Tuesday 27 October 2009

Turn-on, Tune-in, Drop Out










If I could be transported back in time I'd choose the period 1969-1973. Woodstock, the first ever Glastonbury festival , Biba, Granny Takes a Trip, Oz Clarke, The Magic Bus, The Rolling Stones, Mamas and the Papas, The Who......what wasn't there to love about the "Age of Aquarius"?

To make up for the fact I was born too late I live as a twenty-first century hippy. I'm a vegetarian, yoga-practicing, peace lover. I love the smell of patchouli oil and burning incense. I spend the winter months bumming around India, lodging in cheap guesthouses, haggling for silk dresses in street markets and meditating under palm trees listening to the Arabian sea lapping the shore. In goa we often meet the guys who did the overland trail in the 1960's, often teaching yoga and always with a tale to tell.

Every spare penny is spent on travelling to festivals around the UK in Gilbert, the trusty VW camper, enjoying good company and great company. We grow our own veggies, bake bread and keep warm by wood burning stoves. When it's a warm evening we think nothing of pitching a tent and sleeping under the stars.

I've never had a credit card, preferring to deal in cash. I have eschewed the traditional expectations placed upon me by not working in a 9-5 , four-weeks -of -freedom -a -year job, never marrying or having kids.

I love the floppy hats, psychedelic prints, silk scarves, flowing dresses and voluminous sleeves of the age and hunt for them at every opportunity. Knowing one of my dresses was worn to see Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival fills me with immense pleasure.

My hippie heroes include Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Grace Slick, Michael Lang, William S Burroughs, Gandhi, Arlo Guthrie, Jack Kerouac, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Mahesh Maresh Yogi, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley, Ravi Shankar, Carly Simon, Andy Warhol, Frank Zappa and Matthew Wright.

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Lots of love, Vix