How anal are you about your tent and were you a guide?

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Have realised am hopelessly anal while camping which is odd as house is a tip very lived in.

When pitching all guys must be in a perfect line, when striking all guys must be tied 'just so'.

Inside the tent it's very much 'a place for everything and eveything in its place'.

Tent is swept constantly.

The beds are made with millitary precision as soon as we are all out of them.

Everything is generally folded/squared/clean.

At the end of this weekends camping I watched a couple saying 'sod it' and just stuffing their unbagged tent into the boot and throwing clothes/pots/toys/boxes on top.

It wasn't even raining.

I looked like this -->

I was a guide, I had discipline whist under canvas literally hammered into me, on arrival at a camp site we had to spend a good amost of times fashioning thinds from poles with plenty of square lashing before there was any chance of rest of refreshment.

Is Baden-Powell to blame? How do you run your tent?

[Lucycat]

Yes I am quite anal about making sure the tent is pitched in the best place for the sun/wind/trees/slope etc and it had to be pegged out properly although that does seem to have become dh's job while I play house in a true 'Anne from the Famous Five stylee'

Things have their place and I do like a tidy tent.

Yes I was a Brownie/Guide (Queen's natch)/Venture and yes I do still collect welly sticks, although I admit I no longer make tripods for my washing up bowl or racks for my bedding rolls.
I am so happy that dd1 is going on her first Guide camp this summer although at them camping in a Vango Venture 500!

[hackingandhewing]

I'm the same but then I am like that wherever we go on holiday. Hotels, cottages, anywhere. Neat as a pin.

My house however is far from it. I think it's something about being able to start from scratch!!!

I was a guide too!

[moonmother]

Another anal camper here although I wasn't a guide.

pitching tent/guys etc YES
everything has a place YES
beds made asap in morning YES
first thing after breakfast I make sure everything is tidy in its place etc YES

This year for our main holiday we are going camping with my Dp's who, with a caravan get an EHU. So there will be no sweeping the tent out for me this year ....


we're taking a hoover

[notwavingjustironing]

I'll put my hand up too.

I'm tidy at home/on holiday in villas etc, but I am frightening myself this year. I have bought more boxes, collapsable storage, camping cupboards, camping only kitchen stuff that you can shake a (welly) stick at.

Even the storage at home is exact, I can put my hand on every tent peg, minature bottle of washing up liquid, knife and fork. DH thinks I'm utterly crazy.

I feel sick with excitement when the tent's up and I can play house for an hour or two.

I was a guide and I love a tripod stick or two......

[SlubberOnlyInATentCapacity]

Me.

Wildy, your OP, that is me. Maybe you are me?
[existential crisis]

No wait we have different dogs.

Yes was a Guide, and am now a Guider.

[notwavingjustironing]

I feel like we should all salute each other and send in a picture of us outside our tents ready for tent inspection!

[SlubberOnlyInATentCapacity]

notwaving. My dh is the same. Despairs of my plastic box organising, until he needs that zirtek/spare guy/fire lighters

[notwavingjustironing]

my friends are the worst. They laugh in my face, then ask me for a tin opener.

[SlubberOnlyInATentCapacity]

D1 made her Brownie Promise this week. now I can get her a Blanket. Campfires and smores and blankets


Thunder, Thunder, Thunderation....

[SlubberOnlyInATentCapacity]

notwaving, tell em to find their own the mocking bastards
(not that we speak like that in the Girl Guides, oh no)

[notwavingjustironing]

Nice to see that the Guiding movement is keeping up with today's yoof.

"....to serve the Queen, and help other people and tell the mocking bastards to do one"

Do you drive to Guide Camp with the windows down and JayZee blasting out with the base turned up full?

[Lucycat]

Thread hijack - slubber i am seriously contemplating buying one of these little beauties from NL. Just for camping abroad you understand

I need one don't I?
Nice canopy to sit under, smaller than Lakey as we don't need the outside space etc and Dutch!

[SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion]

Yes, brownie and guide, plus avid swallows and amazons fan (use to play it for hours in our tent in the back garden) and used to be a "George" but with element Os "Anne" during our famous five games.

Dh is a keen mountaineer, so we are both anal regarding pitch spot etc. We get very smug when it rains and we are fine and everyone else is in a puddle

[notwavingjustironing]

There's a theme emerging here, isn't there?

[Fennel]

I was a very keen guide (Queen's guide, young leader etc) but no I am not anal about camping stuff, though I can still fashion up a good draining board from sticks and string, and whittle a tent peg.

But these days I run a woodcraft folk group, the home of the guides who've gone over to the dark side, you can't really be anal about anything in this hippy alternative. I was not a very rule-bound guide but easily on the anal side for woodcraft folk.

[SlubberOnlyInATentCapacity]

notwaving, I am Rainbow Guider. Rainbow Guides don't camp thank the good Lord, but we do camp fire. No Jay-Zee here oh no. all the old favourite wholesome songs.

Lucy ooooh really? what a beaut. Yes, obviously you need one

Fennel, SPLITTER! [shuns]

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

Slubber, I went camping and you came back, yay!



No, you are not me, you are way more organized, though you may well be my girl crush

Though I thought I could already see a link this thread is bringing it all back, sodding tent inspections, welly sticks!

[SlubberOnlyInATentCapacity]

I never really left. Camping on mn is my hotel California, everyone here is so lovely.

I think you may have trumped me on anal organisation with the guy tying upon striking. I don't really bother, how terrible is that. There are two hundred guys on our tent [hyperbole] so that is my excuse.

[Fennel]

I would be a Titty in Swallows and Amazons games, with a hint of Nancy.

[DontCallMeBaby]

I am hopeless at home, but show definite signs of being an organised camper. I am completely neurotic in hotel rooms as well, and must unpack everything and put it away. Even if I'm only staying for one night.

I was not a Guide. Ha! So much for that theory.

Well, actually I was a Brownie for a while. Then a Woodcraft Folk. And then I was a naval cadet for years, and got to be in charge (ie shout a lot). I am possibly a little confused.

[WhereTheWildThingsWere]

You don't tie up your guys?

There goes the girl crush

Not only do they have to be tied up, they have to be tied up in a certain way.

Last year the guy in the tent opposite came and asked me if I could teach him, as mine looked so neat

[SlubberStrokingAnIceyTek]

I tie up my tarp guys in the proper way. Tent guys are not v long, and are too many. Dh would get the hump if I started fart arsing about with them.

DontCallMeBaby that time in Brownies, that's all it takes . I bet the Naval Cadets run a tight ship as it were (although do they camp much?)

[DontCallMeBaby]

I don't remember if we camped ... I remember staying in a Nissen hut in Kent. But I suspect the wearing of square rig uniform gives one a feel for guy ropes, even if no actual tents are involved.

[notwavingjustironing]

I was DESPERATE for a camp dress. And a neckerchief.

[Lovecat]

yy to tent guys tied up in the proper manner.

I did Brownies and Guides but couldn't get past the first Swallows & Amazons book (who calls their child Titty?).

I am a v. v. messy person both at home and on holiday in a hotel/cottage/villa environment, but in a tent I am ANAL. First time we went camping DH looked at me all 'where is my wife and what have you done with her?' when he saw my organised storage...

Yay to washing up bowl tripods and welly sticks! Anyone else remember cutting the turf in an H shape and peeling it back to light your fire?