Chris Curtis Web Site

What a nice event and what a pleasant evening!

Summer evening events are low-key and a little “different”. This one sent us out in roughly matched pairs - one with a map for the “A” course and one for “B”. Some controls were in common, but elsewhere there were two controls in close proximity, on similar features - and the control descriptions did not have the control codes, so you had to use fine navigation to be sure that the control you were punching was the correct pit, ditch junction, horse jump or thicket when there were two to choose from.  Thirty-second time penalties were imposed if you punched the wrong one or punched both! You had to keep thinking all the time, and there were the usual summer orienteering challenges like man-eating nettles and sky-high bracken in places too.

Borde Hill was being set up for a cross-country equestrian event, with the many jumps and challenges all tricked out in flags and greenery. It made the park feel very unusual.

Afterwards, Ali , the planner, shared cake and fizz for her birthday and in the warm sunshine and light breeze almost everyone sat around for a while chatting and laughing. Very relaxed and a great way to spend a long summer’s evening.

I was in a particularly good mood. As I drove to the event my son, Nathan, phoned me (hands free) to say he had passed his medical degree with distinction - six years of extremely hard work gaining a fantastic reward! I was (and am) thrilled and very proud.

I spent an hour or so at the dealer’s today trying to decide on a new car. I think I will stay with Citroen. I like the slight Gallic quirkiness and the embedded technologies and have enjoyed driving my Picasso. The trouble is that Citroen have downgraded the Xsara Picasso range to make room for their new C4 Picasso - which is gorgeous, but bulky and expensive to buy and run - so a straight replacement is not an option. Also, I seem to spend most of my driving life in traffic jams so want to move to something a bit greener and fuel efficient, especially now that I am not transporting lots of teenagers around all the time.

I thought it might be the C4 but we spent some time looking at a C3. If you are going to downsize, you might as well do it properly (though the C1 or C2 would be going too far!). A decision in the next few weeks.

The house is very quiet as the sons have gone travelling. Thom is in Venice with some friends and Nathan is in Gibraltar (some last minute bargain, apparently). Oh the joys of cheap travel for students!

We were up well before dawn (enjoying a great view of Venus as the morning star and Orion high to the South while I was packing the car) and off to Brize Norton air base to collect Nathan from his RAF flight back from the Falklands.

A friendly civilian security officer photographed us, checked id and issued passes before a soldier with a very big gun waved us in. Military bases have their own strange and special ambience. Brize Norton has a proper (but small) terminal, but without any advertising and all painted in drab military colours. There were signs insisting that those in uniform should wear hats and “pay compliments” or face a large fine. Inside were a mixture of service personnel, girlfriends and families waiting for people from the flight, which had arrived early. We were supposed to hand in our passes, but I had gone out of the base before we spotted the letterbox we were supposed to put them in.

Nathan was soon there and we went up to Chipping Norton for breakfast with Trish’s brother, his wife and the girls.

He looks very well, though tired and jet lagged after a 19-hour flight.

Nathan has been in the Falklands for one week. A few snippets.

“I was playing cricket last night” (Dad:but it’s midwinter there!) “They are very British.”
“It is not as small as the guidebook says - Stanley covers quite a large area. Also they are completely up to date with clothes, music, high-tech - the school and hospital are state of the art”.
“I went out to camp - we did a clinic in someone’s bedroom - the farm had 150,000 sheep!”
“The wind is like nothing on earth - incredible”
“Food is very expensive, I am going to starve”
“The people are great”

About now, Nathan is in the air on the way to the Falkland Islands.