Chilly Chilly, Bang Bang.

Don't worry, I haven't frozen and drifted downstream during the recent cold spell. I've been out there, through thick (layers of clothing) and thin (layers of ice on the car windscreens) working hard to create a blog posting for you all.

Let's start with Wednesday night.

After I had locked down all the buildings and closed the gates, for the second time due to a punter arriving back at one minute past eleven, I had a quick walk around the park to ensure that all was quiet. In one of the toilet blocks, there was three German males. When I went to the block, I noticed that the doors were closed, so I opened them and went to check on the female toilets. I returned to the gents toilets, to find the doors had been closed. Again, I opened them and went inside to question the three males.

"Can you explain to me why you have just closed these doors, despite the fact that you just watched me open them?"
"Because it's cold."
"Then my suggestion is that you go to your tent, climb into your sleeping bags and go to sleep."
"Oh... sorry."

I walked back to reception and just as I came around the corner, a vehicle pulled into the drive. I waited for the driver to realise that the gates were in fact closed and that he (or she) would have to reverse into the parking bays provided. The vehicle didn't move. So I went to investigate. As I approached the gate, I realised that it was two of the local constabulary's finest. Apparently, someone had gone climbing and not called their sister to say that all went well and they were safely off the mountain and back on the campsite. The sister became worried and called the Police. They knew a rough description of the person's vehicle as well as a partial index mark. That was good enough for me, so I opened the gates and let them drive in. They checked the larger of the fields and I checked the other two. I found the vehicle and tent in question, so I walked back to let them know. They drove round and spoke to the occupant of the tent. When they were finished, the male Police officer and I had a chat. He has been out a few times when I have been on shift, so he knew me from then (and more specifically, from this incident). I think he was more than happy to stand there and talk to me all night, but his colleague wasn't, she demonstrated this by uttering the following statement,

"You two can stand there and talk all night, but I'm bloody cold."

before jumping back into the car. The male Police officer thanked me for letting them in after hours before driving off.

I noticed a couple of rubber-neckers during this incident, namely the German door-shutters. They quickly vanished when they saw the Police getting back into the car and driving in their direction though. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Remember the male from this post? Well, I was speaking to Alex during the handover and he informed me that the male had abandoned his "tent" and left. The lads noticed this when they were doing their morning checks, so they put a ticket on it asking the occupant to contact reception immediately on their return. Just before they went off shift, nobody had been in, although the tickets had been removed from the tent. I've been asked to keep an eye on the tent, should I see anyone moving around near it to let Alex know. Otherwise, the "tent" will be dismantled and put with all the other tents that have been abandoned over the season, then binned or given to one of the local charity shops. I've got my name on a brand new tent which was abandoned a while back. This job does have it's perks.

In one of the other fields a punter had decided that it would be a good idea to tie a plastic tarpaulin to some trees to provide a bit of shelter. The only thing it provided was a rustling, efficacious way of keeping people awake. I untied it and placed it next to the tent. I didn't want several complaints about the amount of noise it was making (and it was making a lot of noise).

As for Thursday night, it was relatively quite in comparison to that. The only thing that irritated me was the sound of a heater emitting from a mobile home. It made me think how they were all nice and warm in their home from home and I was left to wander around the site in the freezing cold.

Ah well, no rest for the wicked, back on shift in a couple of hours.