A glass of wine sat around the campfire...

[SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion]

so I am fed up with the rest of MN (this whole mamazon shite really is the ,last straw), so I am assuming that if any of you are trolling you are showing extraordinary persistence by delving into the thrills of iceytec and are worth chatting to.

So anyway, hi, I am SeaShells, I have 2 dc and have been camping and trapsing through the Great Outdoors all my life. I hang out here as my love of camping is more a love of the countryside and life, and you lot have a similar outlook.

< admires well made fire and tastefully arranged logs with throws>

What, you mean you wrote what appeared under FiveGoMad's name? Odd and very wierd. Wonder what name this'll appear under?

Well, I had a large Parcelforce delivery today! Had to rush DSs off to a music group but later on, my parents appeared, and I took the opportunity to dump the baby on my mother and get the tent up.

15 minutes? FIFTEEN MINUTES?? Ahem. It took an hour and a half, ladies. But I'm still learning. Haven't pegged the mudflappy bit to the walls yet, but it looks pretty nice in the garden and I was able to surprise DH with an almost-erected bell tent when he rolled in from work at 7. DS1 has already started treating guy ropes with respect. after twanging them and tripping a lot

Reshape - yes I wrote my reply and it was under Fivegomad...and I was signed in as that name, really odd.

Hoping to stay as me now.

Sal, I'm in Sheffield. Really want to come to the bank holiday meet but it's four hours away. Shame, it sounded so lovely. And Camber looks like my idea of heaven.

Sorry reshape how could I not comment on your first erection (of the bell tent). Very exciting.

Scaryt there are loads of threads about it-it's all really wierd. Current thinking is we are either being attacked by zombies or NEws International (not sure which is worse tbh!)

Same here, mn camp is our only booked thing, I wether is good second week of aug we will go though.

Haha re Zombie / News International. I'd go for the former if I had to choose.

Exciting on bell pitching, Reshape! First time always more effort as have to tie all the guy ropes, figure it out etc etc. Next time you pitch you'll feel like wonderwoman.

Scary, shame re bh, as would have been lovely to meet you all, but yes, we're the same - anything over 2 hours a bit much if you still have to strike camp etc on the other side, and repeat it all two days later.

Guy ropes were already attached, which was nice. Had to remember how sliders work, though! I honestly didn't think I'd manage to get the central pole up on my own - the fabric was so heavy, and I'm 5'2". It's at a slight angle now, which I didn't notice at the time (and the whole tent is pitched on a bit of a slope, but the garden slopes everywhere) but I think ok.

I still can't pitch on my own. I'm a disgrace to the Modern Woman, really.

Looks like a wet weekend. Had hoped to take the tent off somewhere and celebrate my birthday. Since it'll be raining anyway, I will just leave the tent up, let it get wet for the first time, and have a family party in there, in the garden!

Bunting is ok for birthdays, right?

Garden party would be the ideal first use imo. Bunting required, of course. Also gives canvas a chance to expand or whatever they call it when the fibers swell up a bit and it becomes completely waterproof. Mind you, I'm not sure if that's even true, as we've slept in ours the first time it got wet and it didn't leak a drop.

Yay Reshape! :o It will get faster, honest - DH and I can now do it in 15 mins together, I can do it in about 25 solo, depending on how much hindrance I get from DD. Ours is a ZIG, tho, so that may have some bearing on speed of erection? (fnar)

Perfect idea to use it for a garden party! Bunting mandatory :o

Latitude today!!! Is it churlish of me to be really fed up that my 'check my list' thread is in Discussions of the Day so is attracting non-camping traffic? Camping is my safe area and I feel invaded.... Or am I just a bad-tempered moo? I came back from directing a rehearsal last night (well, trying to direct whilst trying not to murder one of my cast who decided while he was not onstage he was going to talk over me and give his own direction to the others, so I was already feeling deeply snippy) to find such gems as 'I don't know what a trangia is so I wouldn't take one' (useful!) 'I'm just taking a 1 person pop up' (good for you!!) ''it won't kill your dd to eat junk for 4 days' (actually it's not about eating junk it's about her not eating at all, read the feckin' thread!!!).... & mildly

On reflection I daresay I am being a bad-tempered moo, I will get over myself and get packing :).

I have a brand new winebox chilling in the fridge [priorities] and am really looking forward to seeing Suede, rain or no rain. DH being worse than useless atm, I am going to have to give him specific jobs or he will disappear all morning, try and sell it to me as 'I'm keeping out of your way so you can get on' and then reappear 5 mins before we're due to leave and ask 'aren't you ready yet?'

I am still smartphone-less, so won't be able to check in now til late Monday, I am hoping the dismal forecast is wrong, but am packing wellies and shorts (long keks no good in rain at a festival!) and waterproof jackets!

We will then have 5 days to dry the tent out before we go away to Trevornick for a week :)

MisSal - I am trying to fit in camping most weekends, weather permitting. During term time we are so limited because of DD's drama class, so in the summer I intend to try and go for it! We are doing Bedgebury in Kent the weekend before the August Bank Hol, then the MN meet thingy if it comes off. DH's DB, DSis and families are at Haven in Devon (white cliffs?) over the weekend before that (12-14th) and there is an NT campsite just up the road from it. Am I insane to consider a weekend in Devon? It's a 3 hour drive at the best of times....

lovecat - have a great time at Latitude , I do think the discussions of the day thing did give your packing thread a totally different 'feel' to the rest of camping, but then I don't go anywhere else...so have no idea what I'm talking about really!! Hope your dh comes up trumps in the final getting ready moments. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Reshape - I think the bell tent will be perfect for a garden party. Happy birthday

lovecat, apologies again for being a silly-arse on your thread. I'm sure you'll have a great time.

Reshape your mn users name is IDEAL under these new tent erecting circumstances. You may find that when your tent gets very wet (the canvas goes from water droplets running off to sodden) that your guys need a bit of tweaking to maintain uniform tautness.

Party in garden sounds lovely btw

Wish I could come to the bank holiday camp, but it is rather a long way from west wales! Although before I knew where it was I was panicking that if we went Slubber would come and check my guys and I would be found lacking . Also would my Outwell Hartford XXL be mocked for being bigger than most people's houses?

Phew, glad I found this thread, I'm having cold sweats at not being able to go on threads I'm on, can anyone remember where I posted my Tour de France thread as I can't find it and need a full and frank discussion of Cav's thighs and what exactly was going on in his shorts on the podium?

Have a fab time at latitude, I'm going to peruse your packing thread now lovecat as it is handily signposted in discussions of the day so I know I can't lose it!

aw, I am not a guyline checker much. No really am a breezy non judgey camper. I waft about mostly thinking about when the next cup of tea or coffee or wine is going to be consumed.

I must admit, I'm looking forward (with trepidation) to seeing the tent get really wet for the first time - can't get my head round how it can be really sodden yet not drip! I presume this is the point at which I start hollering 'don't touch the sides!' to DS1 and DH?

'Party' sounds nice, but in fact it'll just be me, DH, the DSs and probably my parents. I was originally planning a large garden party for birthday/house warming (moved in November) but stopped the plans when I saw what sort of summer we're having, and also that there is a Smell emanating from next door. (We think the doddery old gent who lives alone is peeing out of his window, or into a jar and emptying it out, but can't exactly discover if this is the case or not. Council have checked him out and think he's ok, and they've come and strimmed his jungle garden to the soil in case there was a decaying ox hidden in there somewhere. And put a camera down the drains. Nada.)

Anyway, I will have a party of six, and lots of bunting.

You know I have never really got the physics of how the water doesn't come through. Am totally on board with fibres getting wet and swelling up, thus preventing water going through the holes but what's to stop the water going through the actual cotton fibres?

I dunno. Maybe it's canvas magic.

Shouting at children not to touch the sides is an important rite of passage for both you as parent and they as children who are about to become scared of wet sides of tents. Their life will be richer for it.

You can still call it a party, why the hell not. Don't smash a bottle of fizz on the canvas though to launch it.

bad smell next door neighbour sounds ominous

Lostinwales-Cav had over stuffed his shorts shame it's too ar or you to meet-it's 3hrs for us but I think we will try!

If we are all talking to each other next year then we will try to head somewhere more central I should think to be fairer on everyone-which is a shame as a private camp on a beautiful farm is perfect!

Reshapewhiledamp :( I hope your neighbour is ok. I have an elderly guy living above me and every laid bump I hear I worry is him falling.

Lovecat, I haven't read your thread, but I have to admit I was a bit, oh, I don't know, apprehensive about potential new inflow to camping. I know this is wrong as I wouldn't have "met" you lot if it wasn't for an open topic, and also, of course, it's not for me to say what MN should be like. But my word, I'm going to cry long and hard if some of those nutters that were around a month or so ago migrate to our hideout. I think plan of action is to ensure camping bores them so much they don't stay. Enamel mugs, various types of guy ropes and sleeping bag quality discussions to begin. Oh, wait, we're doing that already. Nah, they won't stay.

MissSal-I know, it's silly isn't it! Oh well...we just need to direct them to the photo of Slubber's deathsocks and a few camping list threads and pifft, gone are those only weakly inclined.

We have had two threads flagged in as many days (the latitude thread and the Quechua one). That's good going for us!

HEY!

There is nothing dull about my death socks mrs.

I feel a discussion of the benefit of rock pegs and Delta pegs would prove too much for the faint-hearted or perhaps the many ways in which a tarpaulin can be folded/pegged to make numerous types of shelter.

No no no! But anti continental tick strategies are not your average mn conversation a tad hardcore!