When a group of compassionate, beautiful, gentle people get together, the Gods smile favourably.
We’ve had the most dreadful weather for days and days – rain, rain and more of that stuff, rain! The organisers of the Vegan Vibes festival held off till the last moment to make the decision whether to go with Plan B = Undercover. Of course, Undercover was not going to suit a lot of the food trucks at all.
But the moment of truth came and the decision was made to stay put… to go ahead with the open venue as it looked like there was to be a small window of respite.
What a grand decision. O.k. so the sun didn’t shine much, but did peep out on the odd occasion. Only once was there a small amount of rain for about 15 minutes mid-afternoon. But the rest of the time… Sweet! The Gods smiled.
I was wearing two hats that day – One for SAFE NZ and the other for The Vegan Society of N.Z. This made for good fun as I was able to go back and forth from one stall to the other.
Then there was the speech to deliver. Yes, I’ve spoken before, but it doesn’t make any difference as each time is different and I still am anxious that I will get a good reception. Luckily I had nothing to worry about, the seats were all taken, there was a mixture of vegans, vegetarians and omnivores and they all seemed to pay attention. Oh, and I did get applause at the end, so must have done something right.
I even managed to sell some of my books (always a bonus) and still can’t get my head around the fact that people wanted me to sign their copy.
Unfortunately, my anxiety was such that I didn’t really feel like eating and there I was surrounded by vegan food. I could have had anything that was edible on that site. I did manage a savoury scone with vegan butter. Funnily enough, I’d been with friends in a cafe the morning before and one had ordered a (not vegan) cheese scone with butter… the smell took me right back to my childhood kitchen and mum serving the very same thing. It was then I realised just how long it had been since I’d had a scone, possibly 30 years. Well, that vegan scone, with “butter” melting was AWESOME!
The guest speaker from the U.S.A. Kristin from Will Travel For Vegan Food was on after me and she had the crowd enthralled. I was lucky enough to talk to her privately – wow, what an adventure she is having. What started off as a couple of years in a small van around the U.S.A. with the intention of trying every vegan restaurant, has turned out to now be going around the world.
I’ll leave you with some more images. Remember, I’m not the best photographer in the world and it wasn’t as if it was all sunny. By the way, the photos don’t really show it – but there was a brilliant crowd all day.
And in case you don’t know – this was held in Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, New Zealand. Speaking to one of the organisers – they were that thrilled with the turnout, it’s going to be an annual event …. Bring it on!!!
p.s. – Sunday and guess what ….. it’s raining!!!!
The second – maybe not a “quirk” but quite delightful. I hang my bag on the kitchen door and Lily has discovered it. She rubs up against it, licks it and generally just hangs out by it. When she first started doing it I must admit I was a bit puzzled. Now I think I’ve got the answer. I have a small bottle of peppermint essence in there (wonderful for headaches) and I believe Lily can smell it. I’ve yet to have a headache, rub a dot on the temples and then get near her to test my theory.
Yesterday I moved out of the lovely home in Devonport road and went to stay with my fab friends overnight and, of course, their lovely dog, Scotty who I have got to know over the years.
