforementioned chandelier.

This is so fun....

Well...I haven't written since May I know. But today seems like a very good day to write about.

I am currently in Reno at Hagey's house on stage 1 of my Burning Man adventure. Have been here since yesterday and am loving it.

Today I have....

Eaten apricot pancakes for breakfast.

Cut my hand carrying a 6 foot wooden cross adorned with fake flowers

Swum in Hagey's pool in the yard

Driven, no cruised, round Reno in a massive fuck-off truck.

Filled the aforementioned truck with sofas scavenged from a dumpster to go in our chill tent at BM

Bought some amazing boots for $2.50 in a thrift store

Had HUGE icecream at the Dairy Queen where the employees all sing corporate songs and clap as they make up your order. It was crazy, I felt like I was in a film parodying America.

Shared cigarettes with a lovely Puerto Rican guy on the riverbank.

The highlight of the day though was going rafting down the Truckee river with Diarmud & Cathy. The three of us rafted down sharing a half inflated lilo when everyone else had proper boats and tubes. It was well fun. We became minor celebrities as people laughed and cheered as we went through some of the rougher and more rocky parts and managed to stay on. As we were walking back to the truck a guy popped up from the riverbank exclaiming - "Good to see ya'll..Ah didn't think ya'll was gonna make it!"

How fun is that?

Reno is great, the weather's fantastic, the people are lovely, you can get stuff cheap or free and you can go and play in the river whenever you want. Fucking excellent.

Anyway, I now feel very tired from my exciting day so I think I will retire to my campervan home.