Life in the Bus Lane

Tonight I took three of the scouts out to do the ride for their Cyclist badge. We headed along the canal to Dundas, and then onto Avoncliff. We’d had a couple of light showers along the way, and plenty of thunder and lightning, but nothing too wet. However soon after turning back at Avoncliff the towpath started to look very wet, but obviously we’d missed the rain. Or so we thought.

About a mile before we were due to leave the canal, the heavens opened and we were deluged with torrential rain. Within a few hundred yards I was soaked to the skin despite wearing my Raceface AquaMax jacket. We eventually made it back to the scout hut absolutely drenched, and I then had to ride home.

The last four miles home were in the same torrential rain, and it had rained so hard that all the roads were at least an inch deep in water all the way back. I don’t think I’ve ever been so wet in my life.

Casualties of the night so far include my HID lamp which appears to have died completely. I suspect all the bearings in the cross bike will be a bit waterlogged as well.

It lasted three hours tonight. Time that could have been better spent playing GTA4, or contemplating my navel.

Due to my dodgy back I’m not actually camping at the Scout Skills Camp, choosing instead to sleep in a proper comfortable bed. Helpfully they also thought I was on holiday this weekend and not able to attend, so I’m not really needed.

I popped out this afternoon to give the Canon G9 a proper work out, and ended up leaving the 30D in the boot of the car untouched.

Whilst the 30D can take far superior photographs, in these conditions the G9 was the better camera to use. It fits in a pocket, and the resulting photographs are more than adequate for what I need.

Very wet, very cold, very very muddy, very delayed, very chaotic.

I left the house at 8, and got home a bit before 7, my back is ruined and I need refueling with pizza and beer. I didn’t even get to take many photographs.

I had the pleasure of spending the evening in the Roman Baths at a Civic Reception with Councillor Ian Dewey, the chairman of B&NES council, and fourty or so scouting people. If you are going to hold a Civic Reception, the Roman Baths makes a perfect location, even though we were outside for the first hour or so.

The wine wasn’t entirely to my taste, but the stew and mash, risotto, and sticky toffee pudding were a nice surprise.

Last night was the second of our two visits to the fire station. After a quick test they did a demonstration drill for us,

then let the scouts loose with the hoses.

Great fun was had by all, even though some of them were rather wet by the end of the evening.

It was another outing for the Sigma 28/1.8 lens, which I’m very impressed with. Most of the photos were taken at ISO3200, f1.8, and -1EV just to get somewhere near a hand-holdable shutter speed. Luckily Noise Ninja can do wonders with the resulting pictures to clean them up.

More photos.

Friday night saw the first part of our biennial trip to the local fire station so that the scouts can do their fire safety badge. It also gave me a chance to play with another new toy, a Sigma 28/1.8 lens. If I’d known that I’d need a new laptop, I wouldn’t have bought the lens, but such is life. On the 30D, the 28mm lens works out at the equivalent of 45mm which is pretty much a “normal” lens.

Whilst we were there, they did a demonstration of what happens if you put water onto a chip pan fire which was very impressive and slightly scary, they didn’t take much persuading to repeat the demonstration a few more times.

More photos.

For the fourth year running I was helping out at the main fireworks display in town. A fairly quiet year this year, just a few errant sparklers to deal with, one lost child, and one person who blacked out and who happened to be the person I was partnered with. I don’t think it was my fault though
They fed us pie and chips afterwards, although we had to buy our own beer.

This weekend was our first group scout camp for several years, and it was a tad on the chilly side. You can tell it’s cold when you have to crack the ice off of the tent zip before you can get out in the morning.

We did our bit helping out planting the Avon Scouts Centenary Wood on the Saturday morning, then spent the rest of the weekend doing scout stuff and trying to keep warm.

I can’t believe they let this bloke loose with scouts.

It was a good weekend, but I’m glad to be back home in the warm now.