I think the surrealist moment of the weekend was when I looked around me and saw that a privately educated taekwondo-lover, a mild-mannered maths genius, and me, all as port-out-starboard-home as aristocracy**, were all in what I can only describe as a moshpit. And nobody cared.
I should say, this wasn't your average moshpit***. For one, we were all dressed as zombies. Secondly, the tunes that instigated said moshing weren't just the products of Messrs Rida and Basshunter, but also the YMCA and the Hokey Cokey. Finally, we weren't at a gig - we were at Confido, a Scout and Explorer camp with nearly 1100 attendees.
I won't bore you with the details, but I had a great time. I tried off-road segways, Europe's longest mobile zipwire, archery, stand-on-a-podium-facing-an-opponent-on-his-and-try-to-bash-him-off-with-a-stick, and Scare Valley, a forest walk complete with dry ice, strobe lighting, netting, and about 50 zombies. All in all it was fun.
I also managed to 'pass the initiation test', as it were, with a group of people after I managed to sneak back into the queue to get a second cookie for somebody who was climbing at the time. I mention this only because I enjoy the irony of using my inconspicuousness to gain attention.
I came back to a family crisis of sorts, and a good friend who needed comforting, but I had a lovely time and I think it serves as a reminder to those people for whom the word Scout is instantly paired with the words Bob a Job. Not to mention that although I feel more free to be myself when I'm around my school friends, it was some lovely escapism, and a good way to counteract the mostly awful time I had the weekend before, on another camp.
I shall leave this post with a conclusion like a blunt pencil.
*"Confido? It's fun."
**I should mention I'm not actually upper-class, but I do have quite a posh accent, and I'm at the age where the lines between self-deprecation and violent self-dislike are distinctly blurred.
***Or maybe it was. I'm not really up on the whole moshing scene.****
****My habit of using far too many asterisks comes from my friend Jacob: asiiml.blogspot.co.uk. And also from Philip Ardagh.
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