First there was WAR….
….soon after there came PESTILANCE and FAMINE…….
….and, as certain as night must follow day, there came…..
….DEATH…..
Or to put it another way, Nick was the first to arrive on site (as he had to open it up for us) and at about 4.30pm both Neil and I arrived within a couple of minutes of each other. Dave wasn’t due until later as there was some kind of sporting event happening that he felt was much more important that seeing us.
Nick thought that I had some weird ability to link up with other forumites on the way to the meet-ups; I said that I simple didn’t want to be left alone with him.
So after a few minutes of polite inquires as to “how we were all doing”, “how was the trip down” and “glad to hear your son’s feeling better” etc, we quickly ran out of things to say to each other and decided it was time to play. The first toy to make an appearance was my bow and arrows.
After quickly working out that it was making a mess of the fence we first shot at, Nick found us an excellent tree butt to act as a target.
I rather quickly set the standard for the shooting after,
cleanly and directly, taking out two of the targets with just my second shot at them. Nick made a very laudable and valiant attempt to match me and only just came up short of my mark. Considering it was a bow he had never shot before it was a most impressive display of Martial skill and well contributed to his being christened with the title WAR. Unfortunately the rather solid target was starting to take its toll on my arrows, claiming one tip and a fletching; also one arrow was sacrificed to the “long grass and nettles” fairy.
Up until this point Neil’s involvement hadn’t gone much beyond offering some sound advice and helping look for the odd arrow that had gone wide of the target. Nick seemed to have a more “active” role in mind for the poor chap.
Luckily Nick’s skill was equal to the task and Neil survived unscathed. The same could not be said for Nick’s finger though. For, after the toxophily was done, we started looking at some of the sharp and shiny things that each of us had brought. Top of the agenda was a very nice friction folder of Nicks that instantly put Neil in mind of the Svord that Mike had supplied him. Quickly the Svord was drawn and, just as quickly, so was Nick’s blood.
As the day was getting on, this seemed like the perfect time to look as organising a fire for ourselves; wood was gathered, sawn, split, feathered and burnt in short order. Neil took this opportunity to give us each with a brand new Mora, which was a very decent gesture on his part.
Neil was dispatched to gather some vital supplies; fishcakes and chips for Nick and himself, while I made do with testing my new Trangia and heating up a bowl of canned chili. A gratuitous spork shot just for Dave’s benefit.
Also produced (but sadly not given away) was a selection of the Big Boys of the SAK world. As impressive as the two Vics are, they have nothing on the Wenger Giant. Much oohing and ahhing was done over them I can tell you.
Sorry about the poorer shots but the light was going by this point.
So with the light gone and the food eaten it seemed like the perfect time to open a bottle of beer, or two. With cries of “has anyone got a bottle opener”?
We managed to settle down for a quite drink. After not too long Dave arrived in a car that was listing under the weight of a mountain of Multi’s, not least of which were a couple of brand new LM Freestyles. A very compact little tool that I took to far more than I had the Skeletool.
Torches came out and outputs were compared, beers were drunk, jokes were made, we turned the world on its side and righted it again. Earlier we had called several other fourumites and attempted to persuade Nuphoria to come and join us, but to no avail. So we had to settle for the second best thing and listened to a song or two via the wonders of modern technology (a internet capable phone).
Dave had come up with one last Martial challenge and once again Nick stepped up to the plate. No beer can was safe from the air pistol when in Nick’s steady hands. Neil also put in a very credible performance considering he’d never shot an air pistol before in his life.
At some point we decided it was past time to go to bed and so we retired to one of the portakabins as set up for the night. I slept fine until Dave started snoring like a very sick and old chainsaw, sticking a finger in my ear I managed to somehow get some more sleep.
So morning came at around 8am, with the sound of Nick sawing some more wood for the fire and the realisation that it was flipping cold outside of my sleeping bag. We got up and soon breakfast was on the go. With Dave here showing the perfect results of when Swedish and American engineering come together: a bacon sarnie.
So the rest of the short morning went all to quickly with a last look at some of Neil’s less common stuff and some of Nick’s Green Team Tools.
With heavy hearts these four horsemen went our separate ways with promised to be at the next one and make sure that it will be…..Epic.
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