I slept well, but woke with my right
elbow in some pain. I damaged it at Brighton Kite festival a couple of years
ago, and now any physical effort (like
yesterday’s gardening) sets it off. What with that elbow, the inflexible
bunion joint and the rheumatic metatarsals my entire right hand side is in
constant (if low-level) pain these
days. But (as always) I had a choice.
I could sulk about it and spend the day moping in self-pity, or I could get up
and get on with life.
I got up.
I hobbled downstairs; what was pain
eventually subsided to a dull ache. Over brekkie I had a look-see at the Stan Laurel archive. Over his life and
career the comedy genius Stan Laurel received thousands of letters from fans.
He replied to pretty much every single one. There is a project to compile all
the letters he wrote; it makes for interesting reading.
We took the dogs into the garden and fed
the fish. The new little fish seemed to be holding their own at feeding time.
We were mean with the amount of fish food we put in to the pond; the pond is (at the moment) clean and clear. Here’s
hoping it stays that way.
Pausing only briefly to drive over to
Willesborough to collect my car (I left
it there last night) we drove out to the Hop Farm at Paddock Wood. The Kent
Mega was taking place. A Mega-event is one of the biggest things that happen in
the geo-world; there’s probably less than a dozen happen in the UK every year,
and we are rather lucky to have one within an hour’s drive of home.
We arrived and met Karl and Tracey in
the car park. We walked the short distance into the Hop Farm and were soon
chatting with friends. Pretty much everyone in the geo-world was there today
and whilst the ladies went into the building to have a look at the various
stalls I stayed outside with Karl and the dogs and chatted with loads of
friends.
We then did a dog-swap (dogs weren’t allowed inside the buildings)
and left the ladies with the dogs whilst we looked at the stalls. I won three
caches on the tombola, and then bought some raffle tickets and some bisons and
stuff, then we wandered over to play on the lab caches.
Lab caches are great fun – a serious bit
of silliness. We played counting crayons, and bursting balloons. We dived in
ball ponds with frogs and waved at E.T. flying through the trees. We played
with the Three Little Pigs, and with Wall-E. We even saw Inspector Gadget (My contribution to the event was that I’d
supplied Inspector Gadget’s coat). The people who’d created the Lab Caches
had clearly put a *lot* of effort
into making them. Lab caches are fun; it is a shame they are so few and far between.
In six years and eight thousand finds I’ve only come across forty-one of the
things.
We had a spot of lunch from the burger
van. For all that the event had been really well organised it was a shame that
the Hop Farm people couldn’t have sorted out their catering. One van wasn’t
enough for a thousand punters. But with a burger scoffed we teamed up with
another friend and half a dozen of us went for a little walk. You can’t go to a
caching event and not walk.
As we walked Fudge was looking longingly
at the water in the river. It looked clean but he seemed reluctant to go in. So
I gave him a little shove. Then I saw why he was reluctant to go in; he couldn’t
get out again. I nearly (but not quite)
fell in trying to retrieve him from the water.
My dog then took his revenge for being
pushed in; having come out of the water dripping wet he then rolled in dust,
mud and fox poo. He’d never been so filthy.
As we walked my phone beeped; a text
message. I’d won something in the raffle. We finished our walk and made our way
back to the raffle stall. I’d won a collectible coin, Karl had won something similar,
and Tracey had won a truly awful toiletry set.
We then adjourned to the nearby pub to
celebrate our fortune.
Karl and Tracey then had to go home; teenage
daughters needed to be taxi-ed here, there and thither. We said our goodbyes
and then walked across to the camping field; we had an invitation to dinner
with the campers. More friends to chat with. When we arrived at the camp site I
rather wished we’d camped out too. It was a beautiful evening, and a beautiful
location. But as time wore on I was glad we were going home. It was rather
cold; too cold to be in a tent overnight.
We came home; the dogs slept as we
drove. We’d all had a rather busy day. Mega Day was a good day…
There are
photos of the fun here.
No comments:
Post a Comment