sleeps like an exponential function
Jan. 15th, 2008 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bliumchikBerry Recreation Centre has totally gone downhill since I was twelve. Unlike the flying fox, which is now entirely stationary. They also took out the ropes course. And the spa. Woe.
We went with some family friends who have a son about Timmy's age and one a year younger than me. The latter, David, sulked enthusiastically all the way there. He, like myself, was there because it was less trouble to go along than to argue with his mother - unlike me, he was without the mitigating circumstances of knowing I need to unplug my brain from the internet for a bit before I go completely loony and set up an IV. In any case I firmly believe in being disgustingly cheerful about all hardships up to and including an actual zombie invasion, as long as there are no bugs touching me. That doesn't mean I always succeed, but it's an attitude that comes in handy at times like these.
Plus, now that I don't actually have to go on school camps anymore, it's sort of nostalgic to complain about crappy cafeteria dinners and hiking.
The food was actually mostly edible in my terms, although who the hell eats steak for lunch, I'd like to know, and is that supposed to be curry, fried rice or the shredded remains of a glucose monster that lost a death match with a spatula? David was more picky and pined for chicken burgers all through dinner, poking miserably at his taco. His little brother also refused to eat most of what was on offer, as did mine, but apparently the realisation that theirs don't grow out of it was too much for the parents, who wrung their hands and left a day early.
Meanwhile, exciting activities! Fun For The whole Family! I remain proficient at archery - like basically anything involving me having to aim, getting rusty just means I look like a beginner with a ludicrously steep learning curve. First arrow: in the ground halfway to the target. Second arrow: in the ground directly below the target. Third arrow: bullseye! This also happens with billiards. Only less hurtling pointy things. My dad killed a tree.
Next up, the river. Apparently the difference between canoing and kayaking is in relative flatness, oar type and seat positioning rather than just number of operators as I thought in my childhood, because my parents took my brother in a two-seater kayak with a cute little baby seat in the middle. (David declined both of these activities in favour of tennis and sms conversations, but did accompany me to trivia night, more on that later). I took a kayak, sang a jaunty tune and woke up the next morning with hideously sore shoulders.
I don't want to make light of that, because it really was torture to wake up that early in the morning. Breakfast was at eight! Eight! What sane human being gets up that early? Not only this, but my family was crammed into a tiny box with two bunkbeds made of violin strings and mattresses stuffed with plastic bags. All night long it was creeeeeak rustle rustle creeeeeak. But I persevered and eventually got to sleep - only to wake up to the hottest day in the history of ever. So far this summer.
On the Hottest Morning we went on a pathetically short hike and cooked damper. Mmmm, damper, how I have missed your burnt crunchy bits. With syrup! Truly the food of kings. If kings were jolly swagmen. ...once a royal crown man sat by a billabong? And instead of sheep he stole Luxembourg!
HANYWAY. Other stuff that happened included a trite getting-to-know-you games session in which we were told to take as many sheets of toilet paper off the roll as we would need to cross the sahara in three days, only each piece weighs a kilo (no, I have no clue what they're onabout either). Then we had to give the group a fact about ourselves for each sheet we'd picked. I told them I was a KGB agent and once hid a ninja in my attic. The next night we played a trivia game, and I was on team KGB (versing teams CIA and SAS), so hey - running joke! Also it turns out there are fifty four squares on a rubix cube. Who knew?
In between all of this adventure and marvelous fun I started and finished Looking For Jake, a book of short stories by China Mieville. It's brilliant, I highly recommend him. How do you pronounce his last name? There's an accent on the first e, I'm buggered if I know. I've borrowed Un Lun Dun now.
So that was fun, and a nice break from sitting online all day, although it turns out that every tiny insectoid flying thing in the universe is magnetically drawn to the Berry region, except for some reason mosquitoes. On the way back we drove right through a huge and awesome storm with lightning and everything. It was sort of freaky because we were on a flat stretch and could see perfectly the hemispheric division between sunshine and black fog. It was like driving into Mordor! The end!
We went with some family friends who have a son about Timmy's age and one a year younger than me. The latter, David, sulked enthusiastically all the way there. He, like myself, was there because it was less trouble to go along than to argue with his mother - unlike me, he was without the mitigating circumstances of knowing I need to unplug my brain from the internet for a bit before I go completely loony and set up an IV. In any case I firmly believe in being disgustingly cheerful about all hardships up to and including an actual zombie invasion, as long as there are no bugs touching me. That doesn't mean I always succeed, but it's an attitude that comes in handy at times like these.
Plus, now that I don't actually have to go on school camps anymore, it's sort of nostalgic to complain about crappy cafeteria dinners and hiking.
The food was actually mostly edible in my terms, although who the hell eats steak for lunch, I'd like to know, and is that supposed to be curry, fried rice or the shredded remains of a glucose monster that lost a death match with a spatula? David was more picky and pined for chicken burgers all through dinner, poking miserably at his taco. His little brother also refused to eat most of what was on offer, as did mine, but apparently the realisation that theirs don't grow out of it was too much for the parents, who wrung their hands and left a day early.
Meanwhile, exciting activities! Fun For The whole Family! I remain proficient at archery - like basically anything involving me having to aim, getting rusty just means I look like a beginner with a ludicrously steep learning curve. First arrow: in the ground halfway to the target. Second arrow: in the ground directly below the target. Third arrow: bullseye! This also happens with billiards. Only less hurtling pointy things. My dad killed a tree.
Next up, the river. Apparently the difference between canoing and kayaking is in relative flatness, oar type and seat positioning rather than just number of operators as I thought in my childhood, because my parents took my brother in a two-seater kayak with a cute little baby seat in the middle. (David declined both of these activities in favour of tennis and sms conversations, but did accompany me to trivia night, more on that later). I took a kayak, sang a jaunty tune and woke up the next morning with hideously sore shoulders.
I don't want to make light of that, because it really was torture to wake up that early in the morning. Breakfast was at eight! Eight! What sane human being gets up that early? Not only this, but my family was crammed into a tiny box with two bunkbeds made of violin strings and mattresses stuffed with plastic bags. All night long it was creeeeeak rustle rustle creeeeeak. But I persevered and eventually got to sleep - only to wake up to the hottest day in the history of ever. So far this summer.
On the Hottest Morning we went on a pathetically short hike and cooked damper. Mmmm, damper, how I have missed your burnt crunchy bits. With syrup! Truly the food of kings. If kings were jolly swagmen. ...once a royal crown man sat by a billabong? And instead of sheep he stole Luxembourg!
HANYWAY. Other stuff that happened included a trite getting-to-know-you games session in which we were told to take as many sheets of toilet paper off the roll as we would need to cross the sahara in three days, only each piece weighs a kilo (no, I have no clue what they're on
In between all of this adventure and marvelous fun I started and finished Looking For Jake, a book of short stories by China Mieville. It's brilliant, I highly recommend him. How do you pronounce his last name? There's an accent on the first e, I'm buggered if I know. I've borrowed Un Lun Dun now.
So that was fun, and a nice break from sitting online all day, although it turns out that every tiny insectoid flying thing in the universe is magnetically drawn to the Berry region, except for some reason mosquitoes. On the way back we drove right through a huge and awesome storm with lightning and everything. It was sort of freaky because we were on a flat stretch and could see perfectly the hemispheric division between sunshine and black fog. It was like driving into Mordor! The end!
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 05:39 pm (UTC)Feel free to organise it, though I think we should space out the two movie-watching events. And Fanny was all upset that she would miss both, so perhaps we can organise one for when she comes back? *looks hopeful* :)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-17 07:20 am (UTC)