Stag Weekend
Ok,
so I’ve failed to mention it so far, but I expect that anyone reading this will already know… So who are you??? But anyway, I’m soon to be married and this of course required a stag party (that’s a bachelor party to you yanks).
Well we (me and Paul) went on down to Bristol on Friday, in the pouring rain, and met with most of the lads (Rhid, Dom, Daz, John), the rest to meet us the next night. Had a few beers and reminiscing and having a laugh, a mere £6.50 for two pints of wife-beater a joke compared with our northern prices.
Up early next morning for hotel-full-english (lacking in protein for sure) and off to find the activities center. At this point I was absolutely clueless as to what we are doing and where we are going. It also seems that Daz also has no idea but since we are following him, and he’s organised the whole thing, then this is not a good situation to be in. Also, everyone in that car had their phones switched off which didn’t help.
So we eventually find out way to a pub nearby the centre and have a few beers and a banter on the phone with the lads we’re meeting later. Shame they could not make it for this part cos’ I’m sure they’d have loved it. Steve also joined us at this point, after a lengthy drive down.
We moved on to the centre and the chap explained what we’d be doing: quad-biking, clay shooting and racing Honda Pilots.
The quad bikes where quite hard to handle at first: a great deal of movement is required to turn the thing, not only in the handlebars, but also moving your whole body to prevent the thing from rolling. This is the trick to getting round the circuit fast, which Paul managed excellently. He would have beaten me was it not for a downed gate marker. Everyone else had a great time on these things too, and it would be hard not to, but it has to be said that some people took to these better than others.
The Pilots were a completely different story, you can really chuck these about and they won’t topple or feel unsteady at all, in fact the arse-end just comes out and you slide round the bend. The ground had dried out considerably from the previous nights rain which made for a bumpy and dusty ride. I’m sure they’d be great in the wet but at least we had some control in the dry. Once again I did well on this event, and was beaten only by Paul by 0.5 (?) of a second. Others once again came in with different times, with a few surprises.
Next up was clay pigeon shooting. Seeing as I went first for everything else, it seemed natural for me to be first at this too. He showed me how the gun worked, how to empty the cartridges from the barrel, how to aim etc and I must say it was all a bit easier than I expected. He then went in to what we would be doing: at the bottom of the field there’s a ‘trap’, when he presses the button it launches a clay quite high but slightly towards where I’m standing. When the clay is above the line of the trees (so that you can see it!) you follow it with your gun and as it reaches it highest point you pull the trigger. Then with a bit off luck you will see the clay smash into tiny bits! There was also a trap right next to us that fired the clay away and quite high, you have to be quick to soot these as it just gets harder otherwise!. Well maybe I make that sound easier than it is, but it’s not far from the truth.
A few practice rounds later and we’re into the competition. First you get one from the bottom of the field, followed by another from next to you as soon as you take the first one out. Do that three times and there you go. This left several people as joint 1st, 2nd and 3rd and so we had to have a shoot out. This involved both the traps being fired at the same time, and you get what you can. Unfortunately this led to me loosing my joint 1st place to drop to 4th in the shooting! The shooting was quite varied from most people but John was definitely a force to be reckoned with once he’d got used to the gun.
Paul turned out as overall winner and so he was presented with a massive bottle of champagne! He was kind enough to share it around though (he was driving) and after that little tipple we all headed back to the hotel. I had a dig earlier at someone’s directions, and I’ll follow that up by saying that I directed us back in a fraction of the time, and that was with another one in the convoy. Heh heh.
One hour and a couple of luke warm beers later and we’re heading down into town to meet Ben, Paul and Boozy. Despite helpful words from Ben (where are ya? Get you’re butts down here) it took us some time to find our way down to the bar, but there were drink waiting for me on the bar and that’s never a bad thing. Few drinks later and we’re in Yates’s for food and more beers, including a couple of test tubes! I would go into more detail but from here on in things get blurred.
Some things I do remember and deserve a mention are: more bars, cigars, walking, more bars, walking, a lap dance club, drinks, a £10 dance (Cheers Paul), Dazs grin, £60, night club, more drinks and dancing, losing everyone (as is traditional), finding everyone and more beers, kebab van, dodgy taxi (I take that back - it wasn’t a taxi at all) and hotel.
Morning was not as bad as I expected, at least once I washed my ear. Breakfast was once again a 1/2 english, and after packing bags we all made our way off in to the sunset.
All that’s left to say is thank you all, I had a great time and it was good to see you all again, we should not leave it so long next time.
Those of you who did not make it, it was a shame as you missed a great night out.
Photos etc will be posted shortly on a separate entry, stay tuned.
Paul had a great idea of a Stag Anniversary which I fully intend to carry out.
See ya at the wedding.
