Urgh. Tired now. Just managed to get all the grime out. Car still unpacked, can’t face that yet.
An excellent weekend. Up on Friday, the morning after the Prodigy. Feeling tired. Took Jake up, chilled when got there and went the Masons with our guys, then back for beers. Excellent to see everyone, including the Lomas’ and Vollers.
The build went well on the Saturday. Our interpretation of the ‘wall’ took a while to get right, but it worked pretty well on the Saturday! Loads of stuff went up, in good time and without a hassle – nuff respect to all the Crew and other hands that we had helping out.
Out to the pub again on Sat evening, ate out there & then back for beers and bopping to Alibi. Well, not much bopping this time, was shattered and had a reasonably early evening.
Sunday was a manic one. Running our base in the aftern0on, so up at 8.30 for food at 9, then worked on the bases and preparing the finale for a few hours with the others. Quite a few had other appointments which had left us quite shorthanded, but hassling of people (over several hours) finally got us the right number to make it work. Weather was cracking, which didn’t really help – loads of people went off site to do their own thing as the conditions were so good. However, we got about 1/2 the amount of bodies that I was expecting.
When the time came, everything went to plan. Got 12 teams finally, walked them up there, and had an hour and a half of mayhem. No injuries that I’m aware of, though some peoples hair may actually now be rotten. From the hair sculptures to Garfields swim across the mire, through Jamie and His Magic Torch hurtling down hillsides on canoes …. it went very well. Lots of people buzzing, smiles all round, and only a few people getting arsey – a lot better than normal! We put a finale into this years as well which worked very well, but how the hell we didn’t get any split heads, dislocated arms or snapped legs I don’t know. Was definately one that I’ll risk assess differently in future! Worked really well though, came good in the end.
Big thanks from me have got to go to Ormskirk Crew and the others that helped out – particuarly Andy of no second name, who grafted like a trooper all weekend. Saying that, all of the team that helped out did. Also in particular to Ali D and Chris Prior for helping with the pre-event planning over several months, and Pamla who kept on coming up with stunningly good ideas all the way through the weekend. Although Sam and I used to have this down to a tee, I keep forgetting the stuff that we did year on year, and now lots of other people are starting to come up with the same stuff – which I’m very grateful for!
Sunday night was a big party after we’d dropped the kit, cleaned it, packed it away, nearly collapsed, lost all interest, and gone the pub. A few beers in, me and Mark said we’d go and get the fire prepped to catch everyone coming out of the Beild, see if we could get a big singalong going. Got building it, then bobbed back in for a beer. And then found Phil. Mr Emmott had a fantastic weekend of climbing, was a bit shattered and wanted to party the night away.
And so – to quote – he:
“unleashed the Gin Goblin”
And how. He was dancing like a, well, like a crazy maniac to be fair, and entertaining everyone. That then turned into a game of us spinning him round and taping him up, which was the process that took him over the edge. The next 1.5 hours are time I’ll never get back, but do include:
- The chaps from NE selling the Scout and Proud items who were a bit miffed that their stock now smelled of vomit
- More vom coming from Phils nose than his mouth – something my mind has never conceived of before
- Conversations about the relative merits of stomach pumps.
Great days Eddie, great days. Matt stayed in his room to check he was ok through the night, and Phil finally appeared at about mid-day today. In a generally bad way. Needless to say, we mocked. At length.
Drove back home, heavy traffic, crash in front of us that we didn’t see but blocked the outside lane of the M6. 2 cars, people stood round in road with traffic driving round. I pulled the bus over, and me, Mark and Jake got the people from the road to the hard shoulder, made sure that the coppers had been called and tried to chill and support everyone until the Traffic Officer came, blocked the M6 totally, tried to seperate the cars (failed) then told us to go before he let the traffic go again. Said byes to the family and the couple that were in the two cars, and hurtled onto the M6, with a completley empty carrigeway in front of us – at 1pm on Easter Monday! Very bizzare 
Back to the shed, unpacked kit, washed & dried it, then dropped trailer in Tarleton, Bus in Ormskirk, Car in Burscough and blagged lift to Ring of Bells for tea with the Crew from the weekend.
Lots of laughing, lots of fun times, utterly shattered. Bed.
Tags: Gin goblin
