BrainVomit - The Big Trip!

Well it's now Tuesday afternoon and I'm still aching from the weekend, it was amazing fun! I was skeptical at first given the dropouts and the way organisation slowly fell apart but when it came to it all of that disappeared.

Martyn was the first to arrive. I'd prepared him for the route with a postcode for google and some extra directions, but the first call I had he read out the numberplate of the car in front of where he was parked and a vague approximation of a road name. It took a brief few questions to work out he was in the middle of town centre and had gone wrong on the roundabout. I directed him back and kept watch from the window. A few minutes later and another call, he was literally down the road so I directed him to drive up and turn left just after the sold signs. Well, I watched from the window as he drove right on past and waited for the next call. This time I left nothing to chance so when he about turned to come back I was ready at the gate waving him in to the drive. Bless.

After a big hug greeting we came inside to play a few games while we awaited the arrival of others. Worms was the simplest choice so we fired it up to play a couple of rounds. I won the first 2 round set, but was beaten on the second set. The third set was tense, one round each and on the final round the tension showed all too clearly as Martyn managed to kill off most of his team so I didn't have to. A closely fought win for me, 2 out of 3 games and a happy victory at the end!

After Worms it was time to head to town and start the shopping, so off we went in the car and parked up at the pool where I'd earlier said Holly and Iain should meet us. Wandering in to town slowly, Martyn stopped for a quick snack pickup when his phone rang, Iain had just arrived in town and parked at the appointed place! We walked quickly back where we met Holly for the first time. Thoroughly lovely lady she is too!

Next stop was back to town, I lead everyone through hoping to find a cashpoint, but went past 2 which were broken before eventually arriving at one that worked. Cash in hand we wandered into Game for a while before moving on to Iceland for the supplies. A fair few minutes and some giggles later we walked out with bags full of frozen meat, buns, and booze. A wander further up the road found us biscuits, napkins and plastic cups, lovely job! Unfortunately, nobody had considered the thought of utensils...woops... A brief wander back through town and we were heading on back to the cars to transport the supplies to my house. Bacon was put on for some rolls and more Worms was started when I had word that Emski was arriving at the train station. Bossman volunteered and we went on our merry way to find the good lady in pink and bring her back.

Leaving Martyn in charge of the bacon under the grill when I left turned out to be a bad idea, the bacon was a little, how shall I say, "crispy". Still, we made 4 rolls out of it which were distributed to all with a cuppa. Time was passed chatting and playing more Worms, and watching a few classic and hilarious YouTube vids. Eventually as time went on we decided it was going to be the best plan to go to Tesco for more rolls and energy drink then onwards to catch the ferry. We loaded up the cars with food and the groundsheet and before long we were on the road to success.

Emski went with Bossman and Holly, while Martyn and I lead the way. I knew Dan was on his way with Zac and was in text contact, though in the most epic timing I've ever known we ended up on the very same ferry across to Studland! I got out of the car to go and find them while Martyn and the others went to check out the view from the top as we went over. It's only a short journey across the bay so I stood at the window of Zac's car talking to him and Dan. We did some brief intros of people then got back in to park up for the beach. Zac and Iain were offloaded first so Martyn and I were a minute or so behind when we found them and parked up. Everyone loaded up with what they could carry and we were soon wandering on to the sands.

It was a beautiful evening, despite everyone's fears it would possibly rain or stay cloudy the weather held true to reports and the sky was perfectly clear. The first thing we did was to pick our spot and lay out the big tarpaulin groundsheet and drop our things. Shoes were offed and we did some more formal intros while cracking open the first drinks.

Emski, Zac and Dan on the groundsheet

Holly and I testing the water in a little paddle, we all got our feet wet and it was lovely!

Zac went for an early swim

Like a pro BBQ chef, I cooked the things on skewers first so we could use the sticks to flip the burgers. Pint was definately welcome sitting next to those smokey things!

The second course of munchies, double cheeseburgers, hot sausages and chicken legs that nobody wanted (they were nice)

Unfortunately, Martyn wasn't with us for long as his dear wife is not far off having their firstborn youngster. After some food and some giggles on the sand he headed back on the last ferry out at 11pm. He was missed, but I hope he had fun while he was with us anyway :)

Caption competition moment right there!

Martyn and Iain

Martyn performs magic trick on cheeseburger?...

Dan and Martyn, WAHEY!

Group photo! Everyone, look retarded and say "Charliiiieeeeee!"

With such a clear night, we saw the moon rising over the bay beautifully. It came up from behind the Bournemouth skyline, I'm quite disappointed that my camera couldn't catch the reflection it made on the water it was really quite stunning. We spent a while watching shooting stars too. It seems there had been a meteor shower the night or so before, and we saw the tail end of it as several streaked across the sky throughout the night. Really very beautiful, with that, the bright crescent of moon, and so many stars above us in a sky less polluted by artificial light.

Over the Bournemouth lights the moon rose slowly

As it got higher it got ever brighter, lighting the beach beautifully

Jammy dodger?...

Jammy dodger!

Emski and Zac playing around with a phone. They'd never met before but these 2 got on so well you wouldn't have thought it.

Unfortunately, laying on the sand wasn't as comfy as it should have been even with the groundsheet flattened as much as possible. Dan and I shared a couple of blankets as the others got out sleeping bags to keep warm as night drew in and tempertures started to drop. The uneven ground however resulted in a painful trapped nerve in my lower back and hip, it was agony to move in any direction by even an inch. I took some painkillers but fear I was a bit of a killjoy for a while. Dan brought out different, erm, painkiller to try and help which was shared around by everyone except Iain. I'm no smoker so it wasn't easy but it did ese up a bit as it helped relax the muscles and stop them from the random spasms that were making it worse. Giggles were had all round, as well as biscuits and more drinks. I know some may disapprove but honestly it was only brought out for my back pain as a last ditch attempt to stop it from ruining my night, it just ended up passed in the spirit of sharing.

Eventually, most of us fell asleep for a short while and awoke at dawn to see a beautiful sunrise over the beach. Emski and Zac were soon off into the sea for an early morning (6am!) swim while we watched the sun come up over the bay. After a short while I got out the other BBQ's to get some breakfast on for everyone. Jumbo sausages and more burgers seemed to do the trick perfectly for all and we were soon on our way to change for a swim at 9am!

Sunrise over Studland. One of those times you see it appearing, visibly moving over the horizon.

If you look closely on the left you'll see Emski and Zac on their early morning swim.

The clouds left as soon as they gathered, it was a glorious day and for a while we almost had the whole beach to ourselves

Myself, Holly and Iain after our little swim

Holly drying off in the sun

After a while everyone was a bit tired and crashed out. I, on the other hand, sat and made sand models! I felt like a bit of a big kid but was semi-proud of the marginally retarded results. Come midday, Emski needed to leave and Zac offered to walk her to the bus stop. Soon after we had a call saying he was giving her a lift to Poole bus station. Dan predicted he wouldn't stop there and would instead take her all the way back to Dorchester, and his fears were realised when we called to see where he was an hour later. Luckily he agreed to come back for Dan who would have otherwise been stuck there with no way to get home despite needing to be back to do things in the afternoon. Dan stressed for a while that he might not come back, but we alleviated that with ice cream from our friend who turned up selling them from a little mobile stand. It was funny to see him there, we weren't expecting it at all! Still we stood and talked, cooling off in the breeze that we didn't get when sheltered by the dunes where our things were.

Myself, still cold and wet, and Dan, who didn't want to get cold or wet!

Emski looking prettyful

Everyone catching some relaxation time in the baking sun

My terrible approximtion of a PS3 controller

Ok, fine, I can't do faces!

I admit, I had a few ice creams, but it was hot!!!

We left in a bit of a hurry when it came to it, Zac was in town earlier than we thought and Dan was panicking he might get bored of waiting and go on home. Luckily, after a long wait for the ferry, we made it over to drop Dan off over the other side to be taken home with Zac and sort everything he needed in good time. Holly and Iain needed to get back to the North soon enough, so after a quick lunch and cuppa back at my place they went on their epic quest home.

Once everyone had left there wasn't much for me to do but pass a little time uploading photos and then playing some of the best quality games of MGO I've had in ages. There were a good few of us playing, and the team games were intense! The capture were the most so, both teams going for one target trying to get it to the goal for 30seconds. I was glad I had runner 2 enbled as it helped a little with getting it there but the game ran on a good 20minutes after the finish time with the tide of battle constantly swinging like a GaKo shaped pendulum! It took unspoken teamwork and a good deal of ballsy moves to finally finish one particular round in a stunning victory for our team. It was so closely fought I was almost shaking to put the controller down!

Well I guess the other thing to mention from the weekend is the unmistakable "thing" between Emski and Zac. Now, Emski has a bloke in London but he's not been very attentive to her in a while, going on and off interested in her then bored of her, so she's going to talk to him soon if she hasn't already and as she said to me yesterday she expects the answer will be he's not too bothered with her any more. Zac is more intersted in her than I've seen him be toward anyone. Sure he's bit of an opportunist ladies man but he said it himself there's something a bit different here. Dan reckons we've done some matchmaking, I'm unsure as yet but then they seem to get on so well and apparently on a deeper conversational level than would be expected from 2people who'd only met that night. I hope all works out for them, one way or the other, they're both great people and I'm not put off by the idea of some crazy fun double dates sometime!

Well, it's time I'm off now. I had hoped to play some MGO tonight but then Dan was called in to an earlier shift today and it makes sense for me to go over tonight and stay because his day off is tomorrow which I'm looking forward to spending with him. He has an xray on his leg booked at the hospital to see how the bone is or isn't healing right and figure out why he's suddenly got pain there again.

~~~~~~~ Thought of the Day ~~~~~~~

Sometimes we realise our warnings were right, we wonder maybe if they hadn't been given that they might not have been lashed out against. We also suddenly see that sometimes all some people are seeking is conflict. They can't cope with calm apologies, and seek to start fires whether they know it themselves or not. They do not feel right if they are not battling some adversity, and seem to cause it when there is none. I wish the world was free of such people, that we could all live in harmony, but the very diversity that makes us beautiful and unique is the same which tears us apart. Sometimes, all you can do is turn your face away from the fire and let it burn the bridges behind you. Only the one that started them can ever put them out, bridges won't burn forever and soon they will be gone.