Escape from Brighton!

Hello all. First things first, did Ernie pass his MOT? Well, yes. The second time... It didn't go entirely well, but as always, Ernie knew I was skint, so he cost less than £200 (which is less than the £400 I feared). However, the magic man, at the magic garage, spent many an hour with Ernie, but just could not get the engine fixed. So, currently, I have a road legal car, but with a very poorly engine.

Yet another busy weekend for me, courtesy of the NTC. Except, and most bizarrely, my unit (the mighty TS Intrepid) didn't do anything! What's going on? Well, I love camping, and generally taking young people away for the weekend, and leading lots of great activities for them. So when another unit was in trouble, and their camp was on the brink of cancellation, I stepped in to lend a hand.

I have to say, although I have never really met the cadets of TS Zealous before (or indeed had anything to do with the unit), it's good to know that the NTC is the same all over. The same level of general silliness, the level of pride, and of course the cadets. As with all new groups, I was afraid that I would end up spending the weekend with 15 horribly behaved cadets, but they were great - I don't think there were any serious arguments. Well done.

Of course, the camp was going to be cancelled, but my friend Natalie stepped in, and organised this camp in the last few weeks. If that's not hard enough, she's never organised a camp before in her life! Other than one slight slip-up, the camp went off without a hitch, and I don't think anyone could have done much better with what we had. And what we had wasn't much...

I should firstly say that I'm intending to do a camp there with Intrepid in August, and that the campsite itself is fantastic. But the prices, and the facilities, and the organisation... a little suspect. Zealous hired the building there (which wasn't Natalie's choice, but it had already been booked by another officer), and the buildings cost an astronomical £175 a night! In the real world, for what we got is not much, but in comparison to any other place that I have hired is ridiculously expensive. There isn't a single person that I have spoken to that thought this was reasonable (even if that includes the bunk house).

So, having paid 5 star prices for this Hilton Hotel, what did we get? A only just maintained building, with features like: some of heaters hanging off of the wall, a sinking wooden floor, doors that don't close. Even cheakier than that, but even after paying that massive price, we still have to put money in the meter for hot water and showers! Are they kidding? Then to add insult to injury, we bought 10 orienteering maps at £1 each, to get 10 black & white photocopied maps, that probably cost 5p to make. They weren't even laminated!

Finally, just to really mess with us, we booked a caving session, and were told that we would have to get trained on it. It would either be a Tuesday or a Wednesday before, or most likely the Saturday of the camp. They'd let us know. By the day before, we hadn't heard anything, so that would be chased up. I didn't hear anything back, until the Saturday morning, when we happened to see someone by chance, who then found out that the caving man wasn't coming. Overall, not great.

But the actual campsite, the woods, and the activity facilities are great. The camp is clearly run be the older Scout people, and I'm sure that they are all volunteers, and they look understaffed. So I can't complain too much, but I was really disappointed. Intrepid will be going there, and we'll be camping in tents, which is only slightly more expensive than other Scout campsites. We'll have a great time (especially if we can get the caving organise...).

Anyways, what does the title mean this week? Well, the unit I was with are from Brighton, specifically Hollingbury. I dropped all the cadets kit of (with Ernie and Bernie). I then offered to drop some of the other adults off in Whitehawk, on the otherside of the city. Maybe a 15 minute job at most? Not this weekend - it was the big London to Brighton bike ride! Bloomin' bikes - half of the roads are closed, the other half are under strict traffic control from plastic police people.

30 minutes later, I dropped Pip and Lewis off at home. Not wishing to drive through the centre of Brighton, and home being in the opposite direction, I decided to go around the outskirts of Brighton, and go out via Woodingdean. I pulled onto the road, and was greeted with miles of traffic. A quick U-turn (not as easy with a traier), and I had to brave it through Brighton. But I decided to use the backstreets...

I phoned dad (being Father's Day, and wishing to apologise for being late home), and explained that I would, somehow, somewhere over the rainbow, escape from Brighton to get home. Eventually...

Several wrong turns, and U-turns later, I was on the Lewis Road. Heading in the wrong direction (ish), but I would soon be back on the main road (A27). I got the road that heads to the A27, and it was closed for the chuffin' bikes! So I had to keep going (in the wrong direction), until I got on the A27 - in the wrong direction. But that's alright, I'll just turn around on the Woodingdean flyover junction.

No - full of traffic - I has to drive 5 miles, in the wrong direction, until I reached the roundabout at Lewis. What should have taken about 45 minutes to get through Brighton, took over and hour and a half!!!

Anyways, I am now home, a successful camp done, and another very tired me... Goodnight!

PS - sneekily, Top Gear have started a new series. I didn't know (maybe because I never see the TV anymore) - so if you didn't either, check it out on BBC iPlayer - www.bbbc.co.uk/iplayer. I kid you not, they reveal who The Stig is!!!