Chilton Wanderers

See this? It's a 1989 2p piece.

Ah yes 1989, now that was a year. It was the year when I first met my old friends Hastings, John, Liam, Perry, Bish and Rich. We were all attending the same church. Today - 24 years later - we've all gone our separate ways, geographically and philosophically. (ironically I think I've gone the furthest, but then come back again)

However once or twice a year we all still make a point of getting together for a weekend of walking, eating, drinking and generally catching up, in any order.

Last Friday was no different. Perry and I drove up to a couple of apartments I'd rented in Chilton, where we met Bish and Liam, and proceeded to muck about doing jigsaws and the like until Hastings, John and Rich could join us that evening.

So why the 2p piece above? Well somehow the topic of conversation came around to the urban legend that Coke is so bad for your health that it will rot a coin left in it overnight. None of us had ever bothered to find out whether or not this was true. This weekend seemed like a good opportunity, so I procured the required can of acid from the drinks machine outside, selected the above coin from my wallet, photographed it on Liam's phone, and plopped it in.

Disappointingly, it didn't initially add any fizz.

However by the end of the weekend, would there be anything left of it? Would it have dissolved, or turned our apparatus to copper? Were we in fact breaking some ancient alchemical British law by applying acid to an image of the Queen's head?

There would be quite a wait to find out. We decided we'd better fill in the time by doing some walking.

Etc.

Finally, come Sunday lunchtime, we found ourselves saying our usual good byes over a pub lunch in Goring (South of England Village of the Year 2009/2010 - it's on the signpost). By this point I had retrieved the 2p coin earlier in the morning. Well, I had retrieved what was left of it.

The conclusion: After about 34 hours submerged in a glass of Coke, the coin remained intact, robust, and inarguably acceptable as legal tender. I assume the glass was fit for reuse too.

But, blimey, even despite the better lighting at the pub, it didn't half look cleaner...

Before:

After:

If I'm honest, my only reason for doubting the popular outcome was because I had read it online. In light of that, I don't blame you if you disbelieve our findings above.

Happy Meal Cranium

This game is rather a lot like regular Cranium, but with only a dozen possible answers.

As a result, it's just not as playable as its parent game, given how after one session everyone present will remember the 12 answers. (unless maybe further sets contain additional cards?) It's far more fun to just keep on pretending to not know them... especially if its a 'Star Performer' round! It is a good sampler for the bigger version though.

However the best thing about this game would have to be just how little it cost me. Nothing. Not even the cost of a McDonald's meal. I came across it in the gutter outside where I live, apparently suffering from some light tyre damage.

I guess its previous owner had been happy enough with just the meal.

Pathfinder

It's a lot like Battleships, but with a maze.

Basically you each hide a yellow person on one of the 36 orange squares in your respective grid, and then construct a 6x6 maze around them through which the other player has to blindly search. I say 'blindly', because your opponent cannot see your maze, and has to slowly construct their own copy of it as the game progresses. Like hide-and-seek, whichever one of you lasts the longest without being found wins.

Herschel and I played several games of this this evening, during which I found the best thing about it to be that it's a two-player game, and therefore we didn't have to include Elmo. (who would have been laughing all the way to the champion's podium)

This is the point in the post when I would normally include a link to where you can buy a copy for yourself, but I think it would be more in the spirit of the game to just let you find your own way there...

Vacances en Vendée: Day #7 of 11 - SunDay Service

Yesterday was Sunday.

Our 1,100-bed holiday camp still contains a total population of four guests.

Well, you'll never guess what they had on the agenda for all four of us to do today...

Yes, you did read that right - a church service, and a 'Street Party'!

I have to admit, I was rather looking forward to this. Heckling the preacher seemed like it would be a less risky option than usual. The Peace ought to go a lot less awkwardly. And at the subsequent campus-wide Street Party, for the first time in my life, I would actually stand a chance of winning any apple-bobbing contests.

In the event however... whu? Where did all these people come from???

It turns out that since this Christian holiday camp holds a church service every Sunday morning, there's a whole bunch of locals from the surrounding area who like to regularly attend it. As a result this morning Tim found himself leading a communion congregation of 16 including staff and significant others - a figure arguably unheard of since Mum and I's arrival almost a week ago. I wonder if their cel group(s) are even larger?

Afterwards the Street Party became more realistically just a bunch of us lounging around having dinner in the gorgeous sunshine. For much of the past week there really has been not a cloud in sight and this afternoon, well, such a deep blue sky really could not be wasted when just beneath it was...

... the camp swimming pool!

Oh the heating may have got turned off on Friday, but fortunately no-one had thought to do the same with the sun. It was time to splash, bounce and generally get our hair wet, before retiring to some actual loungers for some strawberry chocolate meringue Cornettos!

Afterwards we returned to our regular cabin and attire for another game of Scrabble out the front (very slow - so many vowels went early on), and then after tea a short walk beneath the still-cloudless starry sky.

An ideal way for the camp's official summer 2013 holiday season to end.

Come this morning, our neighbours Philip and Annette at number 89 bade us farewell to continue their European journey home. Although the holiday camp is now officially closed, Mum and I have booked our cabin privately for a further three nights until Thursday. We seem to still have the run of the site, despite the bar no longer being available to specially cook dinner for us each day.

Not that I think we need it. For this morning, before they left, Philip and Annette were kind enough to donate all their spare food to us!

(Day 1: Lost In France here)
(Day 2: Culture Shop! here)
(Day 3: France Plants here)
(Day 4: All Alone On The Site here)
(Day 5: The Haunting Of Cabin 88 here)
(Day 6: Saint-Gilles-Croix-De-Vie here)
(Day 8: C'est La Vie here)
(Day 9: Olonne Sea here)
(Day 10: Camp Sights here)
(Day 11: Nantes Jaunt here)

Vacances en Vendée: Day #4 of 11 - All Alone On The Site

What goes on in a holiday camp when it's empty?

Yesterday, for the first time, Mum and I actually made it to the campsite's morning Bible study meeting.

The speaker - Tim - was talking about the book of Exodus, and the Torah came across as a favourite topic of his. Among other things he contended that God's long-winded and detailed instructions for the building of the tabernacle were a means of promoting the builders' diligence toward Him.

There were about seven of us present, all but two of whom completed their holiday straight afterwards.

Seriously, when Tim had finished, all of the guests except us left and went home. All of them. Apparently the spectre of Mum and I's potentially attending tomorrow's Bible study as well proved that much of a demotivator for them.

So, alone in a desolate campsite that normally has a capacity of 1,100, I suppose Mum and I should really have run amok all over the grounds, taken advantage of the more expensive accommodation's facilities, and generally played football wherever we shouldn't.

In practice though, we just went out the front of our cabin, and set up our Scrabble board.

Well, it was sunny.

Come afternoon though, then it was definitely time to explore unknown territory, and see what we could find!





There's an old ministry proverb that says 'Never call anything off due to lack of numbers.' Bearing this in mind, I have to say how impressed I am with the camp's work ethic here. All day long, the swimming pool remained heated, just in case we feel like a dip. The little shop remained open, just in case we feel like buying a postcard. The following morning the daily Bible study was still run, just in case we felt like getting up in time again.

Which we did.

However after today's more personal exploration from Tim (touching upon how God reveals his character), our decadent bubble was burst. New guests would be arriving today, enough of them to actually double the site's holidaymaking population. Our fun was curtailed, but we knew exactly what to do.

At lunchtime we went into the deserted bar to order 'this week's special' (scrambled tomato omelette), and then afterwards we sat in the bookshop playing Scrabble. (this time with the camp's own set, which was missing a G, which changes everythin)

Presently, Philip and Annette would of course become great neighbours (next door at no. 89), so long at they didn't mind the pool having now had its heating turned off due to lack of use.

Perhaps we should have played a game of Scrabble in there.

(Day 1: Lost In France here)
(Day 2: Culture Shop! here)
(Day 3: France Plants here)
(Day 5: The Haunting Of Cabin 88 here)
(Day 6: Saint-Gilles-Croix-De-Vie here)
(Day 7: SunDay Service here)
(Day 8: C'est La Vie here)
(Day 9: Olonne Sea here)
(Day 10: Camp Sights here)
(Day 11: Nantes Jaunt here)

Jumanji (1995 film)

Children's horror comedy that has no doubt been responsible many a nightmare since 1995.

Instead of being a nice safe board game, Jumanji keeps throwing all manner of malevolent real-life dangers our young players' way - from fierce jungle animals to natural disasters to never seeing your parents again - and it all begins its smashing within the delicate safety of the kids' home.

Worse, when each challenge is escaped, it still never really goes away. The result is a town outside the window that is becoming increasingly ravaged by earthquakes, swarms of poisonous wasps, and fast-growing flesh-eating plant life.

Oh, and a big game hunter called Van Pelt, but he's one of the movie's comic reliefs. The sequence where they all fight back at him using whatever's on sale at the local supermarket is just like watching a Home Alone short. (yes, I'm pulling that face now...)

There is danger almost all the way through this one, ramped up considerably by there being no corporeal intelligence to bargain with at the centre of it all. Had this been an episode of Doctor Who, then you can bet the evil game's box would have presently begun bragging out loud about its plans, and laughing. Long, and heartily.

There are a few moments where a needed explanation appears to have been cut, but these seem to me to be minor. I'm thinking of the (lone) cop who almost runs Alan over but then tries to arrest him (!), the medics who vanish when bugs attack the car, and why on Earth Sarah agrees to play the game again. But hey, maybe that was just the Moviemix channel deciding to drop some lines for time.

Jumanji is a well-made epic ride, and all the more impressive for pulling together so many different genres. For the most part I found it very well thought through, and although many of the effects have not dated terribly well, the conviction of the whole cast ensure that they have lost nothing of their dread-factor.

But really, don't throw the game away, just burn it already.

This afternoon, somewhere beyond the bottom of our garden, I could hear a drum kit beating away.

I've always assumed that sort of thing to merely be a neighbour playing around with an actual drum kit, but now... (shudder)...

(Available here. Don't buy the wrong product.)

Bere Regis and Wareham

After the big 26km walk around Affpuddle yesterday, today was all about doing some serious slouching.

We began our slouching in Bere Regis:

When we didn't find much to slouch around there, we quickly motored across to embark upon a wearing circuit of Wareham instead, which I found picturesque.

To prove which, here are some pictures...

And so home.

Affpuddle Muddle

It was about time for another day out walking with the lads, specifically Perry, Rich, Bish, Hastings, Goodwin and Liam. (John who?) This time we had rented a place in Affpuddle. Photos covering our 26km odyssey follow.

So, in summary:

There was another 7km after this - going back and forth between the pub and home - but all in all a thoroughly good day's walking.

What happened next? Bere Regis and Wareham!