I booked the day off work as I had been invited to a special Partylite training meeting at Karen's. Marion had come all the way down from Nottingham to give myself, and the other two Karen's extra guidance. Sarah had brought along two girls in her team, Rachel and Alison. I must get out and do some door knocking and get my diary filled up. Karen made us a lovely sandwich lunch with fruit, and we finished soon after 2.
I came home for a little while and then picked Kat up from Hannah's. Kat and I went shopping in Tesco. I cooked Chicken Rogan Josh for dinner and then had to go out again before 7. I went to Hersden to a Partylite show with Karen, for more training.
Monday 12th July 2010 - Packing up
We were woken really early to a sound that we really really didn't want to hear. The sound of heavy rain on the outside of the tent. We lay there listening to it, possibly wishing that we'd actually heeded the warning of the weather forecasters for a change and packed up Sunday night. Glad we didn't though or we would have missed out on a fun evening with the other Sunday nighters. Somehow we managed to dodge the worst of the rain. I packed up my things in our tent and when it was dry I wandered down to the toilets. We soon got on with a bit more packing with Dave's car backed into the front of brown and smelly. When the heavens opened again, we dropped the front of the tent and closed the car and cooked breakfast. After breakfast the rain eased off again and we were able to get on. As the sun started to come out I noticed that some embers started smoking a little way up the hill from us. Dave chucked the remainder of our water over it to drench it. We got packed up by 11.30 which wasn't too bad as there was just the 3 of us. Before going home I went to Asda to top up the car as petrol is so much cheaper there by about 6p a litre. That little detour only took 10 minutes and we were soon on our way. I remembered the way home properly and we had a good run back, getting home about 1.30. We emptied both cars and then Tony and I did a bottle bank run before dropping him off home. The car was packed so tightly that we didn't hear the bottles clank once on the way. Back home again and it was nearly 4pm by the time I could get to the shower after putting most of the stuff away.
Sunday 11th July - Brighton Kite Festival Day 2
We were all awake and up early. It was too hot to stay in the tent. We stayed there as long as we could but soon had to get up. Even though we were up early, it took a few coffees before we were ready to tackle breakfast. Soon after breakfast, I realised that it was too late to move a car off the field to get some shopping, and as Julie and Mike were off home later in the day, they weren't going shopping either. I wandered down to our fellow campers/caravan friends to see if anyone else was going to Asda later. Sue very kindly offered to take me later in the day, once she'd had a sleep as she'd done an early airport run. We decided that we would go later in the day, possibly after the kite workshop. It rained during the morning and then cleared up again. We continued the lazy morning, apart from Kat who had found lots of energy to practise Capoeira. Emily was learning too which was really sweet. Spirit fly was about 5 o'clock again. I made sure that I was there ready and waiting. Batty left soon afterwards so that he could get to see Prue before end of visiting time. More and more friends left and it was soon time to cook dinner. Dinner preparation was a joint effort. Dave went to clear the washing up whilst everyone else helped prepare food. Tonight we had chinese chicken with pineapple, served with boiled new potatoes. It was a real team effort, and was enjoyed by everyone.
Soon after dinner, half of our party departed and there was just myself, Dave and Tony left. Once we had packed as much as we could, we grabbed our seats and some drinks and wandered down the bottom of the field as we had been invited to join the others that were staying overnight. It was a fun evening chatting until late.
Saturday 10th July 2010 - Kite Festival Day 1
The boys went out shopping after breakfast while we continued our lazy morning. Lisa and I had been wandering around the stalls when we had the call that they were on the way back so we met up with them at the bottom of the field to help back with the shopping. No cars are to move on site while the festival is on, between 10 and 5. It was lovely not to have to go shopping for a change. With the lack of refrigeration it is better to buy the food as we need it. The breakfast stuff survives the weekend as it starts out frozen and stays in the cool box. We've learnt now that frozen vegetables do not keep well. 
Several of our number soon disappeared to help with the Children's kite workshop. Paul and I had a wander for a little while playing with the binoculars. We got an ice cream and watched the kites for a bit and then we went to see the owls. They were all hand reared from very young and quite happy being admired by all. Kat and I held one. He was very sweet. Their feathers are almost silky. We had a look at a fire engine and Paul had a sit in the cab. We waited for Dave to finish at the workshop and went to find the reel that we had reserved for my spirit kite. It was worth checking out the prices on the reels as they varied greatly from stall to stall. Dave bought a new kite, covering all the colours that he didn't already have in his new colourful shirt and shorts. Sometime later, he had to rescue it from the tree. We got photographic evidence to squeal to Collin with later. I had a call to say that the spirit fly in the arena was to be at 5pm. I started to wander down there with Kat about quarter to and could see others already in the arena, so I had to run. It was a bit of a rush setting up and my lines were a bit tied up. With help I soon got it into the air.
Lisa cooked dinner this evening. We had bolognaise wraps. Rice was also cooked to add to the wraps. It went down well, if a bit messy. After dinner, we wandered down to join the BBQ people as Simon had asked us to. Corinne got the award this year for all her hard work. It was soon time to get back to our camp and the girls went mad collecting lots of wood for the fire pit. Paul and Alfie helped break up the twigs which was funny as they were thinking they were really strong. We soon all settled down with more of Batty's cocktails and a variety of Purple Rain. There was 22 of us around the camp fire at one stage during the evening. More wood got added to the fire slowly, until the pyromaniac arrived and fed it everything we had. As if that wasn't annoying enough, some young muscle man (Andrew) was persuaded to dump the biggest half a tree stump he could manage into the middle. How it didn't break I'll never know. It certainly groaned under the extra weight. As our numbers dwindled, there was soon just Mick snoring. We didn't leave him there. Kat got given the job of waking him up and sending him off towards his tent.
Friday 9th July - Off to Brighton
Having got the food shopping at Farm Foods and Asda last night, I could concentrate on packing and getting ready. By the time I'd sorted out some paper work that needed doing and had my shower it was gone 10.30. It took ages to get the stuff packed into my car. I went round for Tony about 11.30. Seeing as I had said that I'd be round for him at 11, I was surprised that he still had to visit the shop! Never mind, we were soon ready to go. The journey was uneventful and we arrived at the time that the sat nav said that we would, about 1.30. The end of the journey was a bit scary where the usual route across the road to Stanmer Park was closed and we had to go up the hill and turn round but I soon worked it out.When we arrived we sorted out the kitchen stuff and Tony had his tent to put up. Kevin and Linda set up quite close to us. They have had their new pup since yesterday and you would think she had been with them for ages. She looks so happy and settled. They've decided to call her Amber. Mike and Julie arrived too with Fiona, Paul and Alfie, Gaynor and Mick with Matthew and Caitlin. Terry and Irene joined us about 5 ish.
It was soon time to start cooking dinner. We had lemon and broccoli chicken. I chose this tonight as it was a recipe that I wanted to do and as Lisa wasn't with us and didn't like broccoli. I didn't know that Terry had a strong aversion to broccoli too. My assistant chef and I sorted him a separate lemon chicken portion. Served with rice, it was welcomed by all. We had a wander around the field after dinner to say hi to our fellow campers. Irene and I made quite serious headway into a box of wine. At one stage in the evening, she was feeling a little worse for wear and a little bit chilly. I suggested a run up the hill to wear off some alcohol and warm up a bit. She couldn't believe she went along with it and had the giggles! Sorry Irene, it worked for me!
Wednesday 7th July 2010
On checking my emails quite late in the afternoon, I found one that was from Laura asking if I could cover a Partylite show for her that evening. I let her know straight away that I would do it but did start to regret it soon after. It was on the Isle of Grain, about an hour's drive, I still had quite a bit of work to do, I wasn't sure that my kit was 100% ready to pick up, my car was low on petrol, I needed to eat and we were supposed to be going shopping for camp. After work, I got to Tesco Petrol Station about 10 to 6, and also picked up a pasta salad bowl. Rushing home, I put Dave some dinner in the oven and told him when it would be ready. I managed to eat while getting ready, and got out again about 6.30.
I'm glad I went now. It was a really good night. The girls were all really lovely, and I'd even met a couple of them before at a show I went to with a friend for training last year. I'd not been up to the Isle of Grain before. I wonder if there's much up there to investigate? Apparently there is a Haven caravan site there.
Tuesday 6th July 2010 - Biscuits
Today I looked up the calories for my malted milk biscuit to see if it had less calories than my low fat biscuits. It has 44 compared to 58 per slice of my special ones. The website I found suggested some healthier alternatives that I might like to try instead to save calories. No one in the office was keen to try these. Who on earth would replace their lovely biscuit with their morning cuppa with a cabbage, lettuce, aubergine or spinach?
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