Monday, November 21, 2005

paddler


dave and becca 3
Originally uploaded by jamesandthebluecat.
Spent the weekend as support crew to my brother and friends who were doing the 2005 exe descent. 'Support crew' in this instance meaning little more than dropping people off at one end of the river exe, then chasing down after them with a camera trying to take exciting action shots, then loading the boats up at the other end, but it was good outdoorsy fun of the kind I never normally have.

Most exciting bit for me, tragically enough, was driving back from Exeter to Falmouth, as the furthest I've ever driven before is to St. Ives and back - never even driven out of Cornwall before. Anyway, getting an elderly VW Polo with a huge canoe on the roof up to 80mph on a dual carriageway turned out to be slightly enjoyable.

Other fun moment: explaining to Becca, Dave's co-paddler what an 'RPG' is (in this context, a Rocket Propelled Grenade' - we were talking about dreadful/enjoyable Ridley Scott movies Black Hawk Down) - only to discover Becca to be a Lieutenant and helicopter navigator in the Royal Navy. I thought the dissertation she'd been talking about was in 'Tourism'. Actually it turned out to be 'Terrorism'. Dammit.

11 comments:

Kay Richardson said...

That's weird. I knew someone who was doing the 2005 'sexe' descent on Saturday. They can't walk now.

James Henry said...

Any exciting photos of that one?

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of the time someone told me a company called Oxford Choreographers wanted an appointment with me at the Frankfurt Bookfair. Obviously had no idea what they wanted to see me about - were they some experimental company who want to publish a book about how to pass your GCSE Maths through the medium of dance? Anyway, asked someone to ring them back and ask them what they did. And the answer came back -they make maps. V. embarrassing as am hoity toity editorial bod who one would assume would know what a cartographer does...

patroclus said...

Is it actually possible to drive out of Cornwall? I like to imagine there's a hideous troll under the Tamar Bridge, discouraging natives from leaving.

cello said...

Looks scarier than spiders even.

Smat said...

the troll doesn't bother non-natives - we escaped successfully last Christmas.....

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Yesterday I was listening to last Thursday's 'Saturday Night Fry' on Radio 7, originally broadcast in December 1987. At the end of the programme I distinctly heard the words "with additional material from [some other bloke and] James Henry." Was this your good self? If so, please tell us more. Or is there some other James Henry moving in comedic circles? Perhaps because one of his legs is too short.

Kirses said...

Some of the terroists we have here in london are very annoying, no... sorry, i meant tourists.

James Henry said...

Back, after technological shenanigans I will probably wail about later. But no, have never knowingly written for Stephen Fry - there's a comedy writer called James Hendrie, which can cause confusion. And a tv director called James Henry, although I'm hoping that might lead to me accidently directing something one day....

James Henry said...

Also, thinking about it, I would have been 14. I should have said 'yes'. Writing for Stephen Fry at the age of 14 would have been really pretty impressive.

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Yep. James Hendrie it was. I did double-check at the time, but now I'm listening for a 'd', there it is. Doh.

Didn't really think about the timescale when I posted that comment, did I? Realised later that you probably would have been too young. Don't know why, but 1987 just doesn't seem that long ago.