All work and no play...

21 22 August

Hi Folks

It's Sheila tonight as Bruce is still hard at work. The pace is hotting up.

On Wednesday night we joined the IWA volunteers (blue shirts) for a Chinese carry out which was a really enjoyable meal. Of course the cooking wasn't quite up to the standard of Al and Neil's cooking for the wrg camp but it was a very pleasant banquet. The Chinese on the Wednesday night before the Festival is a long established tradition for the Blue Shirts but it is nice that over the last few years the red shirts (wrg) have been invited to join in and more do so each year. On Wednesday there were 118 participants. Annie the Personnel Manager spends some time before each festival researching the local takeaways and she is a very good picker.

Last year at St Ives the chosen supplier was overwhelmed by the scale of the order and bought in prepared meals from all the other takeaways in the area. The driver who went to collect our order said that while he was waiting there were a range of taxis and cars driving up to the takeaway and carrying trays of food in. It was still a very good meal. This year was even more helpful as the takeaway delivered to us. Unfortunately he then missed the track on his way off site and got stuck in the mud. A team had to go out and push him off. There were many cheers as the food was carried in, including three plastic sacks the size of dustbin liners all containing prawn crackers!

There was heavy rain while we ate our Chinese and more during Thursday so there were many groans. However the pressure is rising and we have a nice drying breeze and a bit of sun today so we are hoping for the best.

Bruce had a busy day yesterday with a mix of fencing, laying wood chip paths over any soft patches and erecting the market stalls which have been rented out to some of the small traders. Last thing last night the night fence had to be erected which leaves access to the bar and food court open for boaters and campers but secures the traders stalls. This year is a particularly long fence and it all has to go up each evening and come down the following morning. Sometimes the layout of the site allows the night fence to run along the back of a row of stalls and it can be left up all weekend but no such luck this year.

Bruce wanted me to give an idea of my work but it is much more mundane than his. Probably the most fun comes from making the badges for the volunteers. We use a rather sophisticated piece of software which enables us to add the name of each volunteer to the IWA logo. Senior staff also have their picture taken on a webcam for incorporation into the badge. I have been threatening to supply a comb and mirror for those who want it and I swear the men are more worried about being tidy for the photo than the women. I've also been doing a lot of laminating of things like maps of the site, telephone instructions, telephone directory lists and instructions to go in the wrg vans for finding the local rail/bus station and the hospital. We have two photocopiers on site, thankfully they are fully featured and fast. The idea is that long runs should go to the one in the print shop and short to the one opposite admin. This leads to a lot of debate about what constitutes a short run. All I can say is that it is a long walk to the one in the print shop and a short one to the one opposite admin so obviously all my runs are short!

I suspect that last night may well prove to be the high point of the festival for me. After dinner twenty seven wrgies (and a dog) were conveyed in three minibuses to the Stourbridge end of the Dudley Tunnel where we joined the electric trip boat Richard. This is an open boat with two rows of seats down her length facing outwards. Between the seats on the top plank is a row of lights facing upwards. I believe she can hold about fifty for a busy trip. When we were all seated the organiser handed out hard hats so, being wrgies, we put them on. By the time he turned round to us and said "I'll tell you when you need to put them on" he was confronted by twenty seven wrgies (but not the dog) all wearing hard hats.

We then had the full tour going through the length of the tunnel and round the loop of the caverns at the Dudley end. The steerer gave us a running commentary but we were also accompanied by the Chairman of the Dudley Canal Trust who added a lot of interesting information. As we went through the tunnel we could see numbered markers every chain (the length of a cricket pitch) and the steerer kept us informed as we passed under various points of note in Dudley. At one point we passed under the municipal cemetery, at another it was Dudley Grammar School. There was a bit where we were eighty feet below a very up market residential area and the steerer felt the residents might not be pleased to know that we were there. Elsewhere we passed under another residential area and although the commentary didn't actually state that it was a house of ill repute that did seem to be the implication.

When we were finally approaching the exit the boat was allowed to stop and we were offered the opportunity to try legging it. That means two people lying back to back on a board across the boat each resting their head on the other's shoulder then using their feet to walk on the side of the tunnel ad drive the boat through the tunnel. I was itching to try but I was sure there would be a huge queue and it was getting very late. However my luck was in, I was in the first pair and we had great fun. The boat weighs fifteen tons and we were not doing badly until the steerer announced that we could feel what it was like with twenty five tons and started to power the boat in the opposite direction. We did keep the boat moving in the right direction but very slowly and my legs were decidedly wobbly when we stopped. Only one other pair tried it and they walked the boat out of the tunnel. We crept back into the camp at a disgraceful 11.30pm and it was hard to get up this morning but well worth it for me at least.