My Week: 28/08/2013 – 29/08/2013

Wednesday: After being worried all around the clock the previous night if I was going to be able to continue with camp on note of the event of my sore throat coming back, I woke up absolutely fine except for the continuing cough I have had for the last few days. Anyway another early morning (and I think the Eric Clapton Song Layla going through my head, but only the rocky start as I don’t like the pleasant final half of it all that much), I did consider using the time to read more of HUNGER but I enjoy being in the company of those at camp. So came Breakfast followed by the continued series of Philippians.

Today was of course the Annual (many things at camp are annual but Leith Hill was different to previous years) trip up Box Hill 3 miles from camp. The main way to get there for many on camp is to walk (others run, or drive part way there…..or drive straight to the top). So I with many more walked there. Megumi and James had arrived earlier in the day despite the program stating that Megumi was not coming, but it was great to see her. Wednesday was also the Day Josh, Hannah and the rest of the gang were supposed to come, but we did not know when. Due to me going to the toilet, I started right at the back (until Jim, Emily and Victoria left) of the group and had a long catch up ahead. Most of the walk was uneventful, I noticed Tiger Hill for the first time, so named due to the rock face looking like a white tiger, I walked in an unusual way in front of a tractor to prove a point that Matt had plenty of time to get out of the way of it, I caught up and overtook most of the group pretty quickly, Matt continued to wonder why I was taking photos of Road Signs, and I was able to direct most of the group which direction to take thanks to my years of experience. I also did some skipping with Matt, Phil and Megumi, very tiring but very fun and I was able to continue walking pretty much straight away.

The ascent up the hill is very tiring in itself but I was able to stay ahead for a while, but then the hill goes from hill climb to the second most demanding hill in the UK and I had to take several rests, then when I got to the main climb, the most demanding hill in the UK. At most it is no more than a 30-50 metre walk, but it is so step that it takes it out of you, and I lost sight of the group. When I finally reached the top, I was the last one remaining and everyone had already sat down. Well lunch was nice at least, Tuna sandwiches made at camp by me, no salad, did not like the look of it (as always the case no matter where I am). Following this I made a quick visit to the shop on top of the hill and met up with Adam and Christina and had a look round and saw a small beehive in the shop (closed off from public obviously). From this went back to everyone else who were either playing football or chatting and I sat down to play a game of Martian Dice before having to head off back down the hill in time for the next discussion meeting. While the opportunity for a lift was available, I decided to walk down; you’d think that after 5 years I would have learned not to choose that option.

Before I began the long journey back I went to grab an Ice-Cream (with monkey’s blood; better known as raspberry sauce). I then followed a short path next to the road where I saw a rabbit before I began the decent. On the way down I did have to side step briefly as Jim was attempting to take a photograph which while it would look interesting was being defeated by the laws of gravity due to Emily’s hair. However after reaching the bottom of both hard parts I quickly overtook everyone but had to stop at the garden centre car park to take a breather. After falling way behind everyone else due to my short breather I was able to catch up thanks to a very level area of land, blank thinking, and the shade from the sun, but after drinking some spare water from Christina, I fell way back again the rest of the distance. When we reached the bottom of the steep road (final hurdle) I was very kindly offered a lift by someone who had nothing to do with camp, I took the lift which lasted no more than a minute when I reached the camp site entrance. He was one of the nicest men in the south of England, did not know him or had met him before but he was kind enough to give me a lift to the campsite. However Matt was very confused when he returned to camp wondering how I got back there before everyone else. While the walking to and from camp is agonizing, it is always fun, the chat, the small talk and new friends to make.

But despite how tired I was we still had the second discussion to go to. This one was led by Daryl (men’s group) from GBM whose subject was on being Men of God. While I did find some of it helpful I was heavily distracted by the sun beaming onto my face and the arrival of Hannah and Beth. After the group had finished I went to meet Hannah (met Beth late) who said that Esther decided not to come and that Josh was coming later. So we had tea before Josh arrived and for that evening meeting we had an Envision session with people talking about what they had been up to as part of Envision.

Emily and Victoria’s talk was very nicely done, very confidently presented and gave an insight into what they had been up to. It was here also that I realised that I miss-heard them the day before when I thought they said they had been to South Africa for 5 years when they had actually been away for only 5 weeks, but it was still very good, really enjoyed it. When Ruth began to speak she showed some sign language but before I could see any more I got distracted by a nose bleed. Now for people who don’t know about this, when I get a nose bleed, I really get them and as such, after 5 minutes of it starting (and using my jumper as I did not have my Nose Bleed towel with me) I had to bolt from the room, go to the toilet and use roughly half the bog roll to wipe it away which took about 10 minutes if not more. I returned after it had subsided. My nose felt raw for the rest of the night but I did make sure that I apologised to Ruth for bolting. Beth was up next who had seemingly changed her clothing. Her presentation was interesting, talking about her two weeks in India; she did also tell me beforehand that they once listened to one of my dad’s sermons while there. After this, it was Phil’s talk about his time in China and what it was like and where he lived, and his bike. It was a nice wrap up to a great day and evening.

After the meeting, me and Matt helped Josh to get his tent up in the dark before having another evening of socializing (and a raw nose) with people playing yet another game of resistance. I meanwhile in a similar fashion to the previous night sat down with a group playing Pit, while they had already started, I stayed because I liked the company. After this I observed the still going game of resistance (even though it appeared to be that they were playing something different than what Resistance actually is) before going to bed.

Thursday: My favourite day of the camp, particularly when it is a nine-day camp. Thursday is the trip out to Littlehampton. Once again, same routine now, Woke up (and in similar fashion to yesterday, I had Thunderstruck by AC/DC going through my head), had breakfast before having the evening meeting, and also sent a Text to my friend Ruth because it was her Birthday. During the morning meeting I decided to do what Matt did on Tuesday and take a more proactive approach. So after the morning meeting I went straight to Emily to see if I could have a lift, luckily she still had a place left. I did wonder what Matt was going to do but I sort of knew (from experience) that Hannah would probably have room.

So, once everyone had gathered we set out for Littlehampton. Unlike other car journeys I have had to and from Littlehampton, this one was quite silent as everyone did not really talk except for Victoria giving directions to Emily. I was able to stay awake for a while but eventually (after the Noble garage) I fell asleep and did not really wake up until the amazing hay bale view, which is amazing. Pointed out the Body Shop World HQ, received and sent another text from and to Ruth and very soon we arrived. Parking was free that day which was nice for everyone, but I split from my car group (finding out the time we had to be back for the car) and waited for Matt. This year we did something a bit different for food, we went to a noodle bar in the town that I and Tim spotted the previous year instead of the usual Fish and Chips. It was a long trip, along the pier, through the town and briefly got lost (as well as came up with a script idea) but we got there in the end. I had beef with teriyaki and Matt had Chicken (they had run out of Pork) Sweet and Sour. While nice I was a bit annoyed that the teriyaki sauce went into the bag due to the bad packing, so it was dryer than it should have been. But it was still nice and interesting to hear people ask “Where did you get Chinese from?” Following on from this it was time to have a chocolate covered Ice-Cream before heading over to the fair for a round of Crazy Golf, where I won in my group by 2, followed by a round on the Dodgems and Waltzer where I was able to stay quite relaxed, while Hannah lost her glasses.

Finally we headed down to the beach where we ate some donuts before heading back for the cars. I did get badly sun burned from the day but it is getting now. I had another quick nap before Emily suddenly handed the car over to Victoria to drive the last few 10 minutes or so. Once returned to camp, I and a few others were introduced by Victoria to Irish Snap, which after several goes completely wrecked my hand. Following from this it was tea time, which was amazing, it was possibly the nicest Roast Beef I have had. Then came the evening meeting conducted by John M. While it was originally meant to be conducted by James H, I was glad it was done by John as it was an amazingly brilliant talk. After the meeting, Me, Tania, Hannah, Adam, Christina and Matt (I think) played a large game of Carcassonne……….which I lost. Then it was bed time again.

GENEPOOL

My Week: 26/08/2013 – 27/08/2013

Monday: After sorting my tent out the previous night by shifting my things to the other side of the tent so that there wasn’t 5 people squashed in, I woke up a bit too early and so went back to sleep but by the time I woke up I almost missed breakfast, but thankfully did not. For today’s grace song for breakfast someone had the bright idea of using the superman theme, which was agonising, even more so due to the theme not really fitting in. At least we had Fish Fingers for breakfast, but sadly I did not break my record for number of Fish Fingers in one sitting which I did a few camps previously (19). After breakfast it was the first part of the morning talks for the week which were presented by David S who did his talks on Philippians.

After our morning meeting we had some time to ourselves, but first we had to take the camp photo. I made the great decision of wearing a t-shirt bearing the quote “You have just lost the game” and knowing that only people in the south take much interest in THE GAME it was a great chance to have a bit of fun with the photo. It was also nice to have several nice shots taken before the silly ones, silly ones are all in good fun, but a nice photo looks better on the shelf than posing as Mo Farah. With that done, we had time to ourselves.  Reeling from the fun japes of playing Resistance the previous night, some wanted to play it again while me and Matt and Christina just played Zombie Dice, which the others eventually joined in even though Suzie also did a crossword at the same time. Following on from lunch which consisted of making sandwiches, it was time for a walk up Leith Hill, first we had to drive there. Once getting there, me along with a few others took the climb up instead of the walk up, which I did struggle with. But upon reaching the top I took the opportunity to take some photos, buy some ice-cream and go up the tower. When we all arrived back at the camp site it was time for the first bible discussion. Unlike previous years when this was in separate groups, this one was altogether but still in groups. Questions ranged from “It was a lot safer when I was young” (Which is correct) to “Japan is the greatest country in the world” (Correct again). While fun in some way I did feel like it could have been better.

The evening meeting was much shorter due to the use of the Discussion groups but we had an interesting talk on a trip to Brazil made by Jim to see a couple who are missionaries out there. Finally, I introduced Matt to Gloom and had a nice lovely chat with Enoch’s dad, David.

Tuesday: Had a much earlier start on Tuesday and sat down with some friends before breakfast. Bacon and Egg for breakfast and another talk from David S. Todays big journey was the annual trip to Horsham to the Laser quest. Laser quest if you are unsure of what it is, is basically an indoor shooting game where you shoot other people. For those living in most of Lancashire, Laser quest is basically the same thing as Megazone, but not as good. Matt had a more productive time of getting us a lift than we normally do by being proactive and getting us a lift quickly. The ride to Horsham was nice and just like on previous occasions, we passed the Noble Garage. Upon arriving I managed to get into the first Laser Quest game and while I went as animalistic as I usually go in laser shooting games, I only came 7^th, well out of 19 it’s not too bad, at least this year I did not get a blister on my finger from repetitive pressing of the trigger. While unsure of doing a second game due to health reasons, I decided to follow through in the end. Between games I observed several other campers try their hand at arcade basketball while I had a go at arcade Hammer (test of strength thing from fun fair’s) and reached a score of 10 overall. The second Laser quest game pretty much broke me (with me doing badly score wise coming in 10^th place) and I needed sustenance fast, something that isn’t easy in the world’s slowest and most badly designed Subway. Well at least it beats constantly complaining about the customer service at McDonalds from the previous year, that and going off to why their Chicken Legend sandwich does not count as a legend if no one has heard of it before, more like a chicken cadet.

Following from the prolonged lunch, Me, Matt, Kiran, Roshen, Simon and Adam and his son journeyed along a long street trying to find a board game shop, in the end we couldn’t find it as it had moved, so we had to walk all the way back. Coincidentally the shop was just across the road from where we had our subway. So, we went in and looked in awe at the amazing shop, soooo many board games. I felt that if I had a spare £1000, I would have a day trip there. I even found a Godzilla based board Game I had heard about, but did not have enough to pay for it. In the end I bought myself a copy of Dixit Odyssey. I left the shop of wonders and then had a simple look from town with Matt, recommended GONE to some people, met up with Sam B, got some sweets and then tried to look for everyone else who were residing in the park next to the car park, had a quick game of Pit before leaving.

Once again, we had Tea and our Evening talk this time led by Kiran’s dad; Sukesh which was quite interesting (really should have got a CD copy of that). But I did not play any games as I felt a bit more unwell than I currently was. Instead I just sat with some people playing a game just for company. But I did finally get round to meeting David S and informed him of who my dad was (which everyone at camp already knew) but I had a good chat and he helped me to realise in many ways where I have been going wrong in my path to God. He was very helpful in pointing these things out and it has put me on the right course.

GENEPOOL