Monday 20th August 2018

Have you ever seen a flower, tryin' to bloom in a dry barren land
But then comes a sweet spring shower just to lend a helpin' hand

What a weekend!

Thursday evening we saw Bitty McLean and The Skatalites.

Saturday evening we saw Ultimate Earth Wind and Fire and Soul II Soul.

Sunday evening we saw The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a firework display.

We also drank a shed load of alcohol.

There was also music on Friday evening, but we were having a rest.

Four nights of music, all for free and all thanks to Newham Council.

We also met the Mayor of Newham, Rokhsana Fiaz. You can tell she is the mayor because she always wears a t-shirt that says "I'm your Mayor of Newham" on it.
I think she has a complex.
She's a bit of a strange one though. We congratulated her on the festival, called Under the Stars by the way, and we congratulated her even though it has been going on for seven years and she has only been mayor for 105 days (as of today) and the first thing she said was "it's not going anywhere".
We didn't ask if it was, we simply said it was a great thing.
A little defensive methinks.

Is that supposed to be Paddington Bear?

I used to like the old mayor, Sir Robin Wales, even if (or maybe because) he was a bit of a pisshead.

A lot of people in Newham didn't like him, but I don't know why.

What I do know is that he got a cheer when he took to the stage at Under the Stars, she didn't. Not really.

Maybe she'll grow on me.

The show itself though is excellent.
You can take food and drink into the park, you have to take a swig if you have an opened container to prove it's not acid, and you can't take glass in, but that's OK.
We took chilled white wine in a thermos flask on the Thursday and Saturday but on the Sunday, as it was the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, we took a flask of Gin & Tonic.

They also check your bags, but do it with a smile so you don't feel violated.