Once Dave was home from work and Kat had got to Ashford, we went out to dinner at the Hooden on the Hill in Great Chart. The roads were now clear but the footpaths were thick with ice and very slippery. They only had two beers on but they were both ones that we hadn't tried before. I had half of the Yule Tide, Teignmouth brewery. It was really good. The other one was Samphire bitter. I didn't try that one but I have it on good authority that it would have been better to have the Samphire one first. For dinner, I had a lovely mushroom and cheese omelette with chips. They did Kat a special prawn cocktail for her main course which she finished off. From here we went via Lidl's for beer and to get a few bits for the present game for the evening. Once we had also been to find a working cash machine and the Off Licence, we only had an hour to get ready once we got home. Dave wrapped the presents while Kat and I wrote some Christmas cards. Kat was looking really lovely in her new dress and I was very tempted to dress up like she had but the feeling of cold won. I know what these Scout halls can be like and opted to be warm rather than look pretty.
We left at about 5 with some discussion about whether it would take 1 hour 45 to get there, as per the printed sheet that Dave had got, or 1 hour 15 as per the sat nav. Playing silly games on the way.... I Spy and we went shopping and we bought.... Alka Seltzer, double ended dildo, Smarties, Bisto gravy granules, Vaseline, butt plug, a cuddly toy, a jacket for the cuddly toy, Jupiter, Beetlejuice, We got to Clacket Lane services about quarter to 6. Then Dave had a panic and decided to check if it started at 6 or 7 o'clock. It was 6, and he thought it was 7! Panic time, with coffees in hand, we rushed the best we could in the ice and slush back to the car to get there as quick as we could. The game from here was picking a topic and then working around the car with the next letter of the alphabet. It got silly! We got to birds.... I got the giggles when after saying Magpie, Kat then said “nother Magpie” !! So we arrived with tears streaming down my face. Although we were late, we weren't the last to arrive. Those that lived closest were the last to arrive but then they thought the start time was 7.30! It was also new baby Wakefield, Florence's, first outing. She is so tiny and very cute, and well behaved too. Once everyone had arrived, we were fed. With soup and lots of other stuff, and yummy desserts too. We also had a snowman colouring competition. There was the pass the parcel game too with prizes or forfeits in each layer. Then we played the gift game which can get very evil, especially in a big group like this. Then there was the never ending raffle. Even though there were lots of prizes anyway, it would have ended sooner if some people had just donated some money to the kite group rather than buy raffle tickets if they are never going to take the prizes. It was soon time to say our goodbyes and set off home.
We hadn't got far when the Bat mobile lost power. Then we managed to limp to the petrol station. The engine was left running while enough fuel was put in it to get home. It's always too expensive to fill up at motorway petrol stations. On the M25, we had hardly got a mile down the road before the car died again. We then spent half an hour searching the glove compartments, phoning friends and phoning home to see if the car was covered by any sort of breakdown cover. We found that my bank one couldn't as it was for my car only. Luckily, the Rear Admiral had a better cover with his bank and a breakdown truck was despatched to us. We were visited by the Highways Agency guys who were brilliant. We couldn't get on to the hard shoulder as it was knee deep with snow. They put cones behind the car and stayed with us for a while. Kat got a tin foil blanket wrap as she was coldest. The breakdown truck arrived fairly soon and loaded us all. It was a bit scary in the big truck getting back to the Batfarm down the narrow lanes near Leeds Castle and near Smarden. Once home and unloaded, Bat borrowed another car and we got home about 2 am. I decided that we can blame Kat for this as the last couple of times when she's left the county, she's had transport trouble, and they usually happen in threes! A couple of weeks ago when she went to London and got stuck on the train for over 3 hours and when she went to Lakeside on a snowy day and took 7 hours to get home.
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