14.07.08
Can you tell me how to get….
…how to get to Honeystreet?
A nice small event this weekend.
Lynne had booked us a space at a camping site/pub in Wiltshire.
I decided to head down there a while back but no-one up here wanted to go. Ah stuff ‘em.
I went via rural Oxfordshire to pick Tom up at his folks’ place. But first I had to get past Coventry. Bloody nightmare. The trip, according to google maps should be 1hr 45mins. I left work at 5.30 and got to Tom’s at 8.15ish. Annoyed by the drive but his ma perked me up no end with her rather lovely dinner she’d made for me. Star.
Anyway we left around 9pm for the site. Google said it was in a place called Pewsey. So we went there. Drove around a while. Found no venue.
Turns out that the place is miles away from Pewsey and by now it was dark so we had to keep asking people in pubs. So a 2hr and a bit trip (according to google) took me from 5.30 ’til 11.15 with a short stop for food.
I’d decided before heading that I was going to sleep in my car, Tom had brought his huge 3 man tent to kip in.
Once set up we wandered back into the pub only to find they’d just called time. So back to the tents for chat before sleeping.
Saturday was a great day of doing very little. There are a few places of interest around the area but a short towpath walk was pretty much all that we worked our way into bothering with. We met some interested cows and failed to find a memorial and that was that.
The rest of Saturday passed in a blaze of apathy, chatting and board games. Lynne thrashed me at Scrabble and introduced us to Saboteur which was quite a nifty little card based thing. I did spend a little time outlining the game Chain Reaction which led to some “ooh that sounds good” comments. It does need to come to Germany with us.
The pub was ok. The beer was varied and the people friendly. The campsite was also hosting a small gathering of bikers. They were nice enough and seemed to spend their days standing in circles nattering. It was noticeable that their numbers were split into geeks and others just like the jugglers. Interesting to see the same sorts of behaviour from a group into something totally different.
I’d not taken much food as I was expecting to eat in the pub for most meals. I had a nice piece of chicken s my first meal. It came with “baby new potatoes”; actually there were 4. 4 tiny ones. Mandy had some fish and also had 4 tiny potatoes. We both OD’d on carbs that day.
Later on I plumped for the steak and was really looking forward to it.
Hopes dashed when it arrived. Firstly it looked grey and unloved. Secondly it smelled of shit.
NB NOT smelled “like” shit meaning it just smelled bad. But it actually did smell “of” shit. Really unpleasant.
But I tried 2 mouthfuls before giving up. Not impressed but Tom pretty much finished it despite the smell. Ah the desperation of students.
So no more food at that pub for me.
Saturday was spent around a small barbecue that Tarim and Kate had brought. Lots of alcohol drunk and a few hours of silly jokes and that. One moment I’ll remember for a while was Void starting a “I’m just saying punchlines” bit and Tom immediately answered with “There are 20 of them”, confusing everyone but giving me a fine laugh.
I shall remain proud of the worst pun I have ever made which had the group groaning. I liked it and it got me a salute. And in my drunk state it had me giggling for about an hour. One of my finer japes. But it won’t work out of context so you’ll all just have to imagine.
Sunday was more sitting around until people started packing up. Some of your actual juggling went on too.
Near us in the campsite were a lovely dutch family and we spent a while playing with their older child. He spent his time believing himself to the “ballboy” at a game of volleyclub, or a saboteur to all jugglers by throwing a spare prop at them when they were practising etc. He was alright but a bit of a pain on the Sunday. Most weird of all though was that he was the exact image of the feral kid from Mad Max 2.
And then we went home, via some canal locks. And that was that.
There were only just over a dozen folk there and all were lovely. A nice and relaxing way to spend a weekend despite the hellish journey. Homewards took about the right time despite having to leave the M40 early due to horrific delays around my preferred exit.
Photos taken and here (hopefully they’ll meet tehVoidz minimum standards).
Grand weekend.
Ta to all who chatted and played.
Have fun.