So, previously I may have managed I found satnavs a little
annoying. However I am now a through convert as without tap dances satnav I
would have got thoroughly, thoroughly lost so many times over the weekend.
Although I did have a little minor panic when trying to
leave the B&B when the satnav decided to go off on a trip all by itself.
Seriously, I’m not kidding. It was showing movement on the screen and giving
directions like I was on the isle of Wight. With nothing else to try I decided
on the only option I could think of, an in depth technical IT based solution.
I turned it off and on again.
Seriously I’m not
kidding. I turned it off and on again and boom it was working fine.
Well at least until I got to poole at which point it started
to get a little confused based on the postcode the organisers had provided
leaving me feeling a little nervous.
However whilst going round a roundabout I suddenly noticed
what looked like a whole lot of coaches off to one side and critically two open
topped coaches. Now why was this critical I hear you ask? Well I knew that for
the nights first activity we would be travelling by open topped bus to a themed
dance.
I’ll say that again, in one of the wettest summers we had
for years we would be travelling by opened topped buses. So fairly safe in the knowledge that it was likely to be the
right place as let’s face it the only people going on these buses would either
be mormons or really drunk.
Fortunately I was right and it was the right place. So after
registering ( and getting really rather nifty wristband inscribed with the
theme “Swifter, Higher, Stronger” I climbed onboard one of the buses. Now I’ll
admit I was feeling a little nervous at this point and I wasn’t recognising anyone
either by sight let alone name. But I didn’t have to worry. It must have only
taken 30 seconds from sitting down until I felt a sudden tap on my shoulder and
a friendly hand appear in greeting.
Then suddenly the man, the myth, the legend that is, was and
only will ever be ( hope that’s a good enough build up for him) Fraggle was
there. Although in his typical fraggle
style it was more like we had only seen each other the week before not the way
too long span it had been.
After accounting for MMT ( mormon mean time of course : - )
the buses set out and unfortunately it did start to rain but I had managed to
bag a good seat and our bus had a covered bit at the front so I had bagged a
seat outside but just in front of the covered bit that meant I got the benefit
of the cover but all the benefits of being outside.
Those on the back row were not quite so lucky and were
getting a bit wet. But the organisers anticipating these had given out a large
number of free plastic ponchos. Easily solved right? Well not quite, have you
ever considering the difficulties of getting a plastic cover over your head
whilst on a open topped bus whilst travelling along a motorway? Especially with
the girls in question up against a “wall” at the end of the bus?
The expression shrink wrapped springs to mind to describe
the end result. It must have made a strange sight to anyone passing by, a open
topped bus in the rain with lots of brightly coloured plastics ponchos flying
about, with gales of laughter but not a bottle of booze in sight.
The dance was fantastic, even if the main food on offer was
not especially to my liking. Fortunately there were hot dogs.
Fraggle was a definite help all evening introducing myself
to people as it was more his stomping ground than mine but it was one of the
best dances I had been too in sometime. In fact I even danced.
Yes, I’m sure long term readers have read that with a double
take. He danced??? Saxon DANCED???!!!!
Yes, ole mr “ I danced the way the incredible hulk walks”
actually danced. I’m not sure who was more surprised, me or Fraggle.
Also putting in an appearance was Rec, a former student from
Leicester stake who had been studying law and own lives far down south. I’ll
admit she seemed to be a little surprised to find me there and let’s face it a
hour outside of Leicester would usually be a stretch for me, four hours would
be certainly unexpected.
When it was time to get back on the bus it was a sense of déjà
vu from work as the first thing everybody did was to take out their mobile
phones to try and update facebook! But
there was almost universal complaining as the location of the dance in what can
be described as the middle of nowhere meant we were not in a area with anything
approaching decent mobile phone coverage.
Yes, those areas still exist!
As you can imagine when we were disembarking from the buses
back in poole I could see one or two people in the area looking at the laughing,
happy, excited group of young people wondering where the booze was!
The trip back to the B&B was a little anti climatic to a
rather exciting day but I didn’t mind. So far everything was going well.
In fact in hindsight it was going fantastically but you know
me, sometimes the blindingly obvious takes time to sink in.
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