New Year 2010

Best wishes and a Happy New Year to all of our Friends and Family

This year we decided to go all the way the Chelmsford and spend the New year at "New Hall School" with the East Essex Camping and Caravan Club. The event spanned the new year and each night had its own theme


The venue was a very posh private school and we had access to the parking areas, ( were we parked )  One of the Halls and the Swimming Pool.   Once we had found the way in it became the perfect venue for a New Year Rally.

The usual crowd of Sonja and Kevin, Andy and Lorraine were in attendance 

We arrived on the 29th a day after most people and the theme for the evening was a "Scottish Night ".

What this really meant was dressing up and making a complete idiot out of yourself  taking part in impossible tasks and challenges. As the drink flowed it got  louder and  became a great evening. Needless to say we were  crap at most of the tasks but what the heck

The next night was pretty somber, so we decided to go out for a Chinese Meal in Chelmsford whilst most of the group went out on coaches to see the pantomime "Aladdin "

New years eve turned out to be a very unusual day.

It all started to go a bit strange in the morning when our good friend Andy went swimming.  After he got out of the pool having swam 40 lengths he became disorientated, confused and very forgetful.

We took him to the local hospital were he was diagnosed with a temporary condition known as Transient Amnesia. The good news was that he had recovered fully by the next day. The bad new was that he saw the New Year in from a Hospital bed.  It could have been a lot worse, it could have been me . ( Sorry Andy )

Enjoy it mate , we 're off to a party

Despite poor Andy's incapacitation the decision was made to abandon him at the hospital with the small amount of remaining sweets and grapes that I hadn't eaten and go and have a party. ( That's what good friends do )

The New Years Eve  party theme was "The Musicals"  This meant that each table had to create, in advance, a large table decoration that depicted a Film or TV Musical . The table decorations would be judged and one table would be declared this years winners.

We knew that some groups were quite competitive and that they had secretly been making their table displays in advance ready to produce on the day.

What we failed to understand was that this competitive spirit had clearly got out of control and that some teams had in fact devoted most evenings of the whole of 2010 planning and creating their displays.       Winning was the only outcome in their eyes, anything else would bring shame on themselves and their families for the next year.

We had decided to go with the musical "The Wizard of Oz" with a  twist in that the OZ bit was Australian.  So we created a 3 foot square model of Aires rock with a large picture of Dorothy on a pole stuck in the middle of it . We then adorned it with most of the characters of the film , but with an Australian spin on it.    For instance the "Tin Man" became the "Tinny Man" and was decorated as a "Fosters Lager " can.


The painting of Dorothy looked distinctly Transsexual but all in all we were quite proud of our creation and genuinely felt that we were in with a chance of winning.

Our hearts sank when we entered the hall and looked around the room and discovered that we had failed to incorporate moving parts involving pneumatics, hydraulics and complicated electronics . We knew we had lost before the night began.

Andy's illness and absence  was instantly forgotten, we had more serious problems to deal with. How could we make our cross dressing Dorothy more competitive. We were in serious trouble .

One group had created a the city scene from "West Side Story" with lights and animation, another had created the fairground scene from "Greece" complete with a moving Ferris Wheel which small children could have ridden on .

The entire set from the Lion king was present and another  group had built a full size Kebab House, out of beer cans ,  in the shape of the Acropolis , complete  with a 4 foot high revolving kebab in the centre of it . They claimed that it was an alternative "Greece"

Our Dorothy   ( of doubtful sexuality )  on a stick looked pretty lame in comparison.

We all dressed up to match our displays , Pat was the Glinda the good witch, Sonja was the Wicked Witch, Kevin kindly stepped into the absent Andy's role and became the Tin man and Lorraine was the Scarecrow.

I opted for the alternative angle and went as "A friend of Dorothy's "  which is gay code for being gay and dressed as "Dame Edna" .

The competition winners turned out to be the "Lion King "

The next   Morning Dorothy the Tranny was consigned to the skip and Andy was collected from the Hospital right as rain again.

In view of the fact that poor Andy had missed the main event we decided to drive up to Polstead in Suffolk for a few days to make up for it. We didn't do much here , a couple of walks and a nice pub lunch .

Lorraine claimed to be crap at Scrabble and then thrashed everyone.

A great start to the  year.

2011 Bring it on .