We arrived at the scout site mid morning; the marquee was already up and electric supply all in place. Dave and Shirley along with Jim and George had been busy. With the new lights, new urn and new tables the SLAC Rally had gone all upmarket.
There were quite a few arrivals on the Thursday so Dave and helpers collected a large load of pallets for the bonfire. Once set up we unloaded the pumpkins and tins of soup as Tri-Anglia Wheels had volunteered to run the soup kitchen on the Saturday evening. Lesley went out for supplies while I sorted a few things out. Thursday evening was spent around the bonfire and I made mulled wine for all.
Friday morning and top of the list for Lesley was to go and pick up Rebo, which she arranged on the Thursday after finding out his Outfit was still off the road. The weather was a little dreary but many took a stroll into the metropolis of March. Dave and Shirley did a fish and chip run in the evening and they were much better fish and chips than the summer rally.
The bonfire wouldn’t play ball on the Friday evening, with the smoke changing its mind in which direction it was going to head, but at least it kept some active moving back and forth.
It rained overnight and was still raining in the morning when Dickie packed up as he was on standby over the weekend. Len and Helen also decided to depart on the Saturday due to a little puddle in their combi camp. By mid afternoon time it brightened up and the children, some of them in fancy dress carved their pumpkins.
The ever popular soup kitchen went down well, with 5 varieties of soup to choose from served with French bread. Dave had rigged up two double burner gas rings which worked a treat and along with my helpers, Ann, Pearl, Lesley, Rebo and Mick it went smooth as clockwork.
Once the washing up had been done, it was time to relax around the bonfire. I lit a small fire with some old briquettes to cook some jacket potatoes, these were for the Tri-Anglia Wheels members as I had promised them some for helping out with the soup kitchen.
There were a few odd spots of rain but nothing much, people drifted off to bed and by midnight there was only a small group left. Then Dickie turned up to get a cupper having been out on a call out just up the road. Jack, John, Mark and Norton returned from the pub, with Norton looking like Mr Happy. I don’t think we went to bed until 2:30 / 3 o’clock time Sunday morning, mind you it was a cracking bonfire.
Sunday and the gales had arrived along with the promised rain; it was wet packing up but after such a good weekend it didn’t seem to matter. All hands on deck to help with the marquee etc due to the wind, mind you we could have just untied the ropes and it would have ended up in Dave’s back garden all on its own. Lesley took Rebo back home and with a diversion to boot it was a little longer and a very wet ride.
Thanks must go to Dave and Shirley who just about got everything there and sorted with the help of Jim and George. The dates are in for the SLAC 2010 events, keep a look out as they will be in the Outlook.
Martyn