Mersea Island, or “…Didn’t we have a lovely time the day we outed JJ….”   PHOTOS

Well another rally over and done, and blimey, was it good..

Left for Mersea on Friday morning with Elmo & J from the Phoenix, with J’s other half driving down with essential provisions – tents, sleeping bags, beer and the like.  Journey pretty uneventful, the A14 and the M11 don’t get any more interesting, but at least we found the direct route to the rally, for which J must take the credit – even if he was surprised that we did it that easily!

Arrived at Mersea, and pitched camp in the ii village, next to those quiet people from the Wreckless Souls – they really should start making more noise, at one point I thought they must’ve gone home, it was that quiet. – NOT!!  Had the customary power nap, and when I awoke, as if by magic, the whole site seemed to have filled up with peeps from all over the place.  The Nottingham ii formation big top and gazebo pitching team arrived, and proceeded to demonstrate 89 ways to erect a gazebo, eventuality getting it right at the 90^th attempt.  Notably, it was the 3 blokes who were doing the building, watched by 3 genetically challenged blokes (birds to you and me), who were initially full of advice on how to build the gazebo, but whose ideas diminished as time went on, leaving the 3 blokes to wonder whether they’d gone deaf!

DMs and his car full arrived later, he managed to drive himself there, which is really good isn’t it?  Easily the best part of DMs’ arrival was the arrival of my beer, so I was able to start on the serious part of the evening!  Down at the bar there were lots of peeps milling about and chilling in the warm evening, and if I remember correctly partaking of all sorts of liquid beverages.  The rally camp fire was lit, so we joined the pyromaniacs of the scootering world in a quick rendition of Gin-Gan-Gooly.  Crashed out a bit later after watching others doing some fantastic Olympian acrobatics as they fell over guy ropes on the by now dark campsite – great spectator sport, less funny for the participants, and indeed people asleep in nearby tents who became reluctant crash mats for the tumblers.

Eileen proved top banana on Saturday  morning, and treated us to coffee and bacon butties, leaving Oooh Argh Jeff Johnno to do the washing up, and lovely he looked to in his pinnie and marigolds – little did he realise that he was doing a ‘dress’ rehearsal for later!

Next on the agenda was the 5-a-side, with the mercurial Wils once again proving how not to, but luckily for him, the rest of us managed to bale him out, and we won the tournament, much to Dr Fox’s delight - even if he did hide it really well.  Adjacent to the 5-a-side were the games for drunks, which I missed, but I’m told had more projectile vomiting than The Exorcist.

Regular readers will be surprised to hear that I disappeared to chill and power nap, both of which I managed to do, in spite of some very rude interruptions.  If an Englishman’s home’s his castle, his tent on a scooter rally becomes a drop-in centre for down-and-outs!  Suitably refreshed, it was time for the evening do, which was much like Friday, only without the fire, but with sponge, who according to all reports were excellent.  Highlight of the evening was Eileen’s attempt to ‘out’ JJ, as in some quarters in Nottingham, it’s trendy to have a gay friend, so Eileen decided that hers would be JJ.  To be fair to JJ, he was more than ‘up’ for it, until some bloke thought he’d pulled him, when suddenly all bets were off, and JJ played with a straight bat again.   But if JJ really does come we’ve promised to bake him a cake.

Wandered back chez-Spy at 2ish, and crashed out, only to be awakened by the dulcet tones of Eileen shouting after Munchkin for leaving her – had it been me mate I’d have gone back to find her, but then taken her to a different campsite, and run off … The recently outed JJ kept us all amused with the traumas he’d faced over the evening – bit of a drama queen if you ask me.  When Andy & Dawn landed back and Dawn decided that she and Eileen would make useful additions to the neighbours’ tents which were already fully occupied, we knew we were in for a long night.

Sunday morning came too soon, breakfast was good, watching DMs carry on his Bridlington tradition of ‘helping’ people who couldn’t finish all their breakfast.  Packed up and left, exhaust studs fell out on A14 so the very nice man gave me a lift home – it’s ok JJ, he asked if it is true that you were ‘out’, and when I said you were, he asked for your phone number, which I gave him.

Another excellent weekend of iiness at a rally.  Too many peeps to mention by name, but special mention to the Nottingham ii crew who confirmed what we all already thought, yes they are totally barmy, and to my near neighbours for being so quiet in the wee small hours and allowing me to get much needed beauty sleep.

I-Spy ii