When someone suggested I ask Aidan for his firework expertise I was somewhat sceptical, especially since the only time I’d ever met him he was having a firework duel with Mr Leyland and they set the dunes on fire!!! However, all went according to plan and a spectacular display ensued with hardly any hitches. I was, however, slightly worried when the rescue flair tied to the make-shift Catherine Wheel flew of and into next door’s garden, very nearly causing an emergency, especially given it’s close proximity to the children! Thom and Tony’s ‘fire in a barrel’ contraption was very impressive, I especially liked the custard powder and leaf blower combo, caused a rather nice column of flame. A minor disagreement between Dickie and myself over whether his scarf should go in the fire resulted in him wearing my work uniform and my underwear, much to my surprise. I also believe Mr Burton had a collision with the snack tray, sending it flying over our lovely carpet, I’d forgotten I was going to send him the bill to clean it! Good fun was had by all…

Playzone social 2006

Playzone: A brief report for those who thought they were too mature (ha!) to go or who simply can’t remember it. (Sorry guys, you can’t use alcohol as an excuse this time!)

Did anyone else have as much ‘fun’ trying to find the place or was it just us?! Maybe we should give Portsmouth a lesson on the difference between a traffic light and a roundabout. Eventually we got there and found an interesting array of slides, obstacle courses, rope thingies, and just general bruise inducing apparatus- more than enough to keep a bunch of canoeists happy for an evening.

The evening started fairly calmly- testing out the slides, reckying the various obstacle courses and just generally having fun. However, as the evening wore on one or two individuals decided that simply sliding down a slide feet first, one at a time was just boring so instigated the start of the ‘how many people we can get down one slide at the same time in as many different positions as possible’ races. Ow.

There were several parts of the evening that stuck out for me- one of which was the roller thing where the aim (as far as I could see) was to stay on it as long as possible, whilst making everyone else fall off and get repeatedly beaten on the head by this contraption- surprisingly satisfying ?.

Another favourite was the bungee rope pain inducer. For those who weren’t there, basically this is a 5-layered maze of bungee cord in a cobweb style arrangement- the aim of which was to throw oneself through these without the rope getting caught in too many delicate places or tying yourself together- not as easy as it may sound, especially when George, Steveo, Tim R, Beth and several others decided it would be a good idea to bundle down it…with me and Laura T underneath! Many feet and arms and other body parts were damaged severely. Somehow my arm never quite made it down this thing at the same time as my body and ended up being crushed, jabbed and pulled by several large SUCCers and turned a most attractive shade of purple. Apologies to whoever’s foot got erm….re-arranged! I think a special thank you has to be given to those lovely Playzone ‘safety’ people who obviously didn’t care what we did and how much damage we inflicted on ourselves!

I’m sure by now you’re all getting the general idea of this social, but the only way to really appreciate it is to experience it first hand. Watch this space for details of the next outing to Playzone, and….wait for it…Playzone + Lasers (Lazerzone!).

Conclusion: A great place for a non-drinking, bruistastic social for SUCCers, but maybe not the best place to send your small child for his/her 5th birthday party (unless they wish to be rid of a few her limbs or turn purple).

Possibly the most SHARKTASTIC social I have ever been on, and also the one prompting the most e-mails to the list I have received in one day. A good night was had by all (so it would seem). Argh, I’ve just been looking back through my old e-mails, anyone else remember the rubber gimp suit guy……that was quite bizarre!

Here is a report for you from Laurent:

What a night. We met in the Mitre in Portswood for the first drink and to sort out pairs. All previous planning went out the window at this point and people got taped to whoever they were standing near. As ever I began the evening in my usual fashion by speaking before thinking “This isn’t right I’m meant to be tied to a lightweight”…sorry Tinsel. From the Mitre we staggered and stumbled along Portswood high street to the Terminal where more alcohol was purchased and rapidly consumed (Mr Forbes you still owe me a pint). Then twas on to the safety and wonder of the hobbit, where we were told to remove our tape before we could go downstairs….some obeyed the 3 wise men others did not. By this point there had been a small amount of low key sharking by various club members and also all the lovely Freshers who came along, as the beer and cocktails flowed the sharking incidences became more frequent and more apparent. It was up to Dr Nick to bring things back to order with a bit of group song. The Grand old duke of York was the song in question. 1st verse all the words, 2nd verse no ups, 3rd no downs, 4th no ups or downs. It’s amazing how difficult it can be to miss words out from a song.

After the hobbit came the finale for the evening…that’s right the dungeon. This is where the Sharking really kicked off. I’m not sure how many people got it together that night but I’m sure Laura’s Sharking table will sum it up very well. I’ll not mention any names but if anyone wants details I’m sure I can remember a few bits and pieces. We were also treated to some amazing dancing by Bethalina and Tripper. Unfortunately there was a slight downpour and I think everyone got absolutely soaked on their respective walks home. For those of you who were on the mailing list by then you’ll remember the Sharktastic emails which got George so amazingly worked up. George has now banned the word Sharktastic so any emails containing it will not get delivered.

More dungeon socials to come next term 🙂 Love from your ever tired social secretary

Laurent

Never has so much sharking ‘success’ been seen before! And the aftermath?….

In honour of our very own Mr Vian and his leaving, we hopped on a train to my home town of Winchester. Dressed as “The Anti-Faff Team” Helen and I led the SUCCers through the pubs of the Old Capital, it was indeed a lovely evening. The highlight of which was the lovely speech given by Louise (and a few others), where Mr Vian’s contributions to the club were summarised, and he was presented with his “Captain Faff” T-shirt. He will be missed, thought I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of him for good!