Sunday, September 11, 2011

DAY 51 (Friday 09 September 2011)

Well today we got up, yes even Charlie to go and say goodbye to Alison and Mark as they head back to the UK for their next posting, it was a really good turn out as the picture below shows, Alison and Mark have the KATAs round their necks.

Alison & Mark Dennis with us from work

Woohoo, I got parcels and letters today, because we had no post yesterday because of a Bank Holiday, we were able to get our mail today, I got mail from my mum, well happy about that, I was getting worried, and I had parcels and the best parcel of all was the one that showed up with my padded shorts, so happy, as my bum will be comfy on Sunday’s bike ride, if not then they will most definitely get sent back with a bad review.

Tonight is Games Night in the Combined Mess, we have invited the junior ranks over to play the games, however, as is the normal case, there will probably be plenty of cheating going on so as not to let the Juniors win, (that is the rule of the Mess, well any Mess really).

We had to be at the Mess for 1900 hrs ready to greet the Comd (Col Andrew Mills) at 1915 hrs and then for the juniors to be welcomed into our Mess at 1920 hrs, however, for them to actually come into the Mess, they had to do a quick obstacle course across the grass to the door to the Mess.

Junior Ranks doing the Assault Course

Once inside they were properly welcomed with a drink and then the rules of the games were to be read, then the cheating (oops I mean the games) can begin.

First up was the Altitude Sickness game, all that was really was a race on stilts across from one side of the  Mess to a cone, round the cone then back, for the next member of the team, each team consisted of 5 people.

Video Stills of the Altitude Sickness Game

Andy Vick staying strong

Second game was basketball, however no baskets were involved, just buckets.  The aim of the game was to get the basketball into the bucket to score, now this is where the Combined Mess was lucky, purely because the bucket we were using was actual in fact an outside bin and the Juniors had an actual bucket, well if it taught the Junior Ranks one thing, it was to see if their Wednesday sports afternoons on the basketball court actually paid off.

Third game was golf, however, to win this game you had to putt the golf ball against the wall and it had to stop on the white sheet of paper, this is where some cheating really did go on, the paper was moved to make sure the ball stopped on it, others put their hands in front of the ball to stop it from leaving the paper if it was hit too hard against the wall.  We as the Combined Mess were using a different club to the Juniors, but I think because they actually had the putter they won that one.

 How the golf was played

The fourth game was the horse racing game, (no picture), there was definitely cheating going on with both teams, but it’s all in the name of fun.

The fifth and final game of the evening was Wine Draughts, however, instead of just 2 people playing, all members of each Mess took a turn, the rules for this one was if you were too slow in making your move, you were made to drink the glass of wine, if the opponent jumped your move, you had to drink the glass of wine, if you made a wrong move you drank a glass of wine and so on and so on. 

 Col Andrew Mills opening with the first move

Let’s just say, it wasn’t a game that the Junior Ranks were going to win.

There was one final adhoc game that Stevie Bye (postie) decided to do and that was the boat race, 5 team members were to down a pint of beer each but in turn, needless to say the Juniors Ranks didn’t stand a chance against the members of the Combined Mess.

Video Stills of the Boat Race

A good night was had by all and the Junior Ranks left the Mess beaten, not shamed and in good spirits.

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