Last Night's Shenanigans

You: Shenanigans?!

(I know only a select few of you read that in the appropriate tones of Ben Van-Meppelen Sheppink, but such is life...)

(Apologies that this isn't the blogspost about Ardgour like promised last time...it's more important. More Ardgour blogposts later...)

Last night we threw something of a Good-bye party our dear friend and colleague, Gareth, who left this morning not quite an hour ago (at least at the time of writing this sentence...).

We decided last minute on Monday evening that we should probably do something for him on Tuesday since it was his last night, so we speedily organized a BBQ Tuesday morning (thanks a million, Sheila, for being on board with this!). Thus, staff dinner was postponed till 7 so that the K4s could attend.

While we were eating breakfast, Molly, Katrina (one of our new gap years), and myself were discussing the BBQ and our wish at some point to play a major game of Capture the Flag on the Barcaple grounds. Since we had groups in, we knew that we wouldn't be able to use the whole area, however, we did decide to use the area around Low Barcaple, where we were going to be having the BBQ anyways. We easily chose who the Team Captains were going to be (and, yes, they had no choice in the matter...). And so Gareth and Steve (formerly, Bob...but I've decided to scrap the aliases...to much to remember...) were chosen, the obvious choices. Steve was thrilled, to say the least, when he found out and was, to my knowledge, planning strategies and assessing staff members on the capabilities for the rest of the day...

Molly and I spent much of our time planning these endeavors. At Lunch we went and checked out the area, setting, in our minds, tentative boundaries and the halfway point. And, as Molly was on a split shift and I had to get back to work, I left and Molly very kindly made two maps of the sides.

Dinner was absolutely lovely, thanks to Sheila's excellent cooking skills! We had homemade burgers (which were massive), sausages, potato salad, regular salad, shishkebabs, and crisps, with Banoffee Pie for dessert (and for you poor people who have not yet been enlightened to the wonders of Banoffee Pie, it is basically a delicious heartattack on a plate-- a digestive biscuit base, covered in caramel and banana and topped with whipped cream).

Because who doesn't love a good selfie by a lovely ginger Glaswegian :)

At approximately 8:20 the Duke of Edinburgh Service to Others (a group of young people who came in to help out...it something having to do with school in this country...it's hard to explain..or I'm just lazy...one of the two..) came down to join in the fun. It was a bit chaotic at first but we managed to explain the rules and get everyone organized into teams. Now, there was one rule about being captured and going to prison that might not have been the smartest, but was definitely entertaining, and it was that you were allowed to fight your captor every step of the way. The following photos are from such an event. If you don't know Steve, you may be a little confused as to why it took about five of us to get him to prison, but he is basically a ninja and, despite his extremely deceiving appearance, he is incredibly strong, and so things like this happen:

I came to help Alistair, and became more of a further dead weight, since Steve got me by the wrist..

Attempting to De-shoe him

So Gareth and on of the DofE's came to help (sorry, DofE who's name I don't know...)

It's really difficult to walk when your hand is in that position..just sayin'...

Hog-tying his legs so that he'd stop kicking...

Picking him up again after the leg tying

In prison at last

Joined by his faithful followers

This is what I was excepting to happen with the "fighting every step of the way":

This is Rebecca, T-J's (one of our instructors) financee, who I forcibly walked to our prison

And we arrive..

Unfortunately those are all the photos that were able to be taken, due to losing light.

It was a brilliant evening, involving prison escapes, getting dirty, some people maybe, possibly getting slightly hurt, and others getting sting nettle and caught in briars. But we all had fun. The game ended in a draw, both teams having hidden their flags too well. Next time it will be played with bigger, more visible flags! But it was fun, nonetheless!

So this morning we bid good-bye to Gareth. It was a sad occasion because nobody likes good-byes. And so, being the person I am, I am totally going to connect this to Doctor Who...obviously...At the end of the latest episode the Doctor is bidding adieu to River Song (and if you don't know who she is..well..spoilers...) and this is their basic conversation:


River: "It's hard to leave when you haven't said goodbye."

Doctor: "Then tell me, because I don't know... how do I say it?"

River: "There's only one way I would accept...  say it like you're going to come back..."

Doctor: "Well then ... See you around, Professor River Song..."

River: "'Till the next time, Doctor."



And so (on the off chance that you read this),

See you around, Gareth Taggart.Till next time. *mentally salutes you with an equally imaginary glass of champagne