09 October 2012

2012 Bus Story - Sequel

You will be pleased to know that the bus, complete with new battery thanks to a Good Samaritan with black-grease-stained hands called Phil, performed admirably for the week of camp, taking 20 teenagers at a time to and from electives.  "Performed admirably" in this case involves the bus shuddering and shaking along the road while roasting its sweaty, red-faced passengers and melting Mr de Elba's Thankyou Chocolate which was given by the camp leaders to thank him for driving the "Bucket 'o' Bolts" all week without once uttering a bad word.

The only Bus Incident that occurred while actually on camp was this:


The bus ran over our Family Sunscreen.  But it was still useable despite the bottle being squashed flatter than it was, the lid being blown off and, I suspect, a good amount of sunscreen being splattered all over the road.

And that's the end of The Bus Story.  How underwhelming.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The children had a blast on camp, even though they were only hangers-on at a camp which was really for high-schoolers.

There was a lot of beach swimming:
 
Bimi insisted on swimming with her handbag one day.  
It even went out in the surf with her.
 Counting heads: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ...
...6, 7...
  No, no, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... plus Rex makes 9!  Nine?  Oops we counted someone else's kid ...
 In the middle of the nights I didn't want Rex to wake anybody up, so I took him to a little room to settle him.  In the darkness without my contact lenses, I could see practically nothing.  I named the room "The Pineapple Room" because it had fruit in it (including pineapples) waiting to be used for The Masterchef Challenge one night.
How tropical, how fun, how happy does "The Pineapple Room" sound?  How disappointing to see it already had a name, heralded by the sign on the door which could be clearly seen in the light of day:
This camper made a corn cob stack with all our leftovers.  Clever.

On the day that Buzz and Jessie went with the campers to Wet'n'Wild, Woody and Rex and I packed the day full of activities with Justamum and two of her kids Boris and Bimi.  At the big local shopping centre, Woody spent half an hour on a bouncy bus before being bored stiff at a dreadful Lorax stageshow involving two perky dancing girls and a person in a huge Lorax suit saying "Redooce, Reuse, Recycle" in a fake New York accent.
Buzz and Woody loved the bowling:
Belle, who had never been bowling before, won the game.  After we got home, we realised that the final round entitles you to three bowls, not two.  Fail, Givinya, Fail.

Here are Jessie, Banana, Buzz, Belle and Bimi dressed up for Formal Night at camp.  Blurry phone photos again.
Little Rex spent most of the week in his new wrap. I got a Storchenwiege after finding my way out of the babywearing culture I accidentally got immersed in as part of my research into the type of wrap to buy.  I just want to be hands-free, not subscribe to a culture!  Babywearing Institute?  Babywearing Conventions?  For real?
Formal Night: the de Elbas weren't prepared and had to make do with regular holiday clothes:
The children took a joking suggestion that they were traveling in the trailer as the honest truth, and were disappointed to hear that it wasn't going to happen:
Dear Baby Rex.
Completely exhausted after a week at camp, Rex slept for 11.5 hours straight as soon as he hit his comfy cot.  Here he is the next day saying "Keep your bassinette.  I will sleep right here thanks."

7 comments:

Tracy P. said...

I'm so glad you braved babywearing culture to achieve your hands-free goal. It was wonderful to see your adventures. The beach looks delightful!

Charlie said...

I would imagine that baby-wearing culture is a lot like menstrual-cup culture. (Actually, a lot of cup users are also baby-wearers. It's a tree hugging hippie thing.) Well, we don't have conferences, but some cup users are downright militant, and spend a lot of time telling people that you must use a cup and if you don't it means you hate the earth. And puppies. WHY DO YOU HATE PUPPIES??

Whereas I'm more likely to say, "Hey, this thing is great. You might want to try it. Oh, you don't? Righto then. As you were!" But yes, when I was investigating the cups I found myself sucked into the culture. I couldn't get out fast enough...

Givinya De Elba said...

Hee hee, I've always found you very polite and kind when suggesting them, never militant! You're a sweetie! And you're not into dogs, but I don't see you hating puppies like that ;-)

Charlie said...

Women in the cup culture tend to collect them (I have no idea why you'd need more than one), and "THOSE" baby-wearing mums often have 47 slings and wraps too. Apparently being part of a 'culture' turns you into a hoarder too. Don't worry; we can be the rebels who use the products that interest us but don't get the membership card. ;)

gartcott aka Penny Hannah said...

All's well that ends well, if a trifle anticlimactic. Looks as though you all enjoyed the beach, the sling is great and the Formal outfits interesting. Talking about wearing babies.... I did my midwifery training in Edinburgh with a delightful Nigerian girl who used to tell us apocryphal tales about how her mother used to carry all her babies on her back and when they were hungry, just 'sling a breast over her shoulder' so as not to waste time when she was working - now there's a thought that may be worth pursuing when you're busy!

Givinya De Elba said...

Penney, I heard similar stories in PNG! Wow! I didn't believe it until I saw the PNG women ...

Allegro ma non troppo said...

I love those pictures of Rex!