All over for another year

[pensnest]

Keeping secrets is Quite Difficult, but I managed not to let on to anyone except nopseud and possibly ephemera that my posse would not be travelling to Camp Sparkle in the usual minibus, but in a giant, Barbie-pink stretch hummer. I did let out that I wasn't going to be doing the driving this year, when on Friday morning someone asked whether it was time to fetch the minibus...

The limo backed past our window at exactly eleven o'clock (because it was easier than turning round in our street). I was very gratified by the squeals of excitement. We'd managed to fit all the starting-from-Pen's luggage into our Prius, which my long-suffering Beast was going to drive to Derbyshire. So the rest of us—me, msktrnanny, rikes, adelate, iconis, chalcopyrite, ninjetti75 and letterboys made ourselves comfortable in the fabulously camp and sparkly interior. Seriously, colour-changing lights in the ceiling, behind the (three) bars and under the seats, crackle-flashy circular lights at intervals, and a red "laser" which filled us with joy. We put PopOdyssey in the DVD player and set forth, giggling like lunatics.



It needed petrol at the services near Stansted. It... took up a lot of pump space, and occasioned much envy.

Stansted Airport was also fun. Our seven additions (randomling, _titch, bubbleforest, ihearthings_ii, fadedsouls, saba1789 and valya22 clustered in bewilderment, spotted the limo, looked around for the mysteriously absent minibus. So msktrnanny leaned out of the door to bellow "Hey, ladies!" and photos were taken. Heh.

Of course, it's not quite so comfortable in a limo with fifteen people and luggage, but we broke out the fizz anyway. (Dear me, I do go on about the limo. But I'd been keeping quiet about it for at least two months!)

We arrived at around three, nopseud and stellamira were already there, but we couldn't dump our luggage inside and head out for lunch. Had to lurk on the drive instead. But, once we got in, the house was even better than the limo—really, really nice. A purple bedroom with big pink flower lights! Giant orgy bed! Two ensuites to the master bedroom, one of which had multicoloured lights, the other of which had a telly built in at the end of the bath. Beast and I slept in a mighty bed, too, which had probably been constructed in the bedroom, for it must have been impossible to shift.

It is so much fun seeing all you people again. Seriously, I think my smile muscles were already hurting by Thursday night, and by Friday evening they'd given up altogether. Also, I could demand hugs not just from my Beast but from a bunch of other eminently huggable people. It was great. And there was a hot tub, which seven of us at one point attempted to convert into a whirlpool bath, and it did NOT snow.

The week was punctuated by "I'm on a horse"/"in a limo"/"on a couch" etc. We had a couple of great discussions—despite the absence of our fabulous moderator, Turlough—about how to persuade people to write moar popslash, and on the pros and cons of different eras. We watched "Harry and Max"—despite the screams of protest—and followed it with "House of Carters" in its entirety ["Oh, Aaron. How I want to drown you in a sack."], during which the stalwarts in the sitting room saw a fox, with great excitement, and iconis saw something huge, grey and striped which can only have been a badger, making its way hurriedly across the back garden. Really, HoCrack *and* a badger, how much more surreal can it be at five in the morning?

The Monday outing to Buxton saw some people going off to be spa'd; Beast and I made for the caves, which were excellent, as caves usually are, though a bit less stalactity than I expected. We had our lunch in Miss Deliliah Good's café and patisserie, which turned out to be vegetable soup and cheese scones, and treacle and ginger sponge pudding with custard. None of which sounds at all appropriate for Miss Delilah Good's café and patisserie, but which was very nice. On Tuesday quite a bunch of people went off to Nottingham on the train, but I stayed in the house for a RPG organised by ninjetti75, which was a bit unnerving but turned into lots of fun. I was Joey Fatone, superhero.

Wednesday we went to Haddon Hall, a very lovely medieval house/castle in a state of wonderful preservation, which was pretty and somehow home-like. Also, awesome little restaurant. Many Campers indulged in rather fine scones with jam and clotted cream. This inevitably led to another raid on Tesco's when we returned.

We loafed around the house on Thursday, recovering from the week, and—possibly—fortifying ourselves for the late-night reading of our surprisingly coherent (well...) Add Five Words story. Followed, at my instigation (pride!) by a reading of the Lava Lamp story, designed to initiate the unfortunate _titch and also, I think, chalcopyrite into the insanity that is Cramp. msktrnanny's reading was accompanied by, hmm, dramatic illustrations provided by iconis as Lance/JC, chalcopyrite (who cannot have known what she was in for) as Chris, and rikes and saba1789 as the somnolent Joey and Justin. And a vodka bottle, as turgid... things. Awesome.

Home again in our pink limo, though we were too knackered to drink the bubbly this time. Various people fissioned off to various airports, and we had to get up at four-thirty on Saturday to get the last three to Stansted and Gatwick in time for early flights. Woe.

And it's over for another year.

Next year, we really must invite Chris!