I found the airbeds in a box in the garage, relieved to see I had left the bungs in since the last use of them on Cricket and Prats’ third dance tour of the Cevennes in May 2009.
The first use – camping at 2008’s Evesham Festival – I forgot the bungs and thus learned a useful lesson: DO NOT store airbeds and bungs separately.
My sleeping bag and under/over quilts are piled on the air beds in the back bedroom, where I am gathering the necessities for my first proper bit of morris travelling since starting this so-far misnamed blog.
I am not yet packed, but have started. We morris travelling writers must be prepared and next weekend will be my first experience of “indoor camping”, in a Whittlesey school classroom.
In theory, indoor camping is preferable to outdoor because a building has many advantages over a tent: roof, walls, non-organic floor surface, lockable doors and windows leap to mind; followed by security from roaming psychopaths, electric light, plumbing, etc. In addition, a few microns of tent material keep out very little sound and tents can be nearer to one another on a field than the scattered bagged-up shapes on an indoor camping floor . . .
BUT
In practice the arrangement is a bit too communal for me, used to a maximum room occupancy of two since my children were very young. There is also the real possibility of sharing a room with other dance sides, necessitating grouping by tribe.
A no-man’s-land of separation will result, with a corresponding drawing together of the individuals in each group and a reluctance to sleep on the exposed outside. Emperor Penguin style.
Who will control the light switch?
Which group will be the keeper of the door?
How many snorers, sleepwalkers and teeth-grinders?
Who will be block leader?
So many dynamics.
Perhaps I’m over-thinking this a bit.
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