Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 January 1970 00:59:59
Hmmm..... how to summarise the last weekend in just a few words? Chaos? Frantic? Hysteria?
For any Non-Ship-of-Fools person who happens upon this wiblog, last weekend was when I was foolish enough to have 28, yes 28 Shipmates visiting my beloved Island for the WightMeet. When I first suggested it I thought about half a dozen of my closest ship friends would come. Idiot! I might have known it would snowball.
The first shipmate arrived on the Tuesday, the last left on the following Monday, so it worked out to be virtually a week all in all. The fortnight before was, necessarily, spent persuading my poor protesting body to get on and do some housework. I even cleaned most of the windows, although I gave up on the front door which still resolutely proclaims "Merry Christmas" in permanent snow.
Friday was the chaos of picking up four people from the boats. This seems a simple matter.. all arriving around lunchtime, all coming to either East or West Cowes.. which is fine until you realise that East and West Cowes are divided by a wide river and a ten mile drive... and that none of the four are actually on the boat that I expected them to be on... and that two of them don't have a mobile phone either. Interesting!
Most of the rest of the crowd appeared independently. Five were staying at my place (while I farmed the Smudgelets out to a gullible friend) and eighteen were staying on a houseboat we had hired on the creek - a wonderful venue.
Friday night was bowling at Ryde. That was good, although the skittles had a disconcerting habit of dodging when I was aiming for a strike. Also, my underwear had a disconcerting habit of glowing through my top (specially made, with my avatar and ship name on it) once the ultra-violet lights were turned on. If I'd been lucky it would have distracted my fellow bowlers enough for me to win, but no, it made no difference to my pathetic score.
Highlight of Friday night had to be Pip getting stopped by the police for getting confused by Ryde's horrendous one-way system. The funniest thing is, there's quite a standing joke on the Island about the rarity of seeing a policeman here. I once rang up to report a theft and was told it was out of hours!
Saturday started a bit frantic as I had a phone call to say that Tiddles was unwell. It set us back a bit as I did not want to leave the house until he came home and I could see for myself how ill he was. THis resulted in the trip to the beach being a bit rushed, but it was lovely anyway. I have a secret, hidden beach which few people except the locals know about. It is in danger of being developed, unfortunately, but at the moment it is like a desert island beach.... although on Saturday morning it was a crowded desert island! Sophs and JN went in the water.... although JN didn't stay in many minutes!!!! Not exactly the Caribbean !!
Convoy to the Buddle in was fun. I only forgot I was leading once! Honest! We were running late so I wanted to make good progress, but that's not that easy with four cars on your tail...all driving like grockles. The funniest moment was when Annie's car, coming from the other side of the Island, suddenly joined the convoy......... at the front!
The meal was good and we had a room in the smuggler's inn all to ourselves. From there came the convoy journey which will go down for ever in my memory. Well, I _thought_ we had to turn right! Paul and Olorin had gone on ahead and they had turned right too, so when we saw them passing the other way, we had a good laugh at their mistake. A mile or so up the road, the penny dropped. Ever seen a convoy of five cars doing a three point turn in a residential street, as a sixth car, containing Paul and Olorin, goes whizzing past in the wrong direction having turned to follow us? I don't know, these grockles just don't appreciate being taken to see the view!
Blackgang Chine was wonderful. The weather was perfect and the company was.... well, suffice to say that the park is designed for children and the shipmates were very much at home there. It was a bit worrying that they were signed in as my "family", though! Will I ever be able to go there again? Photos in the Mouth of Hell, on the slides, onboard the smuggler's ship - battles with water pistols (thanks Olorin - I knew you'd end up splatting me one way or another, I suppose!) and cutlasses - Welsh Dragon screaming in Jon's ear all the way down the water slide, and Olorin battling with Erin in the jungle zone..... memories are made of this.
Saturday night, and a meal at the Baywatch restaurant. Looks like a beach cabin, but inside it is lovely. A bit of a scary toilet seat in the ladies, mind..... Fine if you don't mind lowering your backside onto two rather life-like spiders set into the toilet seat! The meal was fantastic. Best moment had to be when they brought Corfe's meal - bream complete with head and tail and a friendly grin!
Sunday was, for me, very special. My lad was baptised and we gave thanks for his adoption. He really did me proud, stood up straight and spoke out loud and clear, as did his brother. The tears were streaming down my face as we all made our promises. An incredible moment. And the congregation were wonderful - made everyone feel at home, and made Smudgelet feel very special.
Now everyone is asking when the next one will be. And the worrying thing is... so am I!