Droitwich - October 1995

Many of you may not have realised this but the go-ahead for the Droitwich weekend
didn't happen until the week before the camp.  On Friday Jen and I picked up the
piling hammer on route, squeezing it into an already overladen 'FCU' to join the
tirfor, generator and chainsaw.  It's a good job 'big brother' at Tosh. don't know
what really happens to their cars!  If Stev0 had decided to make it he would have
found the roof rack very accommodating.  Greg met us at his lunch time - 3pm -
which is everyone's lunchtime isn't it?  In the last few hours Greg and I cleared
the piling site while Jen took Anne on a mega-shop.  To the railway for many pints
of Ped, we returned to find the car park full of cars.  Catering kit was stretched
to more than capacity on Saturday - meant for 10 had to deal with 25, more shopping
this time for plates and cutlery - thankyou Andrew.

Work-wise we split into two groups on Saturday.  The piling team and the scrub 
bashing come lock gate paint team.  By the afternoon most of the jobs were looking 
pretty well finished with the painters getting more on themselves (and Alex 'new 
wellies') than the gates.  Ian was kept busy with a couple of trips to casualty - 
a place he knows well himself.

After a fantastic meal cooked by Anne and Anne (Greg's Mom) the evening was, by way 
of chance, at the Railway.  What is it about the strength of their beer, and where 
does Ralphy put 13 pints of Ped, a chaser and a carry out litre of beer.  On return 
to the hall I conceded and passed out to awake rather uncomfortably with the 
football boot scraper and two fire extinguishers in bed with me - not what I would 
have had in mind; thankfully Ralph was too pissed to set them off (what, the 
football boot scraper? - Ed).

Sunday went much the same way as Saturday but only worse.  The compressor wouldn't 
start so the starter had to be removed.  We finally got hold of a piling attachment 
for a breaker; and broke that (which caused my trip to casualty) and Nel put the 
nice shiny new dumper in the ditch - O.K. it wasn't his fault but at least it's 
shut him up about the M6 incident.  The extraction of the dumper was more of a 
problem, it was getting dark.  Luckily we had the tirfor and the lights from Chris 
Spencer's car!  We finally got it out (hmmm!) at about seven-ish.  For some reason 
all the warning lights were on and some of them stayed on!  Thankfully nothing was 
dented and the machine was driven off the field ready for collection.

All in all another good weekend with a really great turnout.

P.S. a warning to all you who are tempted by a Balti at Nel's after a dig...
Ralphy tried this then drove home to Portsmouth, he was a little tired so stopped 
for another meal on the way to wake up and then crashed his car, 2 miles from home, 
at 70 mph into a 'crash' barrier.  It was suggested this was due to the after 
effects of the Balti - surely not!