Reports from the
year 2005
SPRING
2005
- Aston King Dance, and those green hats come out again ....
Our 2005 year started about as early as it possibly could with an
appearance at the New Year's Day Haddenham ceilidh (where the band was Steam
Chicken - very good too, especially with a bit of tabasco). With 2 separate
spots to fill, it seemed appropriate to end the second one with our
sword dance, which went very well in the large space available. Both
spots were well received, possibly on account of people's New Year
goodwill, or perhaps just because we were stonking (oops, the spell
checker is sure that word should be stinking. Do you think the spell
checker was in the
audience?).
Our next public outing was a lunchtime display on 5th March at the Berkshire
Schools 'Folk for Berkshire' day at Theale School, near Reading, where we did
some display dances before Tim got all the kids up doing his inimitable version
of Shepherds Hey, including of course the teapot chorus. As usual, by the end of
it some of them were doing the dance better than certain members of Berkshire
Bedlam, but then the kids don't have the disadvantages some of BB have like
dodgy knees, shin splints, calf strains, imbecility and a complete lack of
rhythm. We finished the display with another outing for the sword dance,
introduced officially for the first time as Aston King Dance Number One. Anybody
geddit?
On
Sat 19th March a small but perfectly formed BB contingent headed to Nottingham
for the Fabulous Fezheads Fig and Date Fayre, held at the Yacht Club, Long
Eaton, Nottingham. It is hard to find the right words to describe this day,
though that very feat is currently being undertaken by Lee, who has prepared an
early draft which although very good is slightly longer than War and Peace -
rest assured you can read it here when he has finished editing it. Meanwhile,
the gist of the day was some organised dancing from the several guest sides, and
a series of suitably figndate-y games organised by the Fezheads, including
spitting dates through the eye of a camel, fruit rounders (very messy), fig and
spoon race, vegetable conkers (even more messy), chillifig eating, a Belly dance
competition, and other bits of inspired lunacy. For BB, the organised dancing
featured the debut of 'Burka Bedlam', while later Paul and Lee spat their dates
and Jameson belly danced anonymously-ish in his burka, as you do. A special
mention also to Tim for chomping away on his chilli filled dates, each of which
apparently contained approximately 300 times the maximum government recommended
safe levels of chilli.
On Mon 18 April, we were invited to take part in Ashley Hutchings 'Morris On'
show at Nettlebed folk club, a highly entertaining 2 hour plus show featuring
folk rock interpretations of Morris tunes, some contemporary material, and some
excellent dancing from the Outside Capering Crew. We were given a self contained
spot of our own within the show of 10 minutes, during which we did the 3 dances
we had carefully been rehearsing for the previous 2 weeks, though we had to
change the personnel around a little on the night when one of our team members
didn't make it having been struck by a severe bout of amnesia. Still we hardly
missed Jerry (oops, given away the name now), and performed a well received set
consisting of Fairies, As The Tide was Flowing, and Coconuts, all of which had
been modified in presentation to suit the narrow performance space between the
band and the audience. We also reappeared during the finale, doing a procession
across the stage and round the whole of the hall before returning to the
excellent buffet in the performers area which included a very tempting nettle
pie (I feel though I should point out this is probably only really tempting if
you like nettles).
The following Saturday (23rd April) found us at Adderbury as a guest side at the
annual Adderbury Day of Dance, led by the two morris teams located there i.e.
Adderbury and Adderbury Village. Along with our hosts and fellow guest sides
Armaleggan and Bloxham, we performed in the early evening outside The Bell, and
The Coach and Horses, to quite a large crowd of morris people and also many
locals, as the day is quite a renowned local event with the morris forming an
integral part. Among the more memorable parts of the dancing was Adderbury
Village's Shepherds Hey drinking jig, where each dancer in turn has to dance a
chorus and then down a pint in one. It has to be said that though all 12 of the
dancers managed it with varying degrees of success (and at varying speed with
age certainly being a telling factor) the hobby horse struggled greatly and
spilt most (all right all) of his pint on the pavement when it was held to his
lips. Anyway, after we had done our bit there was a buffet laid on for the
guests and amazingly we seemed to be pretty well at the front of the queue
again. Just got lucky, I guess?
The
last Thursday in April (this year falling on the 28th) usually marks our
official opening to the season and is when in most previous years we have had
our 'Bob's Fish and Chip Shop Tour', a bit of a misnomer as we haven't been
there for some years and have just danced at the Queens Oak in Finchampstead.
Anyway this year the opportunity arose to mark the season opening in a slightly
different way from usual with - what else but - a sing-a-long Sound of Music
evening at the Wilde Theatre, South Hill Park, Bracknell. Why? - well our
interest in all things Julie Andrews goes back to our very successful weekend
with Betty Luptons in Yorkshire 4 years ago when we had a Sound of Music themed
evening which included singing along gustily to some of the songs, and since
then we have been looking for an opportunity to repeat the experience. Paul had
managed to persuade South Hill Park management to let us perform outside the
theatre at the start of the evening and again at the interval, so once again 8
Bedlams donned the (imitation) lederhosen and the (cardboard) green hats with
feathers, and, accompanied by Frau Jane and Frau Bob, metamporphosed into the
Schwarzkopf Bavarian dancers, performing Der Mazurka, Der Tanze von Grossen
Goblenz, and as a highlight the resurrected Bavarian Woodchopper Boy dance,
performed to an audience consisting largely of nuns, but also a brown paper
package tied up with string, and somewhat implausibly a lady in a mountain
costume with tiny nun cut outs ascending it, prompted perhaps by her 'Climb Me'
sign. In between and after our performances we did actually sit through the
entire Sound of Music film with subtitles for singing along to, prompted by the
evening's compere who encouraged us to wave our arms when we saw mountains, hiss
the countess, make woof-y noises when Rolf came into view, and several other
things including letting off party poppers when Christopher Plummer gets to snog
Julie Andrews for the first time (a particular highlight). The audience
responded magnificently throughout and we all needed a good lie down when it had
finished, especially since as far as I could see the film had not been abridged
at all for the singalong version and appeared to last for many many hours
(possibly 16 going on 17?).
And so (a needle pulling thread?) on to our first major event of the
season, May 7th - 8th, a mainly bright and sunny weekend at the Weymouth
Folk Festival - not a huge event, but one which was
highly enjoyable overall. It was nice to see almost a full
complement of BB dancers and musicians who between them contributed to a
number of memorable moments, starting on the Saturday morning when John
immobilised his car by temporarily losing a small but critical bit out
of his key, necessitating a tow into
the nearby car park from Rob before the critical bit was found. After
dance spots at the White Hart and the (now non-existent) Maypole in
town, we took part in the Morris procession along the promenade from the
Clock tower to the Pavilion complex (the main centre of activities over
the weekend). This was one of our more enjoyable processions due to the
number of photo posing opportunities, plus the unscheduled boarding of a
coach of very pleasant ladies not in the first flush of youth, who
seemed delighted to see us and took lots of photos of us sitting at the
back of their coach (once they had put their teeth in and worked out how
to operate their cameras). However, our subsequent game of
beach cricket must then have taken more out of us than we thought, judging by
the (lack of) quality of our following set at the Ocean Rooms. Later on we ran a
workshop, which turned out to have not been advertised anywhere, making
it a miracle that one person (Alex) did actually turn up for it, though
just one was all we needed for the BB workshop-a-thon machine to
swing into action and teach a couple of dances. The workshop took place
on the large stage in the Pavilion Theatre, on which we were due to take
part in the Morris On show later (the same show we had participated in
at Nettlebed some 3 weeks earlier). Being there gave us the chance to do
some revised planning for the show, since Ashley Hutchings had just
broken it to us he wanted us to do two spots in the show instead of one,
and we also had to take account of Simon's back locking up fairly
dramatically. However our time in the theatre also gave us the chance to
fully explore all the dressing rooms, and Paul in particular was struck
with the idea he was looking out of the very same windows which top
names like the Brotherhood of Man Lookalike Tribute Band may have lobbed
TVs through. Anyway later on that evening we did actually perform in the
show, in which members of Morris Offspring accompanied the band on some
numbers, while we had 2 sets of our own, one in each half. Despite the
very confined dance space, the spots both went very well, leading to
good feedback throughout the rest of the weekend. And again, led by Tim,
we got the chance to leap across, up, down and around the stage in the
finale.
On the Sunday, injuries and absence had taken their toll, but we were
able to start with a spot at the Maypole, where Alison, sitting on some
stone steps huddled under John's cloak, was taken pity on by a kind
hearted passer by and given 50p despite the absence of a dog on a rope. We then went back to the Ocean Rooms for a jig event
where amongst other teams efforts, Jameson and Tim performed a stylish Princess Royal, and we
liberally interpreted the event
definition by doing Arse about Face for 6 (well it arguably still is a
jig). Before going off to the White Hart for our last set of the weekend,
the Theatre Manager proudly presented Bob with his / her missing
drumstick, thereby making his / her day, and for which the Theatre
Manager was rewarded with a hearty handshake / a sloppy kiss. At the
White Hart, Jerry and Paul did a fine version of Old Molly Oxford before
our final dance, a stonking Little Fairies. Just time for a cream tea
for those who were left (nice tea but the cream was stronger than the
scones, leading to some scone fragmentation) before heading back to the
unreality of the real world .......
SUMMER
2005
- Cotswold, and a cornucopia of cocktails
Following our diverse experiences at the Weymouth Festival early in
May, we returned to a more traditional environment on Sun 22nd May at
the Kirtlington Lamb Ale, which featured the usual fine line up of
Morris and other entertainment including the Kirtlington Maids dance
with their cute little lamb (not on wheels this year). There was more than a hint of rain in the
air at several stages during the day including some actual downpours
(not, unfortunately, during the processions, the traditional stamina
tests) but
as we all know by now it never rains on Berkshire Bedlam (except when it
does), and we were able to perform our show dance in the school
playground as usual - this year featuring our sword dance,
which seemed to go down well, even though performed in our
normal kit as opposed to the frilly shirts due to a personal wardrobe memory
malfunction problem issue.
On Thurs 9 Jun we were at The Bell at Aldworth once again, with Old
Speckled Hen and Kirtlington, which proved as usual a very pleasant
evening with good company, crowned once more by the appearance of a
range of consumables after the dancing finished (and that's consumables
in the traditional sense rather than printer ink cartridges and paper).
Amongst other things during the evening we were able to show Kirtlington
once again just how much we had improved the hey figure of theirs which
we had nicked (sorry, should say 'used as a loose starting point only')
for our Lucky Pierre dance.
nd
then it was festival time, from 17 - 19 June, at the Beverley
Festival in North Yorkshire. Due to various circumstances we were a
little short of numbers on the Saturday, but we managed to perform a
good selection of 5 and 4 person dances, plus some double jigs, and the
odd Coconuts with a pressganged Bob, on an exceptionally hot day, the
passing of which was eased somewhat by the selective application of
cocktail (a refreshing Blue Cherry variety) to our internal organs.
Accompanied mostly by Solstice, a young school based side performing an
interesting repertoire including a version of the Matachins dance, we
performed at a variety of spots in town, outside the Minster (a
particularly imposing setting), and at the
main Festival site before most of us headed off for an excellent evening
meal at the Valencia restaurant near the station, and then on to the
Whapweasel ceilidh. On the Sunday Jerry joined us, swelling our numbers
to 6, and we had some more good spots and more cocktail, this time a
pink Woo-woo - nice, but a bit more sickly. Overall though another very
enjoyable weekend, with an abiding memory of - cocktail.
The following Thursday (24th June) it was off to Avebury once again for the
semi-regular midsummer dance out with Holt at the Red Lion. This has
become easier and less dangerous since the car park surface was relaid,
and it is also an easier though quieter gig if, like this year, it does
not coincide exactly with the summer solstice which tends to brings out
various free spirits (not from behind the bar though). This year the
only nutters evident were the ones from BB and Holt, though a fine
evening was had by all, with a little bit of community singing
afterwards at which Andy revealed a fine singing voice and appropriate
song for the evening i.e. not trad-finger-in-the-ear stuff.
Sunday 26th saw us off to Adderbury for the second time in 2 months,
this time for the Adderbury sides 30th anniversary day, with another
varied line up of (mainly Cotswold) teams. Another hot day, with no
refreshing cocktails in sight this time, though since all the dance
locations appeared to be directly outside pubs this was not a big issue.
The day wore on, the sun shone throughout, the dances and dancers came
and went, the beer and conversation and music all flowed, and we got
most of our dances right - what more could you ask for?
On Thurs 7 July we had another very pleasant pub evening at the Bull at
Riseley with Mayflower and Muddy River, a ladies Cotswold team from
Massachusetts, and then on Sat 9th we joined in the Jackstraws Day of
Dance, along with Thames Valley Morris, in and around Farnham. Once
again another hot, sunny day, and a further opportunity (though somewhat
enforced) for us to go through our repertoire of 4 and 5 person dances -
though we briefly peaked at 6 dancers at one point. A particular
highlight was a late afternoon version of Coconuts, where the 5 of us
still left 'randomly' roped in from the audience a certain L. Hiscott to
join us, and we're not talking Lee either. ("What's your name,
dear? Linda? Never seen this dance before, have you dear?...").
Actually Linda was excellent at it, just shows she'd been paying
attention on our course all that time ago. After the dancing finished
there was some extremely welcome tea, cakes and barbeque, including a
particularly fine chocolate cake, made by the aforementioned L. Hiscott,
with minimal help from the other one - indeed a cake to get your teeth
firmly into.
The beginning of August saw us once again off on our annual Dorset Tour,
which turned out to be another fabulously organised weekend thanks to
Rob and Miriam's sterling efforts. We started at the Farmer's Market in
Poundbury (though if there was one teensy criticism of the weekend's
organisation it would be that Rob's directions to it were somewhat vague
and perhaps a little ambiguous e.g. for 'left' read 'right', for 'just
off first roundabout' read 'actually quite a long way off second
roundabout' - but only a minor quibble really....). This was an
excellent spot in the middle of the market area outside the excellent
Poet Laureate pub, so Malcolm chose to introduce the side (as Rob had
requested) in verse which was only mildly embarrassing for everyone, so
not too bad then. The market stall holders liked us too - one gave us
some excellent slices of cooked mushroom, while another offered us
discounts on their very nice but very rich organic desserts.
We then headed for the Swan Inn at Abbotsbury for lunch and a short
dance spot, followed by an appearance on the edge of the beach outside
the Hive Beach Cafe, Burton Bradstock, much to the bemusement of the
people who had come for a nice quiet afternoon by the blustery (being
kind) English seaside. After this we set up camp on the beach, and the
hardier and foolhardier went for a swim, though it would be fair to say
the sea was not at its warmest. Later on we returned to the campsite for
an early evening barbeque, and its amazing just how black those chicken
legs will turn when you're not looking. Still the nibbles, Pimms and gin
were all good, so suitably refreshed we set off for the long walk down
the hill into the village of Cerne Abbas, arriving at the Royal Oak
rather later than intended, in fact about 10 minutes after some people
Rob had invited to come and see us had given up and gone home for a nice
warm by the fire. But we performed away gamely to a small but select
audience before returning back up the hill, through the cowpats
(literally in some cases), looking out all the time for the once again
non existent glow-worms, which several of us have come to realise over
the years are merely a rumour perpetrated by the Cerne Abbas Giant's
Head Campsite Let's Get Them Walking Up That Hill In the Dark For No
Good Reason Society.
The
next day saw us at Stourhead House and Gardens, a huge National Trust
property just outside Mere in Wiltshire. The weather had considerably
perked up and we had a good audience to see us perform in a good
audience-catching spot just outside the cafe, information point and
toilets. The dancing went well, and after it several of us took the
opportunity to go round the really fabulous estate, including a
celebrated 18th century landscaped garden with enchanting temples,
monuments and rare planting around a tranquil lake. A very English sort
of experience somehow, especially when washed down in the pub on the
edge of the estate with cider, beer or a cream tea depending on your
poison as it were. And once again we agreed Rob had made a serious
mistake in setting such a high tour standard for the future ......
AUTUMN
/ WINTER 2005
- A trip to Shropshire, a Bavarian chuckle, and a Can-Can do
Saturday 3rd September saw us again at the Wallingford Bunkfest, now in
its 4th year and going from strength to strength with a fine line up of
artists and more Morris than ever. Our day started early on the
Kinecroft South Stage - good venue though only a small audience early
in the morning. But we also had later spots at the Market Place and
outside The Dolphin before the now traditional highlight (well, we did
it for the second time so it's traditional now) of a trip to Sue's nearby residence for tea and
pineapple chunks with evap - a perfect way to while away an hour or two.
The next weekend (9th - 11th) we were at the Bromyard Festival where we
are informed it always rains, and this year was no exception (though not
of course on Berkshire Bedlam, oh no). Our weekend started with a
reasonably well attended workshop on the main site, in which Jameson
taught Sucking The Monkey and Mazurka, after which we had a slightly
damp spot on site before heading into town where we eventually performed
outside various pubs with various other teams and had a generally good
time. In the evening several of us ate at the 'Taste of India' Indian
restaurant in Bromyard though if you should ever go there having booked
a table for 6.30 as we had, don't expect your table to be ready till
7.30 or your food to arrive till 8.30 as happened to us, and as we had a
pleasant chat with the manager about afterwards. On Sunday we had a
later start and performed in several venues around town, the most memorable
being a good session with Eynsham and Chinewrde in the back
area of the Bay Horse. Later in the afternoon we had a ceilidh spot
during the Bedlam ceilidh which was followed later by a particularly fine spot from
Eynsham, helped it
seemed by quite a lot of the previous
contents of the town pubs cellars.
Two weeks late was another treat for us, with an invitation to join
Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhodens Tuppeny Dish for the Bishop's
Castle Michaelmas Fair weekend, a weekend centred on the traditional
Fair held in Bishop's Castle in Shropshire (where both teams are based) and
featuring a range of attractions including fairground rides, steam
engines, and street entertainment - including of course Morris Dancing.
For us though the weekend started in Montgomery, just over the Welsh
Border, where on a beautiful clear morning we danced in the main square
before climbing the hill to the grounds of the former splendid and now
mainly in ruins Montgomery Castle, with quite magnificent views from its
elevated position out over the surrounding countryside and hills. a
perfect venue for an excellent picnic, though not quite so good for the
short lived game of cricket (6 and everyone out as the first cleanly hit
shot disappeared over the castle wall and into the depths below). After
this we had more dancing in Montgomery before returning to Bishops
Castle for further performances outside various pubs and venues up and down
the main street through the town, before heading to the Church Barn for
the evening entertainment laid on by our hosts, 'An Open Evening At
Hogwarts'. This involved, for most people, dressing up Harry Potter style,
though since BB for various reasons (to be revealed later) were going
through a Bavarian phase, out came the green hats and lederhosen again.
The evening featured some most interesting turns, including games of
Quidditch with doubtful rules, and a highly amusing cross between
Charades and Chinese Whispers for which you had to be there really. BB
performed their Bavarian (Schwarzkopf) dance (including a false start
when the CD player jumped early on, after which Paul lived up to his
name by Holden on to it) which went down _____ (really well / OK /
averagely / poorly / lead ballon / I'll get me coat) - delete as
applicable.
Next morning we performed again in Bishop's Castle, danced at various
pubs including the splendid Three Tuns, our guests home pub, and later
watched the steam rally go by before performing again in the streets
just after it had gone to a reasonably enthusiastic and appreciative
audience. Throughout the weekend we had a great time and were really
well looked after throughout by our hosts, who fed, watered and
otherwise looked after us at every possible opportunity, as well as entertaining
us with their own unique and excellent dancing and musicianship, led by
John Kirkpatrick and many other very capable musicians.
And then on Tuesday Oct 4, on to a very different engagement. To cut a
long story short, we had been asked to take part in an episode of
'Chucklevision', featuring the Chuckle Brothers Barry and Paul, for CBBC,
the children's arm of the BBC, after one of the Chucklevision producers
had come across this very website with features and photos of us doing
our Bavarian dance - exactly what he was looking for, especially as he
hadn't found anyone else who might be able to do it (well not this side
of Bavaria anyway) despite extensive looking. So, 9 of us plus our 2
'agents' Sue and Bob (or 'spies' as Rob referred to them) headed off to
the Civic Centre Theatre in Aylesbury for an afternoon's filming. CBBC
had provided some interesting shorts, braces and hats for us to go with
our own stuff to create a fascinating variety of Bavarian-ish looking costumes,
and without going through the whole plot suffice it to say we were
required to perform our Bavarian dance on stage extensively while Paul,
Barry and other characters joined in.
Overall
it was a unique chance for us to be luvvies for an afternoon, including
refreshments with the rest of the cast and producers from the Outside
Catering Van, and waiting before being called in the 'Green Room' which
was distinctly not green (or actually in any way attractive) except for
some of our particularly bright lederhosen. It must be said though that
the luvvie bit, not surprisingly, came more easily to some than others.
By the end of the
afternoon we had been filmed from every conceivable angle, Jameson and
Paul Chuckle had bashed each other's fingers to bits doing the sticking
routine, Barry Chuckle had done his cute high kneed trot up and down the
line endless times, most of the cast has disappeared down the (fake)
trapdoor, and we had performed throughout like troopers. The episode was
first shown on
CBBC in February 2006 and
again on BBC1 in March 2006 - meanwhile Morris sides everywhere take note - it don't come any bigger than
Chucklevision ......
But that wasn't the end of year or this particular dance by any means -
just a few days later we were at Nettlebed to perform some spots during the Phungus
ceilidh, The first spot was our normal repertoire, the second one was
the Bavarian dance again - same dance, slightly different profile, as to add to
the frivolity 4 of us also
strapped on the old water filled balloons for some cross dressing -
never fails to get a laugh (normally).
The 29th of October saw us on a riverboat on the Thames for the evening,
where we had been booked along with a variety of other
entertainment at a private function hosted by an acquaintance of Lee's.
We finished up having a fabulous night, and our spots were received
extremely well by the audience who initially hadn't quite known what to
make of us. However our hosts very kindly also allowed us to take
advantage of the food and drink on offer - which we duly
did. There was also a limbo competition, won amazingly by our own Brian
who somehow got away with going under the bar in a sideways crouch every time.
We finished our evening performance with The Mazurka, during the last chorus of
which the boat executed a fairly fast 180 degree turn, causing our lines to
drift alarmingly but in unison from left to right and back again. Nice feature
actually, which we're thinking of keeping in though the future logistics may be
tricky.
Sat 26th
November was Bunfight Day - our annual flirtation with the side's professional
and financial suicide which we usually manage to get away with somehow, this
year being no exception. We had an inspired theme (thanks to Andy) of 'Bunfight
at the OK Corral' which we assumed said it all really. As usual many of our
guests dressed accordingly and we had a lovely selection of sheriffs, cowboys,
cowgirls, squaws, showgirls, Mexicans, and many other inspired outfits. A
special mention also for the Magnificent 7, made up of 4 cowboys (one with a
very dodgy beard which I hope she eventually managed to scrape off) with 3
appropriately dressed dummies arranged somehow on poles between them. Great idea
though it did take them 15 minutes to get through the door. As usual our band
was the excellent Phungus, with Hugh Crabtree calling, who were all on top form,
with Hugh in particular having an extra sardonic curl on his top lip for anyone
going wrong. The first BB dance spot of the evening was Shooting, which had
seemed in advance like a good idea, it being linked to the theme in a fairly
obvious way, though we had not in fact practised the dance or what we would do
during it at all, so the ending, when Jameson and Simon fell down 'dead' rather
unexpectedly, rather threw everyone else. Anyway, after an excellent Irish, no
sorry Wild West, no sorry Kansas, Bingo, it was time for the show spot of the
Can-Can, performed by 8 cross-dressed Bedlams to the very lively Bad Manners
version of the Can-Can. John had choreographed a suitable (?) routine, with
plenty of skirt flicking up, and he had also organised a BB sewing bee the
previous week to make 8 suitable skirts, while the tops were a variety of
creations, which hid (or didn't hide in many cases) the usual water filled
balloons. However as we had not got around to a full dress rehearsal of the
spot, it quickly became apparent very shortly after we started the dance that
the water filled balloons were not going to be staying in place for long for
many of the side. Anyway the dance seemed to be well received, to the extent
that the audience demanded an encore, though these days Hugh is trained to make
them insist on one no matter what the quality of the spot is. Overall though
another highly successful evening, with a good turnout - and a special credit to
John for making the spot happen.
The next day was the Wokingham Winter Carnival - which always suffers from being
after the Lord Mayor's show, so to speak, even though the Lord Mayor is in it.
It was a bit chilly and damp. Nuff said.
Our final dance spot of 2005 was on Saturday 17th December, the St. Thomas's Day
lunchtime danceout - a cold crisp clear session, but a good one nonetheless, and
also featuring the first performance of our new stick dance 'Wizo The Flem' with
its syncopated sticking choruses, before retreating to a nearby home for some
food and a preview of the new BB DVD produced by Steve Newland from footage shot
in 2005 at Weymouth and the Shropshire Bedlams weekend. Excellent, especially
the interview.
And then the very final BB act of 2005 - Thursday 22nd Dec, the annual Xmas
dinner at the traditional venue of The Hideout Thai restaurant. An innovation
this year was the 'Secret Santa', and within (or around) the limit of £5 there
were some truly extraordinary presents, some of which are not suitable to be
revealed on a family oriented website such as this (eh Tim?), though Simon's
orange animal with a mind of its own (especially when let loose in his shoe)
must get a special mention. An appropriately frivolous end to a truly varied and
always entertaining year .......
For full reports from 2004 go to the BB 2004 Monthly Diary
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