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How’s about you having an open day? There’s nothing to it really, and we could do with an open day at the beginning off the season….. These where the words from our leader, Mr Ken Povey....he looks like a nice man.......... So like a good member, I said yes...... after all, it was months away......
Suddenly, it was only two months away....... Loads of time, I will make a start tomorrow. Get the fences painted said senior upper management, (wifey)....so I painted the fences (I thought they where coming to see the railway?) The kitchen could do...... so I did,
the front room needs ....so I did, ....surely they want to see the railway I asked? Well that’s your department, I thought you were doing it in your spare time..... said senior upper management. By this time it’s a month away.... PANIC STATIONS........
First job make a brew, then go out side and have a really good look at what needs doing after the winter, ....clean the garden, good job some fool painted all the fences last month (thanks wifey) one less job to do. Next, clean the decking and paint the front edge and may be I could disguise it? Maybe make some bill posters on it, a few plants..... off to Q&B.... £50.00 lighter and a few plants in tow... They soon disappeared around the garden, next job, clean away the grime of the figures, easy, till you start counting them.... 129 little people later, my heads spinning, trying to remember where they all came from/go back..... and while I’m down there, might as well clean those buildings. Oh, and fix those street lamps.....move those trucks/fix them too....
By now it’s a week away, my good friend Tom turns up with a few good suggestions and things for the railway. Wifey suggests... the gravel could do .....thanks boss...... and it needs more plants. YES! I can do that....... off to Q&B another £50.00 and yet more heathers, miniatures, and a few tiny conifers disappear. All the time this is going on, trains are running, as this is live on the internet...... Oh, didn’t I mention that, my friend/accomplice in crime, Mr Ian Sharples had managed to convince me (doesn’t take much, I know) to have a website, (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kmet.duffy195/) and a live web cam on the garden, that way, when I’m online (computer turned on) which is nearly all the time as I’m forever on the G SCALE MAD website (http://www.gscalemad.co.uk).
So as you can imagine its chaos here..... Now we are down to days. Wow! There went another day.... Senior upper management asks “How many people are coming?” Err.... err ...err......
“Well?” .....err...... between 1 and 85? I replied, after ducking behind the kitchen door, ...... an hour and a 1/2 later, via Asda, and a shopping trolley from hell, we have enough food to feed the 40,000, never mind who ever turns up....... Now its literally a day to go, track has been polished, never mind cleaned, rolling stock checked, lights checked, wheels cleaned, pickups polished...... you get the idea, we are on a mission. Every angle has been covered, nothing can go wrong, everything has been sorted..... when wifey says, have you checked the weather forecast? It doesn’t look good..... OH NO!!! Rain, more rain, followed by more rain, with intermittent rain showers....... we are sunk........ Phil Saint ........saint buy name, saint by nature, turns up "Thought you could use a gazebo" (He’s a star)........ Gazebo go’s up that night. The night before, its worse than Christmas as a kid, I go round checking everything....... forgot the "genuine railway sounds cd”, pinch no. 1 sons ghetto blaster, plug it in shed..... its only 11pm, and I’m re cleaning wheels on stock, as it’s been running all day. 1 am, D-day.... I’ll just move....... 2 am I fall a sleep..... to be woken at 6 am by wifey and no.1 daughter making sandwiches, cooking, cleaning, you name it, it got done..... and its raining........ 9 am, Tom Hanford, my mate turns up, "Don’t worry says the strawberry king (Tom) it will stop raining at 11 am (starting time) and will stay clear till 4 pm” (finish)...... yeah, right, I’ll check with the BBC. RAIN, RAIN, HEAVY RAIN, followed by HEAVY RAIN......... You just know it’s going to happen, people start ringing up, “Is it still on?” YES!!! After all this work, it going to be on. (I couldn’t eat all those butties on my own!) At 10.55 am the rain stops, its cloudy, but it stops......
NEVER BET AGAINST THE STRAWBERRY KING!!) People turn up, "It’s really bad everywhere, except over your garden!!!" Trains start running, more stock turns up, the day is great, friends, old and new, fill my world, its a day I will remember..... everything go’s well, if some things didn’t work, or didn’t happen, I don’t notice I was just too busy having fun! After all that is what this is meant to be about. 4 pm and it starts to rain, “Ah well” says Tom, “I did my best.....”
Having an open day, is the spur I needed to make me do all those little jobs on the railway I never get round to doing, putting up signs, painting the stone walling, fixing things etc, its a great incentive. It also helps if you have great friends who are willing to help out at anytime and I would recommend anyone to have one. Just start you preparations a bit earlier........ Oh, I haven’t told wifey yet about next year. Well there’s time........
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