BCC FEAST OF LANTERNS MEET

This parkland showground, within walking distance of the historic town, has toilets and showers. Entertainment will be in the comfortable Springwood Hall.
Theme for FOL is “Cartoons” and we look forward to seeing a colourful display of lights on Saturday evening. Site opens at 2pm on Thursday 21st and all units must clear site by noon on 26th.
Booking forms are elsewhere in the programme and available to download from www.bccscotland.org.uk . Booking officer May Crawford, 33 Donaldson Way, Balfron, Stirlingshire, G63 0RF.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE BOOKING FORM

Block booking needs to be handed by around the start of July
Final date will be confirmed later.
But be safe, if you're wanting to go, please hand in your form ASAP.

Hi Everyone.
                  We are just back from our trip to Scotland and the FOL. We set off early on Friday morning to the pre meet. We arrived at about 1.30 ish to find a very wet field. Not to worry, we got on ok followed later on by 6 other Caldervale units. We went off a couple of times during the week to take in some of the local attractions. Air museum one day with a tour of Concord and then off to Edinburgh to see the Royal Yacht Britannia another day. It’s a pity that both these British icons are now banished to the museums
Just to keep the “do gooders” happy. Sorry I’m ranting, I will get back to the plot. I volunteered our services to run a mini social on Tuesday night. Probably the best night of the week weather wise. It’s a good job as Barrie and me had to run it from out side as the tent was packed. I ran a couple of games of Bingo and Barrie took control of the OY. I made a fool of myself again in more ways than one. (Ask someone who was there). Our Ladies made a cuppa and a good night was had by all.
  Wednesday was mine and Sandra’s day to move on to the FOL site. More over night rain had made the Exit an even bigger mess than it already was. We managed it and arrived at the showground in Kelso.
     On Thursday all the other Caldervale members had to fight there way off the pre meet. I won’t go into detail as Barrie has already described the chaos in his report.
   By Thursday afternoon we had 9 units on our line to be followed by 2 more on Friday. Some of us decided to try out the bar on Friday night and went into the hall. A different atmosphere to a marquee but given the weather it was a good thing we had the hall to use.
   On Saturday I had to attend a meeting in the morning. When I arrived back I found most of our line busy building the street scene.
We all got stuck in and the job was done by 3 ish leaving a bit of time for Sharron, Steve, The Wife & me to have a look around the very small trade area. Many traders let Scotland BCC down by not turning up.
  We lit up at 7.30 which is the usual time but it did take a long time to go dark. When it did our street came to life. It looked very nice and many people walked down to get refreshments from Penelope’s pit stop. Well done to all involved you did your area proud again. We made just over £90.00 for The Air Ambulance. Well done.
  Sunday morning and most of the street was down before the members meeting started. We left the banner and pennon up as I was going to light it up every night. This was a waste of time as a note was put on the notice board to say that we couldn’t use generators after 6-00pm now that the FOL was over. A bit strange on an FOL meet??? On Sunday night we had a get-together in our tent Which started at 5-00 and went on till 11-00. needless to say I had a sore head on Monday morning.
  The pennon parade suffered due to the weather. A very strong wind was blowing so all the members went straight in to the hall whilst the pennons were paraded only from a room behind the hall to the front door.
We all had to be off site by 12-00 on Tuesday so it was a mad scramble to get packed up. Our clan was heading down to Malton for the rest of the week whilst the others went off in all directions.
  All in all it has been a enjoyable week despite the weather. I hope that we have as good turn out for Wales next year.
Thanks to everybody that contributed to the street scene in what ever way, not forgetting the people that couldn’t make it to Scotland for whatever reason. See you all soon.

Duncan & Sandra.

Hello again, now back from our trip to KELSO for the FOL.

We started of on the Pre meet at Melerstain on a very wet site. We got out quite a bit but we were always looking out for the rain to hope we could get back on site as the entrance was getting worse. We were asked to call Bingo on the Tuesday evening and we also had a game of OY. It finished of in another rainy evening but by then we were getting used to it.

Duncan made a great escape on Wednesday and got of the field before they closed it to put down some hardcore in an atempt to get people off on Thursday.They devised a plan wereby the front row would move of first at 11.0 O clock followed by the second row and then the third & so on. But guess what happened! The people on the back rows thought they were on the front row and as usual stated to cut through trying to get of first. The second van off was a Discovery & van and went so slow he got stuck so we had to wait till he got help digging him out.

I went next followed by Iris & Ivan and had no trouble but I understand that things got worse later on.When we got to Kelso we were having to tow on all with cars and motor homes, but we eventually got set up and I think the weather improved a little as well.We were all waiting for the trade to arrive but were disapointed to see so small a turn out , not even a food van till Friday.

On Saturday we put up our street scene and it didn't look much till it went dark(which seemed to take for ever)then it looked alright.Penelope's Pit Stop went down well and we made £90.0 for the air ambulance. We had a get together in our little tent on Sunday evening, it started at about 5 and went on till 11 o'clock, not a bad social eh.

We were going to go onto the post meet after the FOL but decided to come home as Joan wasn't doing too good with her leg and the weather didn't look too promising.Now it's all over I think we all enjoyed it but it could have been a lot better organised, especially as they had such a great venue to run the event from.Hope to see you all next year in Wales, so start saving waste paper to stuff your SCARECROWS, till then we will continue to enjoy what is left of this year's meets.

See you all at Hatfield for the AIR AMBULANCE weekend meet.
Take care till then BYE FOR NOW JOAN & BARRIE