Chaplog tries hard

Lena is 18

Lena's eighteenth birthday. A fabulous day with only two minor points of interest to the reader. I managed to take my parents for an intended circular walk on the ridge above Hollingworth. It was a great walk and as we looked down at Hollingworth, Hadfileld and Padfield we shared the view with two Buzzards. The first pair we have seen in the Peak. I had seen them the day before on the "local" cycle ride - I suspect they were the same pair. We noted that it was harder for buzzards to soar when there is a light Pennine drizzle and cool temperatures compared to continental European sunshine the conditions where we normally see them. I say an intended circular walk as we failed to to complete the circle. I had what I thought was a watertight get out clause, concerinig bad maps with a "missing section", as an excuse for getting lost but it did not stand up to close scrutiny. I had missed the turning. I left sister and parents in a Pub and I ran back for the car.

It is a worry to me to note that my sister had the money again and I had forgotten to bring any! I lost a number of points for failing to return for lunch as other visitors had arrived .....

The other interesting point was a little incident that happened after the party. We had decided that young people should sleep in a large tent in the garden. Chris, Lena's boyfriend, managed to have a small accident with a can of Boddingtons whilst in the tent. Being a young person with extreme sensitivity to the feelings of the parents of his girlfriend he rushed into the house to get a cloth to mop up the beer.

Things went from bad to worse at this point. Dashing into the house at extreme speed he made one of those basic fundamental errors that we can all remember making as a young person. Ask Rick, Mike or Al for for their personal top ten. One of the causes I suspect was his hat, though looking very cool, it was interfering with his night vision. I should mention at this point that I had made a mature decison before the party of not wearing, my now legenndary pink hat; it is best not to up-stage young people at their own events. As Al mentioned to me later in the evening "it is not my fault that I have a charismatic character and young men should prefer to talk to me than their girlfirends. Anyway we were talking of things going from bad to worse. We have established that his night vision was hampered by the wearing of the hat. Secondly there is no other way of putting this, he had had a skinful. Now the combination of the two combined with the fact that my outside door to the kitchen is solid clear glass was a major cause for this error of judgement. What happened was that he he tried to run into the kitchen without opening the door. A basic error that a number of us older people have made. Contact with the door was made with his knee and nose, both of which survived the ordeal. The door I am afraid did not. Further details have to be withheld at this point due to an insurance claim and the definition of an accident.

Posted by mikec at August 26, 2003 09:32 PM