Bungay Balls Up 2024 reviews and photos thread

The Void - 2024-06-05 10:31:35 UTC #

Bungay Balls Up 2024 reviews and photos thread

I’ll start, in a scattered memories style…

“My kids are dicks”
Coffee and crossword mornings by the bee-haunted buttercups.
The bounce slab being flat, then in a cradle at the right height, which was then reduced to the wrong height.
Louise crawling out of the woodwork to make a long-overdue reappearance for just one day. And laden with actual printed photos (remember them?) of conventions from ’97-’03, prompting multiple sessions of “what was his name?” “Do you remember her?” “Oh blimey, look at [so-and-so], doesn’t he look a pillock/really young/exactly the same/nothing like himself” etc etc.
Someone's box of eco-friendly toothpick/flosser combos. Apart from the nylon.
Dan leading a “walk around the farm”. Oh, *around* the farm, right. Talk of types of wheat, etc. Cool.
Remembering to bring along the £5 cricket set, and remembering to get it out to have a knockabout game. Retiring not-out with the top score. However, crick(et)ing my back was far from ideal, which left me distinctly hampered in my mobility for the rest of the convention (and the week after, to be honest). Some volleyclub would have been nice, or maybe just a little bit of club passing. Oh well. It also meant I didn't make any off-site trips this year. I expect Southwold will still be there in 2025...
Lynne hosting a cake party in Aged Jugglers’ Corner. Generally laughing a lot there.
Texts from Louise. She’s *definitely* coming back, I’ll put money on it.
Watching Stuart (Stewart?) struggle to get his Revolution to behave itself, but eventually getting it airborne.
Nigel's excellently silly Wee Monsters game.
Managing to get - despite the dodgy back - a qualifying run of 5 (proper) clubs in the buttercups, after not practising at all (well, maybe once?) since last year. And also a new (to me) kendama combo.
Trying a proffered radish. I remain neutral on the matter.
Cubing a little bit (same as ever), watching others cube. Forgot to bring my X-shaped cube thingy. Next year.
<generic European accent>You are a great juggler! You can do it!</gEa>
Dinner at Monte’s. Cheers mate. Must dive into that bramble jelly soon…
Sitting around the woodburners chatting nonsense. “So, when did I first meet you?”
Scrabble with Lynne, and notching up 5 more “observer comments”.
The general progression of the poker tourney being somewhat skew-whiff, ("is he allowed to do that?") I was delighted to end up heads up against Monte at the end. I had the lower stack by some way, so a deserved win for Mr Once-A-Decade. Stirling dealer work from Ron, too. Jon P doing well in his first tourney after only learning to play a few days earlier. I've worked out that after 17 BBU tournaments, I am £1 in profit. I’ll take it! :-)
Crackerdash (“Crackerdash!”?) aka The Cheese Game being a thinly-veiled excuse to eat cheese. Not sure about the hot-cross bun flavour cheese, but the Seville Orange chutney went down well. (And still is - thx Mark/Kate!)
The strange acoustic effect in the games tent, but only if you were sitting in *that* chair. But generally the games tent being ace.
“Have you got a rake?” provoking the appearance of a mower, which proceeded to be expertly steered through the midsts of a croquet game. One in which 5 players started, two were substituted, everyone got posted, two retired, and Farmer Paul eventually won. Classic BBU croquet.
Chocolate. Thanks fak and other wielders.
Saw John R doing 3 club flats, but reaching a hand up to catch each club at the peak, and turning it back down before throwing again. Very nice trick, which I spectacularly failed to get anywhere with when I tried it. Can I blame the bad back? Okay, cool, thanks.
Taking a wander around the farm, I encounter the Trans Am Truck which I’ve not visited for some time, and find it’s now surrounded by 3 youngish but thriving oak trees. Robbie tells me there's a Muntjac deer he keeps spotting at the far end of that field too. I speculated that the various piles of tree trimmings along the path were there for the benefit of insects and other wildlife. Later Paul told me “Ah, no, I just haven’t got around to clearing them up yet!”. Found the rake. It’s up by the hay barn, in case anyone’s still looking.
Alice having the car reversed into at low speed by a muppet. Still, that’s all on his insurance.
Again, despite the back, managing a couple of games of table tennis v Monte. Result as expected, but I wasn’t awful.
The cat-sitter sending regular updates and pics. Meeting Raedwald again, and - almost - Cali, Tigger and Harry. Didn’t spot any kittens though.
I took a particular book along vaguely intending to run a quiz, but my tuits were all square. 
Didn’t manage much reading at all actually. I blame the pleasant company.
Being on the point of cutting myself a slice of Jon & Sam's fruit cake when "or there's coffee cake if you like" was uttered in the nick of time. Close call, but much thanks to all concerned.
Annotating a crossword for Paul. Not writing any crossword clues all week. “Had any more crosswords published?” almost becoming a catchphrase. (A few, but not many, ta. One coming up this month…)
Susannah’s spin, spike, smile.
Some clear skies, and bright stars.
Taking the decision not to join in with the potential cat-herding chaos of a club passing line in the buttercups, all filmed by Silver’s drone. I really enjoyed sitting in a deckchair close by, watching it all unfold. Yes, I think “unfold” is the word I want there. :-)
Managing to have a coffee-and-cake catch-up chat with Will after merely seeing him mooching about for several days. And that turning out to be just in time, as he was leaving very soon after.
“As we say in ham radio, ‘7-3’, best wishes!” (And yes, the other poker games very much going along those lines.)
Fixing the embedded player in the blog entry of the newly-released #OffGridPod episode from a field, even though I was allegedly off-duty. (Why, yes, this one *does* feature some unusual cricket facts, thanks for asking: https://offgrid.tlmb.net/2024/05/26/seaside-banking-standards-40/ )
Cribbage. “Do you say all the rhymes?” Of course.
Sunday seedy roast at the café. No parsnips though.
Bemasked hugged being, sadly, still the sensible option.
Loopy Lou came back. Told you. More photos, more “ooooh!” memory sessions.
Hare And Tortoise, M**, Perudo.
Oh, I’ve just remembered my pass is still in my jacket pocket. I really must get around to sewing the backing on.
(As I said elsewhere) I’ve updated the _old_ site pages https://tlmb.net/BBU/Archive.html and https://tlmb.net/BBU/Video.html , fixing the embeds and repairing some old broken links via the Wayback. (Use real websites, folks, not evil data-harvesting silos! Get a wordpress. </rant>) I’ve also added a few short videos to the end of my photos page: https://tlmb.net/blog/bbu-2024/ (scroll down!)
I know some of you want BBU tees/hoodies (again). I’m working on it.

But anyway, all in all, it was lovely. Great to see you all - you’re ace. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

#BBU2024