We met at the lock-up on a gorgeous Friday afternoon fresh with the joys of summer...well, maybe not, but I'd just finished my finals an hour earlier so I was in a good mood. Unfortunately that meant that Marco thought it would be hilarious not to stop somewhere along the A23 for me to use the loo to relieve myself of the few pints that I'd had before departing. By the time he relented to my pleas I was in agony. Ha Ha very funny.

Upon arrival at the campsite we found strange ginger person waiting for us. He proceeded to tag along for the rest of the weekend but nobody seemed to know who he was. I do have distant memories of singing "twist and shout" with him on the Saturday night but I don't think that my memory should be used as a reliable source of information for that night... anyway more of that later.

Any intentions of catching any surf were banished the moment the sea came into view. I've seen more surf in the pool immediately after fat boy had jumped in. Having said that one or two souls decided it might be worth a go. the remainder of us spent our time on the beach and on the pitch and putt course. Richard passed the time by burying anything anyone had left unattended in the sand. Any queries as to it's whereabouts met a reply of "it's in the saaaannnnd". Thanks Rich. Unfortunately,he forgot to point this out in reference to Mike's car keys, so there probably somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic by now. Whoops.

After dinner, the pub session was ticking along rather tamely and looked like it might peter out at 11 when it was pointed out that the place had an extended license till 1 yippee! Apparently this license was granted on the ground that the pub provided late night entertainment. This entertainment took the form of a video karaoke machine but once it was turned on at 11 the staff didn't seem to interested in it. Neither did anyone else in the pub, so enter captain Big Nob to start fiddling around with the videos. Lots of Karaoke ensued but all I can remember is singing "Twist and Shout" with a couple of backing singers (Tooooony and somebody else. Kim? Mike? Gill? Answers on a post card ...)and Chad going up to do Cotton eye Joe and proceeding to sing Barbie Girl over the top of it instead. Now Chad's gone, I think that the moment for which he'll be forever remembered. I've since seen photos of me lying on the floor with the microphone in my hand but that doesn't match up with my memories so i am denying that ever happened. Apparently a few of us tried to gate crash a wedding reception on the way back to the camp site but were swiftly thrown out. However, somehow Claire managed to stay in. Mike wanted to go back in and get her. His conversation with the bounce went something like this:

The bouncer seemed to find this description enough 'cause he swiftly found Claire and we continued our stumble back to the campsite.

The surf was still flat on the Sunday so after a very nice brekkie we spent a few more hours on the beach relaxing before cream teas and crazy golf. So not a lot of time was spent in boats, but Hey,what do you think this is a canoe club or something? A good weekend was had by all, and a nice trip to end on. Here's to another years successful paddling.