Eleven go Mad in Nottingham
Last weekend we celebrated Mr Michael Jones's penultimate weekend of bachelorhood with a fun packed trip to Nottingham. Deciding to brave the elements most of us elected to camp at a convenient site next to the Nottingham water-sports centre we'd be visiting the next day. The weather proceeded to be elemental in the extreme, and the planned jape of soaking Mike with waterpistols was dampened slightly by the fact that running around in the rain outside the BBQ gazebo made us wet too. That plus he got hold of a five litre water container which, although primitive in comparison to our Super Soakers, proved surprisingly effective. The rest of the evening was spent drinking, eating Too Much Meat and trying to remember folk songs. Oh, and trying to avoid a nasty bout of July hypothermia.
Saturday morning was paintballing at what was probably the best site I've ever been to. First impressions were bad since there must have been a couple of hundred people there, but the site consisted of several different battlefields and had loads of marshalls who basically rota'd their groups in and out. Very well run with top notch equipment, best of all being the masks that didn't steam up.
Most of the photos taken on my crappy disposable camera are from this.
The afternoon was spent mostly underwater as we went white water rafting on the Trent. Many of the rapids had disappeared due to the abnormally high water level but the instructors made up for this by having us repeatedly paddle our rafts directly into the remaining ones. Much fun was had, particularly the time I traversed practically the entire rapids course without the benefit of a raft...
mole_666 has put some of the pictures up here.
Finally we dragged ourselves out to Nottingham for a pretty good meal which was enlivened by the resident restaurant balloon animal bloke, for whom making a sheep hat and woman-with-boobies was probably a welcome change from poodles and bunny rabbits. Mike symbolically set her free after the meal using a pair of convenient helium balloons.
Onto the pub, specifically the Olde Trip to Jerusalem, built right into the cliff face below the castle. Claimed to be the oldest in England. One of the many... After that we got to Rock City for an evening of, well, rock. A few of us wussed out early (about 1am) and therefore missed Mike telling the rest how much he loved them all. When they got back to camp an hour or so later he told us plenty more times though, so that was OK.
Thoroughly good fun, and amazingly good weather for the events themselves, seeing as it was the only sunny day in July to date!
Saturday morning was paintballing at what was probably the best site I've ever been to. First impressions were bad since there must have been a couple of hundred people there, but the site consisted of several different battlefields and had loads of marshalls who basically rota'd their groups in and out. Very well run with top notch equipment, best of all being the masks that didn't steam up.
Most of the photos taken on my crappy disposable camera are from this.
The afternoon was spent mostly underwater as we went white water rafting on the Trent. Many of the rapids had disappeared due to the abnormally high water level but the instructors made up for this by having us repeatedly paddle our rafts directly into the remaining ones. Much fun was had, particularly the time I traversed practically the entire rapids course without the benefit of a raft...
mole_666 has put some of the pictures up here.
Finally we dragged ourselves out to Nottingham for a pretty good meal which was enlivened by the resident restaurant balloon animal bloke, for whom making a sheep hat and woman-with-boobies was probably a welcome change from poodles and bunny rabbits. Mike symbolically set her free after the meal using a pair of convenient helium balloons.
Onto the pub, specifically the Olde Trip to Jerusalem, built right into the cliff face below the castle. Claimed to be the oldest in England. One of the many... After that we got to Rock City for an evening of, well, rock. A few of us wussed out early (about 1am) and therefore missed Mike telling the rest how much he loved them all. When they got back to camp an hour or so later he told us plenty more times though, so that was OK.
Thoroughly good fun, and amazingly good weather for the events themselves, seeing as it was the only sunny day in July to date!