Proof that good things often come along like buses, I'd had 4 invitations this weekend and would have to miss a lot of goodness as well as experiencing a more than healthy dose of it. A hot day, late exam finish and drinkies for Woodstock, meant no basketball this week, a visit to Abi meant the drinkies didn't last as long as they could as the prospect of camping and trekking with llamas meant only the one night in Croydon.
Drinks at Prospect's local, the Mansion House, were in honour of 'Woodstock', our very own lovable hippie and free spirit who left us on Friday for bigger and better things. The sun brought out the usual beautiful people from the shadows, none more so than the one carved from marble and jet whose eyes are simply out of this world. After leaving the Prospect faithful it was time to dart off home to grab the beast before rushing to get the train to East Croydon. I forgot how awkward it was to carry, wearing it again brought back all the memories of trying to find the bridge first time around, this time I was armed with a wii and two guitar's as my camping gear would be joining me tomorrow.
After whooping Abz and the little dude at Guitar Hero it was off to Comic con the next day. As usual with most things purple I had no idea what I was letting myself in for until I got off the train with the others and was greeted by several anime looking girls and a guy holding a huge plastic sword. Right then I knew I was in nerd heaven. The closer the three of us got to the Excel centre, the more outlandish costumes we saw. At one point i'd seen 7 Link's, 3 Rikku's, a Paine, 2 Jack Sparrows and several characters I had to ask Sean about. I'm not bad on spotting Square characters but anything Marvel or remotely comicesque and more vague than Superman and Wolverine is beyond me, nowhere near nerdy enough. Best outfit for me had to go as the girl dressed as Paine from FFX-II, i'd have got her picture if my camera didn't take half an hour to switch on.I thought the whole place would have various zones for each thing e.g. Marvel, Capcom, DC... but basically it's just one big market. It's full of stores ranging from people drawing Anime and Manga pictures, figurines, steam punk, basically anything kids and the WoW loving fraternity would love to get their hands on. Time came and went and I had to be on my way. After goodbyes with my beloved hosts it was onto Guildford to meet up with the old one and then down the road into Hambledon.
The Merry Harriers, home to quite simply the friendliest bar staff you'll ever meet, some cracking local food, live music, camping, Asterix books, live coverage of our boys beating the Norwegians at footie, a cat called Steve and of course Llamas. Just driving up to the place I knew the weekend would be ending as well as it had started. Any place that has it's own mog that happily sits at your feet while you're eating, random south american large mammals parked out back and 4 story edition of Asterix has earned my love and respect. Sat in the TV room with proper football loving blokes with pints of beer I was now the comic con nerd. Not hard to look out of place in a country pub reading Asterix, wearing a peace symbol and Steam Punk goggles. The match was followed by the live music and a zoology lesson from one of the locals. In the gents there was the biggest flying thing i'd ever seen. Apparently it was a 'May Bug' and legend has it if it gets caught in your hair it is an absolute bastard to get out. This thing was 3 times the size of any queen bee i'd ever seen so after awkwardly and hastily having a pee, I was off!
Camping with the old one meant all the odd cons. Brekkie on the bench and a brew on the gas stove. Despite arriving the evening before we still hadn't seen the llamas yet and didn't know quite what we'd be doing. Late morning we went around back and caught our first glimpse. It seemed a bit of a Mexican stand-ff with both parties not quite sure what to do next when faced with each other. I tried rubbing the noses of one of them which didn't go down too well, I always think if in doubt, use cat logic for animals as cat's like any area around their head rubbed. Word to the wise, if you're ever near one, avoid the cat logic. Remembered thinking I hope the llama that damn near spat at me wasn't my one...After the intros we went into the field and were paired up with our llamas. The 9 starts of the show were Louie, Napoleon, Sariah, Running Cloud, Goji, Fidel, Mungo, Omar and our tall spotty beast, Pandhu. Everyone started off a bit weary, especially a quirky looking goth girl with blue hair and her mate. The first hour or so you felt as if you were being dragged along by your new furry friend. Apparently they eat for 17 hours a day and stopped every few seconds or so for a munch of anything green before moving on.
You soon learn that these are some seriously strong beasts you're working with and as well as a bit of coaxing it's brute strength that's needed to get them shifting where you want to go. A few of them were saddled up with lunch for the day and a thing full of water. A pretty hot day but nothing they couldn't handle being an animal of the Andes, hope I get to see some next year in Peru.Usually with these posts there's a 'the whole thing was great despite this or that happening', no such comments here. The whole thing was great, fullstop. If you ever see an advert for llama trekking then give it a go you'll love it. You're only likely to get gobbed on if you act like a dick or are in the wrong place at the wrong time when one of them is gobbing it's dinner at it's mate.
Good luck to Woodstock at JMA and big thanks to all the stars of this weekend, especially Abz and Sean, the old one for buying me the trek as a pressie, Julie for doing the trek and of course my beautiful boy Pandhu. Aint he gorg!
Rossifer x
