The Youth Hostel!

Well I'm back from the Youth Hostel and, as I'm sure everyone will agree, it was another grand success! I arrived at Crowden-in-Longdendale YHA about 6:45pm (after stopping for petrol and beer, and after trying to convince Dad that we hadn't missed the turn-off) and everyone else arrived soon after. The hostel was spacious but cosy, and I was quite surprised by how close to the main road we were (ie. ON it!) . Anyway, Friday evening was spent by the majority indulging in a 'magnificent' firework display policed by Patrick, Bob and Gerard 'Safety Ged' Riley, (which included mine and Mum's renditions of 'Light my Fire' during the intermissions) and - if on no one else's then definitely on my part - consuming an abundant amount of alcohol including the Rileys' excellent Arizona beer on tap. Oh yeh, and beating Tony at pretty much every game going - a theme for the weekend it materialised! We finally turned in around 2am after a hearty round of guitars and singing and trivial pursuit (poor Tony, and after it looked like me and Charlotte were going to lose as well!).
I awoke on Saturday morning at about ten to 11, feeling like I really needed to stay in bed yet the temptation of a potential fry-up from downstairs overcame me. After we were fed and showered Me, Louisa, Tony, Charlotte and David took a trip in my car to the nearby town of Glossop, and considering we didn't know where it was and only skidded once on the wet country lanes I think we did quite well! We had a pub lunch on the cheap and I had about 3 pints of 'Hangover Recovery' pepsi, and we had a few games of pool, in which I narrowly lost to David, Tony lost to David by potting the black, and Tony lost to me by potting the white as he potted the black. He was ready to go and lie down in front of a tree! Anyway, shopping was nothing to be boasted about in Glossop, as it left us with a copy of 'Bing Crosby at Christmas' on CD as the only purchase made. And how worth the £5.99 it was.
Anyway, Saturday night was more of the same; boozing, gaming and singing, only this year was really good as we had performances that we have never had the pleasure of before, such as Grandma's great version of 'You'll Never Walk Alone', the talented Celia singing and playing the guitar, Estelle and Bob on keyboard, Conan's cool dance routines and mine, Louisa's and Charlotte's excessive use of Claire's musical backing tracks after much badgering from everyone else to sing! It was a great night, and after yet more fireworks from Julia it was a great way to end the weekend, even if we were absolutely BLOATED to the MAX on buffet food and tiddly from playing drinking games. I didn't get much sleep that night due to feeling sniffly and wheezy but nothing could put a dampener on the weekend. Especially when you get your breakfast made for you two mornings in a row! You don't get that at home!
Anyway, I really hope everyone else enjoyed the weekend as much as I did, it was great to see everyone and I hope Grandma has one of her world famous New Year's Day partys again so I can see everyone again before I go!
Let's do it again next year too - watch this space!
And for more info on renting a youth hostel, see www.yha.org.uk

Ta-Ta for now, Campers!