Teston kite weekend 12 -14 August 2005
A "RACK" weekend.

Rain - The Archers - Cricket - Kites
The first of our contingent arrived at mid day on the Friday, and for once we weren't the first to arrive. It was quite odd to find that we'd been beaten to the field. However we wasted no time in setting up an enclave with family, friends, our partners in crime from Brighton, and our latest recruit, the aptly named "New Boy".

Wonder if he'll come next time ?
Apparently one of our number is not 100% happy about the funding of the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. Our WebMaster wasted no time in exploiting that weakness to it's fullest extent.

(Oh, this one will run and run!!)
The Normal Friday evening ensued with not a kite flown. Beer and cricket (listening to the test match; not playing - none of us are that fit!!) were on the cards as we waited for the whole team to arrive and we all looked forward to our fish supper.

Fish and chips was rapidly scoffed, and then as darkness fell, we set about the beer.

Some set about more beer than others !!! - If you were the nice lady in the toilets that our associate "Wanda" scared at 1 a.m., please accept our apologies !
"knock knock" "Who's there ?" "Wanda" "Wanda Who ?" "Wanda Piss"
The Alps & Romney Marsh
The morning started with the justly famous armpit washing ceremony, disturbed only by the insolence of "Romney Marsh" and an earsplittingly shrieked warning that "Daddy's got a headache".

Which was probably some consolation for the poor lady who was in the toilet at 1 a.m.

Breakfast is always popular, and with the brekky in the pan spelling out "ELF" we embarked on a "who can eat a runny egg sarnie" contest.

Saturday morning was greeted with bright sunshine and a good breeze and the promise of a good day's flying.

We saw the maiden flight of Chippy's new 10ft delta nicknamed "Rainbow Warrior" and there was an outing for the Manta ray and the lifters with tails and all sorts of line junk including a new Panda.
We knew that this good weather could not last - rain was forecast for for late afternoon so people lifting was on the mind of some of the Elves.

It was all going fine until the kite handle broke in two places and our aviator hit the ground like a sack of spuds.

Laugh - we nearly got away with it, but someone blabbed to the girly-types.

VERY fierce !!!!
Then the rain came.

And came

It can quite difficult to have a barby when it's raining but not for The ELF Team who hastily nicked another gazebo & ransacked someone else's cooking apparatus, windbreak and groundsheet to create a waterproof (!) cooking area.

This gave us somewhere dry to spend the the forecasted four hours of rain.
Four hours - oh how we laughed. To be fair to the BBC's forecasting ability, the rain did slacken off a bit around midnight to allow us to get "Junior Alky" to bed in something less than a monsoon.

It's been said that continued association with certain members of Team ELF is a bad influence on her (!)
Sunday morning was decidedly damp, but brekky was, as always, enjoyed by all.

It was nice to be able to eat "al-fresco" (that's latin for "messy") - we'd been cooped up in the big white tent for too long.
For a while, the "Pink Gaywing" together with skydancer & purple fish were the highest things in the sky, but as the wind picked up we realised that the Elves who were visiting for the day hadn't seen the nasty mishap of the day before, and so we harnessed them up and proceeded to repeat our mistakes yet again.
Having demolished two of our august company, as many were packing up & going home, we thought we'd see if the parachute still worked.

It did !!!

 And then to bed - after a beer or so. A busy day packing up tomorrow !!

 

Once again, a great time was had by all, and many thanks to Ron Dell for organising such a wonderful weekend.  
Finally - Tigers !!

Thanks also to Simon, Paul, Chip & Tina for assistance in the production of this page - the "official camera" had been on close-up mode the whole weekend.

Blame the Hobgoblins !!