Let's do a low ropes course kids! It's great fun!

No post last night, as I was cream crackered after the weekend's activities, I had to go to bed! I was asleep before 8pm, and after 11 hours sleep, I still didn't want to get up this morning. Even now at 4.30, I still want to go and have a nice little nap in the corner somewhere!

But we must go on.

We'll get to the weekend in a moment, but first I would like to point out what an excellent job I made of parking my car the other day. For your viewing pleasure, I even took a photo! I reversed my car all the way back down this little bit of the car park, which is about 1 and a half car widths wide. I then swung around at the last minute, and ended parking the exact correct distance from the other parked car, and about 2 inches from the car behind. That's what I call artistic driving!

Car Parking as an art form: My park job of the week! (my car is the Champagne Gold colour...)

So, this weekend. In my usual busy-body manner, I ran a sleepover for the NTC cadets in Lancing. For the first time, I had planned an afternoon of activities before the sleepover to wear the kids out, all adventure education orientated (that is what I do at Uni Paul - I learn how to organise NTC trips...). I had three main activities planned, all of which took some setting up.

Three days before, I had gone walking around North Lancing, setting up a 'town trail/ treasure hunt' for the kids to follow. This was in the rain I might add. On the Saturday, Scott, my dad Tim, and I got to the woods, and were there for 3 hours setting up the activities in the woods. Having seen the forecast, we first set up a couple of shelters. Then we spent 90 minutes setting up a Low Ropes course. I of course tested the course out straight away for... Health and Safety reasons. Lastly, I got Dad to set up a 'Lead ropes course'. Basically just a piece of string running through the woods, that the kids will follow later blind folded.

Risk Assesments - the Adventure Education way! Yes that is as painful as it looks. Muppet.

Having left my TV and DVD player at home (which we would need later on in the evening), I fled home in the tRusty ol' Escort, and passed some very confused faces from Implacable (Littlehampton) on the way. We were meeting at 3.15, and there I was speeding in the opposite direction! So I turned up late, but despite the weather forecast, there were glorious blue skies, and sunshine above!

We marched up to the top of the hill, and we began the activities that had been set up. This might actually work. About half way through running the first session, with my Low Ropes group, I realised that I had forgotten something. So I left another officer in charge, and raced back to the car. As I rushed down the hill, blue skies above me, my eye caught sight of the biggest, blackest cloud you have even seen.

Just after 4pm, I got the stuff out of my car, and I felt a drop of water pat me on the head. 5 minutes later, I returned to the woods, mildly wet, to find 30 people huddled under the two shelters we had erected earlier. And the rain pretty much didn't stop for an hour and a half. Bugger.

The 'Town trail' group returned very wet, and in my eyes the whole afternoon was a ... (wait for it) ... wash out! (gettit?) Boom Boom.

At around 6, the rain stopped, so we cut eveything down, and got the kids back to the car park to the minibus. We loaded all the kit into Dad's car, and milled around the car park for a moment. Then, in the space of seconds, the temperature dropped, and it went from dry, to heavy rain, to hail the size of small dogs. Most of the cadets and officers were either on the minibus door side, or were in cars already. There was one cadet standing outside my car getting very wet. In the darkness I didn't see who they were (they may even have been a passer by I suppose...), but I literally threw them into my car to get them out of the hail.

The weather passed over, and the rest of the sleepover was a bit of an anti-climax, and actually went well (probably because I hadn't organised it). After a good 2 hours sleep (it may have been 2.5), I woke up, and started to get ready for our Regional Rifle Shooting Competition. At 7am on the dot (maybe as some sort of payback for keeping me awake all night) I linked my laptop into the Ship's (our Youth Hall anyway) Public address system, and played the Reveille at full volume! Very military. There were some very tired cadets that morning...

Lastly, the competition itself. I normally do okay, and last year I even won. This year I didn't. Now, I don't mind loosing, and I certainly don't mind being beaten by Stuart Ginnaw who is a very good shot. But what I can't fathome, is how my Commanding Officer, who is imfamous for missing the target more often than not beat me to come second! How did he do it? How much did he pay the scorers? Just before the last round, I knew that I needed to get 148 to beat him. So when I scored 146, and knew that I would loose to Brian Orchard but one point, I'm sure you can imagine how gutted I was.

Well done Brian. However you did it.

Just a last reminder, that you could write CATCOUK for a week or two in January whilst I am away with Univeristy. Yep, you've guessed it, we're being forced to go to Lanzarote! Leave a comment telling me that you would like to write it one week!

If you think that my parking is rubbish, why not leave a comment telling me how to park.

If you think my parking is brilliant, and wish you could drive as well as me, why not leave a message saying that your name is Ian Emery, and you'd like tips... (love you Abdulha!)