By: Blonde One
You will have noticed by now that there are many things to recommend my new school, Trinity. I’m settling in really well and enjoying the renewed enthusiasm for my subject, and very much enjoying sharing my passion for all things outdoors with like-minded people. This week I met up with the two fabulous members of staff in charge of the CCF. Gerard and Geraldine are a force to be reckoned with. They are definitely ‘movers and shakers’ and make things happen. The things that happen because of them include persuading RNAS Culdrose to bring a helicopter up to play at Trinity later in the year! Impressive, I’m sure you agree?
I spent a lovely hour with them, drinking coffee, chatting, sharing stories, and then it happened … I was taken into their kit store. This was a store like no other I had ever seen. It was full. It was neat. It was orderly. I was in heaven! There was box after box of clothing, there was shelves full of rucksacks, there were Trangias, boots, roll mats, map cases, and on and on and on.
Blonde Two and I worked really hard on our kit in our previous school: we appointed only the best Storesmen (affectionately known as Shed Boys), we sourced kit from the Gift Your Gear Scheme, and we worked closely with the Dartmoor Preservation Society to develop the Moor Boots scheme, but this amount of kit far exceeded what we had. I’m even more excited now to get out on expedition!
Impressive!
Pity the kids can’t have Thermorests instead of those hideous foam mats that you see, half hanging off at angle, on the ruckasacks of D of E Bronzers, bless them.
Everybody should start with a foam mat Conrad… how else are they going to appreciate their Thermorest?
Here is a link to a photo in Dropbox illustrating my comment above:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/69jyv8a57lvpyej/DofErucksacks.JPG?dl=0
I as Conrad am posting this reply that was posted in Dropbox:
Shelagh Rogers at 11:54 PM
Well that lot get 1 out of 10 for packing! Why do people mount their mats crosswise? They stay put much better mounted vertically.
Apologies, Conrad – not very expert at this posting lark. My favourite posting place is a red pillar thing down the road. There’s a nice little man with a red van comes to empty it most days. Reminds me of a red Seat van I once had – when it was new, I took it home to show Mum and Dad but as I arrived at about 2 in the morning, I bunked down in it on their drive. The little boy next door peeping out at 3 a.m., ran to wake his Mummy and Daddy to tell them Postman Pat had arrived next door.
Wherever I for and walk with my friend Pete on Thursdays we nearly always see the little red van – it usually comes past us then returns again later and we always give Pat a wave.