(OK, that is in a large part down to my own idiosyncracies about noise, crowds, etc.)
But it is one hell of an event - the buzz, the atmosphere, whatever you want to call it is high energy and vibrant, and there is just so much going on, so that even if you do spend most of your time down in the basement, you still get affected by it!
We arrived early Friday afternoon, to find that we couldn't actually set up our teaching room until after lunch the next day - that particular room was being intensively hot-desked, with a morning class, then a lunchtime one and then us. So, we just sat around chatting until the market preview opened.
This is the queue. You would not believe the speed with which it vanished inside once the doors opened. We held back, not being particularly in search of anything much. We actually bought very little then, just some pretty fibre. We had intended returning, but with teaching it was a bit difficult.
Saturday, we had our half day intro to spindle spinning class, which was full. With hindsight, it is one thing to say that you can cope with twenty four participants when they are Guild members and have some idea about fibre and how it should be treated or behave. Twenty four not from that world is a different thing all together. But - we got them all there! All of them spun a more than creditable yarn, and most of them managed to ply it as well. They seemed happy, and we certainly were.
The full day class on Sunday was a different matter. We had a much more manageable number, fifteen, two of which had been on the previous days class, some of whom had spun before albeit not much and a long time ago. It was a very happy day, and a lot of fibre was spun on many spindles. Difficult to photograph a workshop, but this might give a flavour.
One of the many very good things about the venue, Imperial College, is that it is within easy walking distance of lots of excellent eating places. We had a very good curry one night, and another went to the Kensington Creperie, which apparently is famous - this country mouse didn't know that! - and I decided in favour of their homemade ice cream instead of a sweet crepe for dessert.
I was nearly undone by these cute little faces - who could possibly eat these? Er - me! And very good they and the ice cream were, too.
Tomorrow is my regular AH day, followed by the annual local retreat. I'm not taking a class this year. I am going to loaf about - spin, knit, read and sleep, and let someone else make my bed and feed me.
Bliss.
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