The Mess Dinner & Xmas Camp (December 2010)

By Frankie Postles (P.L. Eagles).

They all said that there had not been a scout mess dinner in a very long time due to so and so circumstances, but at last the whispers turned into fact and us scouts all found ourselves over at the hall on Friday evening. Sparks had said that the scenario was that we had found ourselves in the wild with no tents and had found a derelict building to camp out in. We could use anything we could find. With ten individual imaginations all buzzing away, the creations that were to be our shelters all took different shapes from the bizarre to the practical. That evening died away in a hum of chatter.

The next morning it was cereal, a trip to the shops for me and Sparks and a bus ride to the boat house that get us going. The plan was that everyone would have a go at doing different things, one group rowing, another cooking, another doing maintenance and a final kayaking. In practice it all went along those lines. A great day of activities was the result, but the main event was still to come.

The mess dinner itself was to be in the galley with drinks, food, crackers and all the spirit we could muster. The immaculate presentation was down to Nathan and Jack while the more so immaculate food was down to Chief, Skip myself and Boson. After Skips most enjoyable speech we all had a toast (which was sitting down due to the restricting height on a ship.)

Finishing off the meal were a series of speeches, Alistair bringing a whole new dimension to the word “speech.” Sparks gave a wonderful tale of his youth in the olden days and Akela’s televised speech brought a tear to everyone’s eye.

It would be unjust not to mention the disco that went on for a couple of hours after the meal. Such a day’s events even saw Ben sitting down looking tired! A wonderful evening.

View all the photos here!