Eye Show, Nr Diss (version 2)
24th - 26th August 2002

Saturday

We checked out traders and then sat round drinking on Saturday. Actually went to bed early for a change - I think it's something to do with being outside when it gets dark, your body just tells you to go to sleep. OK so it wasn't terbbily exciting but it's nice to chill out for a change.

Sunday

Sunday morning we had to be up in time to get powder at 10am, managed to do this followed by brekkie. Hung around not doing a lot in the sun until we had to form up at 2.30pm. Stood round waiting for a bit, marched a bit, waited a bit more, got onto the battlefield for, you guessed it, a bit more waiting around. Finally got some action and didn't bloody stop. I think we managed to pause to get water about twice in the next 45 minutes. We were massively outnumbered by the Scots and Irish (that's what they were chanting anyway, not sure if they were Irish or not) but we had a good few tussles with them in very very close quaters - couldn't hit anyone most of the time because we were squished into a very small area and I couldn't move my musket. I think the most memorable part of this battle was when we realised we had royalists in front, behind and at both of our flanks. We had pretty much a regiment per person to fight.

Sunday night was entertaining, we all sat round the campsite and deliberately subjected ourselves to the nastiest drinks we could find - pretty much everyone brought at least one bottle of those dodgy spirits you buy on holiday or get as a present - for example, we brought "Dracula Schnapps", a ginger and cherry flavoured evil Schnapps drink. Each bottle was passed round the circle (comprising of about 30 of the regiment) so we were all mixing our drinks in the extreme. Fortunately I had the brains to not touch the Ouzo at all, or any of the stronger drinks after I'd had one sip of them. Some bright spark had the clever idea of doing some depth-charges made up of all of these - tankards were held by various members of the circle and a small amount of each drink was poured into it. These tankards went to Steve Rabbitts (for promotion to second in command), Bob (can't rememeber why we got him) and Dave Cox (for having avoided any nasty drinks in the decades he's been a member of the regiment).

I thought we'd gone to bed after a couple of hours of this, where I remember lying down and suddenly realised I had to go outside RIGHT NOW or risk getting the duvet a bit smelly. Was promptly sick outside the door (mixing drinks will always do that for me) then settled happily to sleep. Thank Goodness I was sick, I had no hangover or any bad effects the next morning, unlike the rest of the regiment. I had a bit of a shock later though when getting lunch since Phil was talking about having been at the baked potato stand the previous night with me, of which I have obsolutely no recollection at all. Seems we didn't go straight to bed, but instead went for 'tatties and sat outside the tent eating them. Nope, still don't remember that bit.

Monday

We had powder issue at 10 again and Brigade drill at 11, which gave us enough time for a quick tour of the actual show we were performing for. This was the most random collection of things I have never before seen in one place - RAF careers stand next to a garden centre stand (which was literally an entire garden and water feature placed onto the field - wierd) surrounded by lots of car stands (Volvo, Peugeot, TVR, LPG cars etc etc), some wierd organ grider thing playing "I do like to be beside the sea side", a Tetley tea stand, and a "Transport driver training" area to name but a few. Plus bouncy castle and motorbike show. If I had been hungover I would have thought I was hallucinating. After grabbing cups of tea and coffee we went back to the battlefield to witness Bob walking onto the field in a Shaun the Sheep comfort blanket. Turns out he was unlucky enough not to have thrown up after his evil concotion drink and was feeling rather the worse for wear. We smuggled him and his very un-authentic blanket off the field and into the Living History camp where he was given very strong coffee and a more authentic cloak. Brigade drill followed this but it was too boring to write about

The battle on this day was just as violent but at least we had more space. We spent most of the time fighting Northamptons, until one of our number had a bit of an issue with them, after which we decided to fight someone else. In the end we died gloriously from canon grape shot. Or something.

Made it home through the Bank Holiday traffic by about 6.30 pm, which was pretty good. All in all a brilliant weekend, although I am now very, very bruised.