It wasn't the best of starts.
Heading down the M4, I was concentrating so hard on getting through the roadworks (best in Europe!) without speeding that I missed my junction and sailed onwards in the general direction of London, instead of Oxford. It was nearly ten minutes before I realised that Matt, who was meant to be following me, wasn't behind me any more.
Eventually I did manage to find my way to the Windmil Farm conference centre, slightly late, where I hurriedly set everything up for the guests. I didn't have to rush, as it turned out, because they were all late too!
Sometimes, I love my job. Being paid to run adventure holidays like this one is just a privilege. Everyone arrives tired and often quite grumpy after a long car journey, but 99% of them leave with huge grins on their faces. My personal highlight of this trip involved a young girl, Bethany, who's now known as the 'Kamikaze Canoe Kid'. Paddling along the Thames, we stopped off in a small lagoon to play a game of Canoe Quidditch (complete with a rubber duck acting as the golden snitch). My canoe was one of the goals, so naturally anyone coming anywhere near me got a serious splashing. Bethany wasn't liking this too much, so she turned to her Dad and said " Daddy, can I get out please?", and promptly dived out of the canoe and started swimming away! The look on her dad's face was priceless. And then he fell in, trying to pull his daughter out of the water. I nearly wet myself laughing.
These weekends are all about encourging families to spend quality time together. That's the idea, anyway. To that end, we have a questionnaire we give to all parents, which quizzes them on how well they know their children. One of the questions is, 'What's the best gift your child has ever received from you?' One dad, convinced he knew the answer, wrote down 'His new iPod'. He'd given it to his son only the other week, and it had been the best present ever. When it came to checking his questionnaire answers, the Dad was extremely shocked to discover that the answer was not an iPod at all, but the fact that finally, after a lifetime of disappointments, his son was getting to spend a weekend with his Dad. He may have been quite a large, tough looking man, but he completely broke down.
