We had all the usual fun and games putting the tents up and it was soon very clear who were the ‘seasoned’ tent-users and who was pretty useless.
We must thank Jay without whom our GS rep would have been sleeping under a pile of canvas and poles – and no, Daryl; No matter how hard you try, a king-size airbed does not fit in a two-man tent....
From the moment that we arrived we were made to feel so welcome by the members of Diogenes and especially our brilliant organisers, Steve and ‘the Andys’. As always, it was lovely to welcome new faces into our happy little family, as well as catching up with all of the older ones. As we moved into Saturday, Emma J was a welcome addition to our group and certainly deserves to be made an honorary YBNer.
Emma provided treatments to our YBN clan which were extremely well-received, as we were all feeling a little ‘delicate’ come Saturday morning! We have come to the conclusion, though, that Emma is not a ‘normal’ lady; she is a mythical being in disguise and she emanates magic from her fingertips!
Saturday saw lots of fun and games; Diogenes kindly let us take over their swimming pool and volleyball court and we also saw our first YBN AGM, which was a fun experience, to say the least. As we moved into Saturday evening, we were greeted by the most wonderful smells coming from the kitchen (thanks, Crawfords!) for our ‘curry-oke’ evening. We had a bit of a ‘mixed bag’ of themes for the evening, with everything from elegant Bollywood to giant YBN babies or simply nothing at all.
We enjoyed the delicious food and quickly moved on to the karaoke. Again, it was very clear who could sing, who couldn’t and who should probably have their vocal chords removed. As always, we were also entertained by Daryl’s legendary dancing as we partied into the wee hours.
Saturday was rounded off with the appearance of the giant YBN cheese board; the size of a small aircraft, it carried enough cheese to keep the whole of BN in their recommended daily intake of dairy products for at least a month!!
Sunday saw us learning the art of Miniten from some of the brilliant Diogenes members. It also saw a number of our YBNers joining Diogenes and becoming a part of their wonderful family.
All that is left to say is a massive thank you to Diogenes and everyone there that worked so hard to make this event a success for us. We had so much fun and we can’t wait to come back!