The Partybus

The past few weeks have been very quiet on the site with nothing of particular note to report. As the season starts to build, albeit very slowly, the troublemakers start to make their way to the surface. Normally they're pretty easy to spot, just by walking past and listening. There are also a few who escape under the radar, until it's very late at night. Last night was no exception, the group who were going to cause trouble made their presence known from very early in the night.

As I walked around the site at the start of my shift, in the pouring rain, I made a note of where all the tents were, so I didn't unnecessarily soak myself to the skin by wasting time later in the night walking round an empty field. There didn't appear to be any obvious troublemakers on the site, which is always a good thing. I managed to lock up all the amenities buildings and close the gates, before heading back around the site again. I had just left the gates when I heard a minibus pull up, so I went down to the corner nearest the gate, where I can see what's happening, but those at the gate can't see me. Luckily, they parked up and walked in reasonably quietly, apart from two of them. The two who stayed at the minibus pottered around for a while, before heading in to bed. A few moments later, a threesome of bikers pulled up at the gate and turned their engines off. I walked out to ensure that they weren't planning on leaving the bikes directly in front of the gate, they weren't. I spoke to one of the group who asked if they could push the bikes in, sans engines. I told them that they could, although I did feel sorry for the owner of the faster-looking bike, as his appeared to be twice as heavy as the others. With the bikers safely tucked up in their bed, I made my way around the park. As I came out of one of the fields, I noticed a group running from the toilets carrying something large and shiny. I couldn't make out what it was, so I followed them. Unfortunately, by the time I'd walked round, they were in their tents and silent.

Fortunately, the rain had subsided enough for a group of young guys to dig out the disposable barbeque and light it. I walked over to make sure that they were quiet and not going to hack down a sapling and sacrifice it over their disposable barbeque. As I was talking to the group, who were very talkative, I heard a loud noise from a nearby tent, shortly followed by lots of swearing. They quietened down before I could get to them, so I didn't bother giving them a warning. I walked away from the group, just as their barbeque was dying down enough for them to cook their dinner on it and the rain started again.

As I was walking towards the field where most of the trouble is, a male approached me and asked the usual, "Do you work here?" I answered with the affirmative and he told me that he was having trouble sleeping, due to "a large group of youths" who were throwing a party in a minibus. I knew immediately who the group was and where their minibus was, so I told the gentleman that by the time he had crawled back into his sleeping bag, I would have taken care of it. As soon as I entered the field, I could hear the sound of a TV being played very loudly inside a minibus. As it was getting on for midnight, I walked straight over to the 'bus and slapped the palm of my hand against the drivers door several times, the door opened and a drunken "youth" attempted to focus on me. I warned them quite severely that if the TV wasn't turned off, then they would be leaving, due to the fact I had several complaints about the excessive levels of noise coming from them. Thankfully, the passenger was slightly more sober and assured me that they would turn it down, which he did. The door closed and I walked off, only to walk approximately six feet away, for the TV to be turned back on again. This time, I felt I had to be more direct. They were told to turn the TV off and head to bed; again they reluctantly agreed and closed the door. I stood at the rear of the 'bus, so that if they happened to look in their mirrors, they'd notice I wasn't going anywhere. When I heard the doors opening and "youths" heading towards the nearby tents, I walked around the field to ensure that they were going to bed and they would be quiet. Which, thankfully, they were. Although I did receive several complaints about them in the morning, but they were happy that I had intervened at an early stage and they had managed to get a decent night's sleep.

Later, as I was checking the amenities buildings, I noticed a small plastic tag on the floor of one building; I recognised it as being the security tag for the fire extinguisher which, when I looked towards the rather empty looking hook on the wall, was missing. I then recalled noticing a group running off from the building carrying something large and silver. The missing fire extinguisher. I checked the remaining amenities buildings and then walked over to the direction of the tents that I had previously heard the strange noise from earlier in the evening, as I was walking towards the tents, I noticed the fire extinguisher abandoned in the middle of another group of tents. Luckily I was in the field at the time, so I knew which tents had discharged it. I made a note of their number and found the corresponding vehicle in the car park.

As the end of the shift rolled around, I met the manager and told him what had happened during the night. After having me confirm which tent had set off the fire extinguisher, we piled into his car and drove around there. Given the fact that they had discharged it quite early in the morning, they wouldn't have got much sleep before the manager went over and gave them a rude awakening. I've often wondered what goes on when he says "Don't worry, I've had a word with them." or "They got an early morning call from me." Now I know and it's not good, the nearby tents, which were all just getting up had heard the disturbance and had gone outside their tents to watch. Of course, the group denied it and weren't too happy that they were given fifteen minutes to pack up and leave. However, after they had packed up, one of the group came in to apologise for what he'd done and duly left the site.

A-tea-tude Problem

Has it really been a month already, since I last made a blog post? I had been meaning to get around to it at some point, but I must have forgotten. Well, since I last updated the blog, the site has been pretty busy and there have been several bloggable points. I won't mention them all, because that would be spoiling you too much and you probably don't want to read a tome of a post, so I'll whittle it down to the more memorable moments on the park over the past few weeks.

It was half an hour before opening up time, so I was still wandering around the park in a daze, trying to find things to do to pass the time, when I heard a small argument taking place nearby. I could see from where I was that it involved a member of staff, so I decided to let them argue it out. After waiting about five minutes, I ventured round to open up the first amenities block, when I was stopped by a female.

"Excuse me, are you the warden?"
"Yes, is there a problem?"

I could tell by the location of the argument and the fact that there was nobody else awake at that time of the morning, that this was the person who had decided to pick a fight with a member of staff.

"Does that guy (pointing in the direction of a nearby caravan) work here?"
"Yes, he does."
"Right, well I want his name. I'm going to make a complaint about him."
"What seems to be the problem?"
"I was up early, because I couldn't sleep, so I decided to make a cup of tea. I was trying to find my teabags and milk in the car, and then this guy shouted at us."

It turns out that when I heard the first argument take place, that's when the member of staff had decided to shout at her for waking him up. Despite the fact that this staffer is known to sleep with earplugs in. So the female decided to confront him, to find out what his problem was.

When the female told me what the staffer had said to her, that he had come back at around 2am (remember this, it's important later) and was trying to sleep, as he had work in the morning. The female then told me that she thought she heard a female's voice inside the caravan, I tried not to laugh at this point, but when she said,

"Maybe he picked up an old tart in town and she wasn't giving him any. He's got an attitude problem."
"Well, to be honest, he's not the most cheerful of people at this time of the morning."

I had to try my hardest to stifle a chuckle. Shortly after finishing our conversation, I went to open up the amenities building, laughing heartily on the inside.

Just around clocking-off time, I spoke to the manager and warned him of the possible approach of a venomous Glaswegian with a complaint against a member of staff and that she wasn't happy at all. As I walked back around to chat to the day staff, the staffer came out of his caravan and walked past the two females. I only heard one side of the conversation, his.

"You shouldn't be on a campsite anyway"
(Raised voice)"Ya bastards!"

When he walked over, he started talking to me and asking if there were any problems during the night. I gave a brief recap of the events, to which he replied,

"I heard a group coming back, just before one, very noisy crowd. Any hassle with them?"

So, despite the fact that he told the two females he was out partying until two in the morning, he was, in fact, trying to sleep.

When I retold the story to one of the senior wardens, he laughed,

"The only 'old tart' he'll be getting, is an out-of-date bakewell tart from Tesco's."

Yes, there may be many things that he is, but a big spender, he is not. He is well known for heading off to the local supermarket, just before closing time, or even first thing in the morning, to see what bargains he can pick up.

I apologise for the lack of posts, I've been trying to catch up with countless other things, as well as try to get some sleep. I shall make more of an effort in the future, now that the busy season is starting to kick off.