Summer Camp 2009

Even the teddies get pissed ..

We soldier on, us stalwarts, now 12 years before the mast at Summer Camp. It’s a miracle we survive, really. There was a poignancy to it this year, as two couples in our gang of such great friends are moving to New Zealand, and we will all miss them so much …

This year’s involved, amongst other things

• Budley and his little purple ukulele (no, not a euphimism). This encouraged several of the iPhone users amongst the attendees to download the ukulele app from the iPhone store, and attempt to emulate UOGB. Not that successfuly, sadly
• a trip to the cash and carry on Friday, involving Geoff, Budley, Stick, Charlton and self. The trolley was piled high with all manner of things, all of them extremely unhealthy, save for a small pack of sweetcorns, to ensure we had a balanced diet
• Lots of camp (not that sort) cooking in my Huge Wok, which I shall write up later on my food blog
• Rain. And thunder, lightening, fog, wind, and other seasonal August Bank Holiday weather. Thankfully and mysteriously, Saturday stayed dry and the sun even shone for a bit, which was nice. As for the rest – moist.
• Dark ‘n’ Stormies; dark rum poured over fiery ginger beer. We got through three bottles of rum, and some of us were very merry indeed. I blame the dark ‘n’ stormies for …
• Dancing. Oh yes. This is a new departure for TWSC and at least one of our number was Very Grumpy Indeed about the choice of music. But we wanted to dance, and so we did. There was a lot of Abba, I recall. And “It’s Raining Men”, and a great many other cheesy but great party tracks. We must thank Leslie for this – a TWSC virgin, as it were, he took his iPhone into the music man’s van and took over, and I’m very glad he did. A fab time was had by all. Most of us were really quite pissed, of course, but never mind. There are photos, and even video (ohmigod) but I’m not telling you where. Obviously. The sight of a bunch of rufty tufty bikers doing Agadoo will haunt me for years.

And that was it. Another wonderful weekend, despite the weather ghod’s little jokes. And I was reminded, yet again, how lucky perlmonger and I are with our friends who, discovering that we are going through a difficult time (more to follow), rallied round in a way that left me tearful.

As always, my favourite weekend of the year – thanks, guys.