What happened at "Mad Weekend @ Milton Keynes 2008" on 3 Oct 2008 - 9:00pm

Big Breakfasts, Girly Emails and Knacky Knees; what happened at "Mad Weekend @ Milton Keynes 2008"

I had wanted to get a new Plus event under my belt and it was 10 years since I attended AMMO (Annual Mad Mini Olympics) so I decided to get myself up to Milton Keynes for the Mad Weekend, and see exactly how different today's answer to AMMO really was. It was a weekend that exceeded all my expectations.

Rich kindly offered me a lift up, unfortunately this was after I had taken my hire car so I declined, not wishing to leave my hire car sitting in the drive all weekend. I'd be showing my age if I were to say that Vangelis accompanied me up the M25 and M1, a theme that could well be accused of recurring throughout the weekend. As promised, Rich was propping up the bar when I joined him; the only two to be present on the Friday night. He had obligingly befriended the bar manager of all people, which led to an impromptu and quietly raucous lock in.

Saturday started with an "all you can eat" breakfast. And we did, before retiring for a while to wait for everybody else to arrive. The first main activity was Skiing / Snowboarding / Rock climbing in the central Xscape centre. I haven't skied for 3 or 4 years and I am sure it was easier to bend down to tie my boots before. In trepidation I climbed the drag lift and with unbridled joy I realised I still 'had it'; parallel stops and turns, speeding down the centre, sending snow everywhere, the lot. And my knacky knee behaved. After the extra hour various Plussers joined in, including Rich, Adrian, Princess Phil (she of the legendary and wonderfully girly emails to the Southern Area Forum), Ant, and Pete. It was more fun skiing with people I knew. And importantly, now I know I am fit enough to go on a week's skiing holiday, possibly Adrian's one in Lapland.

The early evening meal was interesting. Pudding arrived before dinner. Dinner arrived before starter. Starter arrived after 40 minutes. My double steak (well it was a two-for-one) was OK, but I have never seen luminous fish and chips before (save for that episode of The Simpsons) and am not sure I want to again.

Slightly narked but still in good humour, we headed off to the Daytona centre for a spot of night-time karting. This was a proper endurance race over 40 minutes. On an outside track. In the rain. The puddle before the straight served as an excellent body cooler, visor cleaner, and in some cases, drink. Endurance was the word. I was doubtless thinking of other words as I got stuck on the edge, seeing the last half hour's work carefully overtaking people instantly rubbed out. Despite this I somehow came in a credible 9th out of 18, eight places below the winner who was predictably Rich. Cue the celebrations as we all swapped track stories and enjoyed the buzz.

I was too tired to go out and it was an early start on the Sunday, so instead Rich and I stayed up chatting with our National Chairman. I was falling asleep when we discussed the new Plus website but woke when the topic changed to women, at which point Rich nodded off! The new website is indeed good, check out the dynamic calenders, forums, and blogs which constantly bring us up to date (I'll collect my pint later for that blatant plug). Just 4 hours after falling getting to sleep Rich and I were helpfully awoken by an enthusiastic offer of room service!

On the Sunday most of us did the Airkix - a skydiving simulation in a huge wind tunnel. One minute may not seem that long but it was very intense doing something best described as a horizontal random walk in mid-air as the trainer worked flat out to keep you there and signal to you to adjust your legs, or simply to relax. Everybody had a second go and some of us a third. When the trainer spread out like a star he shot up the tube and nearly out the top of the building. When I tried to copy him I ascended about a foot before falling flat on my face. Perhaps that's the reason why he's the trainer and I am not.

The final event was the Ten Pin Bowling, which I had prepared for by chasing down my McBurger with a gut-buster style breakfast and a not inconsiderable amount of gloating as to my bowling ability. Bad move Ian. My knee which had withstood everything the weekend had thrown at it had had enough and I was barely able to register a 3 digit score. Absolute Shocker. The winning individual was deservedly Geoff from Lincs Quest and the winning team was also Lincs Quest. No hard feelings, honest!

Princess Phil had done just about enough to shake off any misconceptions of her being girly by (a) being better than me at karting, (b) being better than me at bowling, (c) not wearing a fluffy animal on top of her Airkix helmet, and (d) very capably stepping into the breech to organise this fantastic weekend and avoid any potential logistical nightmares. The final accolade of 'most girly' instead goes to Christine Ticehurst for those very cute pigtails. All three of Phil, Kirsty and Rich deserve huge plaudits for organising this fantastic weekend, which I will definitely attend again. The biggest regret was that Kirsty was suddenly called away and could not be there.

Oh, and I took a piece off the hire car front tyre which incurred a cost roughly equal to 6 extra minutes in the Airkix, perhaps I thought I was still karting....

Ian Crawshaw
Former Plus News Editor