I struggled into bed around 4-30 am after the Glossop misadventure, at 5-30 the alarm went off to wake me ready for the Ripon event. Great who needs sleep. It was blowing a gale and bucketing rain as I left for Ripon, which was an event being held in a field so would probably end up with us having to recover everything from the roadside using chains. The organiser had provided me with a list of attractions at the event, these ranged from the army, through a classic car show to a display by the R.A.F., he was also expecting upto 100 charities to be involved so we were looking at a major event.
As I turned into the venue (Ripon Racecourse) my heart sank, our attractions were all in place and being assembled, but that was it, the rest of the field was empty. We were meant to start at 10am but it was obvious this wasn't going to happen, something was terribly wrong. I gathered Arthur and Renny (my partners in crime) and asked what they thought, I was pessimistic at this point but they were both of the opinion that 'we are here so we may as well try it'.
It was at this point that it happened, a very large swan decided to pick a fight, now it was obviously an intelligent swan as both Renny and I are 6 footers, Arthur on the other hand is 2 inches short of being tall enough to be a midget. So the swan attacked him. We were rolling around in hysterical laughter so weren't much help, while Arthur decided discretion was the better part of valour and beat a hasty retreat. The swan spent the rest of the day following Arthur around hoping for a repeat performance, while Arthur spent the day trying to keep one step ahead of the swan.
The event never really got going and we just about scraped our expenses together. We had attended 5 events in 4 days over the bonfire weekend , 4 out of the 5 had been successful so an 80% success rate wasn't too bad.
As I turned into the venue (Ripon Racecourse) my heart sank, our attractions were all in place and being assembled, but that was it, the rest of the field was empty. We were meant to start at 10am but it was obvious this wasn't going to happen, something was terribly wrong. I gathered Arthur and Renny (my partners in crime) and asked what they thought, I was pessimistic at this point but they were both of the opinion that 'we are here so we may as well try it'.
It was at this point that it happened, a very large swan decided to pick a fight, now it was obviously an intelligent swan as both Renny and I are 6 footers, Arthur on the other hand is 2 inches short of being tall enough to be a midget. So the swan attacked him. We were rolling around in hysterical laughter so weren't much help, while Arthur decided discretion was the better part of valour and beat a hasty retreat. The swan spent the rest of the day following Arthur around hoping for a repeat performance, while Arthur spent the day trying to keep one step ahead of the swan.
The event never really got going and we just about scraped our expenses together. We had attended 5 events in 4 days over the bonfire weekend , 4 out of the 5 had been successful so an 80% success rate wasn't too bad.