Another restless night, with the noise of rain on the tents, rain falling from trees onto my tent, and zips opening and closing. Following a call of nature I found myself opening the gate to the field at 6am. Perhaps too early to be opening the gate, but I was in the general vicinity of the gate at the time…
Following my ablutions I then dozed in our communal mess tent until everyone was up and about and brekky was served. And as more people arrived I played with my air-yo until lunch time. A bottle of stout with bread and cheese was perfect, and I then dozed for an hour or so. And then the rain had gone, and the wind had picked up a little, so we got out the power kites and played silly beggars with them. After all, is there anything that one can do with a power kite other than playing silly beggars? The Rear Admiral had a go at arsing, but went face first, and was proudly showing blood stains among the grass stains. And then my nephew learned how to fly his delta.
Twenty of us sat down for a wonderful bit of tea, and following washing up we watched the Old Gits playing with their spud gun. And then we wandered back to base camp for a crafty half. On the way back to base camp I was given a message – would I be gatekeeper again? So I locked up, and then……
As the evening wore on, so I got more and more tired, and so I sat and listened to the chat in between dozing. I could vaguely hear one of my nephew’s mates getting rather drunk and raucous and offensive. And then this lad was firmly put in his place. And then another nephew’s drunken mate made a complete tit of himself by trying to act as peacemaker when he should really have gone to bed. Perhaps I should have told the boys off there and then, but they’d been firmly told that they were out of order. And then the first drunken child started pissing in our mess tent. I saw red.
I’ve not actually shouted “Just F@*! Off!!!” at someone for over ten years (that time, it was my boss(!)), and perhaps my ranting and screaming at the drunken child at 2am wasn’t the most opportune time for me to have had a rant. But one of the advantages of being a (generally) amiable and easy-going kind of guy is that when I do have a screaming fit, people sit up and take notice.
I’ve told my nephew it’s entirely up to him to choose his friends, but that this particular friend is not welcome in our campsite again. Harsh? Perhaps.
Following this little bout of excitement the adrenaline was running, and I finally went to bed shortly after 3am.
No comments:
Post a Comment