Friday night and I was lost in Stoke-on-Trent. I was en-route to Kingsley village, and probably so desperate to see a familiar red Transit van that I missed my turn and ended being very geographically embarrassed. However, I did finally arrive at Kingsley Youth Centre, and after meeting up with a few other early arrivals, we set off down the local pub. Funnily enough, I found my way to this one without a hitch.

The weekend work was based entirely on a BW site, so Health and Safety was a serious issue, as was the wearing of correct protection kit. Therefore Saturday morning, after breakfast saw us all treated to the WRG safety video, plus a briefing from John and Julie of the local Canal Trust. Johns briefing, including a map, was very detailed and trying to retain most of the info we were given, we were all desperate to start…which is what we thought we would do on arrival at the site. What scuppered this was a guided tour of the site and even more paperwork to sign from BW contractor on the site. So once we had all signed our lives away and declared we were competent and safe, we could get to work.

Andi, Dig leader, did a fab job of delegating jobs out, and soon a wave of Hi-viz festooned the site and set about clearance work, wall repairs, re-setting moorings and any other tasks that we could lay our gloved hands on. The steady rain and the slight delay to our start did nothing to stop us catching up on lost time, and we soon had John and Julie racing around trying to keep up with the pace we were setting. End of play, we returned to camp to use the delightfully warm showers, and then we set about the LWRG AGM. Dates and ideas flew around the room, and when the whistle blew for half time we were treated to a superb evening meal, courtesy of Harry cuisine and Andy’s killer Garlic Bread. So bellies full of scran, beer and no half time oranges, we stuck into the second half of the AGM with more topics, including purchasing of mixing bowls and Ed’s custom Transit conversions. After the meeting was closed, we reluctantly frequented the pub again in our quest to find a quality ale. I cant remember if we passed or failed this task, but I can remember seeing about 20 Hi-viz vests all lit up in the dark on our return to the accommodation, which was quite bizarre, maybe the beer was finally working.

Sunday saw familiar wet weather and a concentration of most people on the wall repairs. Once again the pace we set kept John and Julie on their toes, John doing runs to the cement shop to keep buying more for our consumption. Overall we did a sterling job of completing the tasks, and despite copious amounts of mud and not so copious amounts of wheelbarrows, a good time was had by all. Big thanks have to go to Andi for great leadership, Harry who did the lion(ess)’s share of the cooking, John and Julie for their liaison with BW and local contractors, and for their excellent guidance throughout the two days. This weekend really did have something for everyone including hot showers, friendly locals (or random over friendly ones in my case), the use of the contractor’s facilities and even the chance to have your photo taken with a baby. Variety really is the spice of life.

Tay