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Game Fair |
It seems like only yesterday that we were packing up from the first ever Dragon Bonsai Society Show at the Welsh Game Fair. This year's preparations have a been a far cry from the panic of last year. We had more time to plan and organise and it felt like we were beginning to run on automatic pilot. Many of the members had already booked time aside for the one day set up and two days of the show, the Marquee and display tables were organised by Chris, the Display materials were checked off and cleaned, prizes organised for the raffles and there was a massive enthusiasm shown by many of the members to show their trees. So much so that there was at one stage a feeling that we may have to have some trees shown on the Saturday and the rest on the Sunday. What a fantastic show of pride and support for the Members Show.
Anyway, the Friday for the set up had arrived with some of us arranging to meet Chris at his nursery with the others driving straight to the venue. The day started bright and sunny with a glorious dry hot and sunny weekend forecast. You just knew it was going to be a brilliant weekend. For us at the nursery it was just a case of finishing off the first van load of gear for the Show. As is usual with Chris we had all arranged to meet at the nursery to help load the van, but it should not have come to any great surprise to us all that Chris had more or less loaded it on the Thursday night, so over to Chris and we will all have some of his great, strong morning coffee instead, but not before we had given Richard a right old ribbing about his timekeeping. Richard is one of our newer members. A student at University and his idea of 8.30am seemed to be different to everyone else's. I guess you know what I mean. Students eh !!!!!!!
Van loaded, ribbing complete, coffee drained we are off in convoy and it only takes us ten minutes or so to arrive at the Showground where it is already a hive of activity with everybody else beginning their set up. Our marquee is already erected and in the same location as last year, so it is just a question of getting the display tables organised. Last year there was a slight hiccup with us having to wait a few hours for their delivery. Not so this year. Adrian ( one of the Game Fair Organisers ) has spotted us arriving and our tables are already on their way to our marquee. Brilliant.
So with the Marquee in place the tables on site the Fun and Banter begins ?
There are ten of us onsite, all with a different view on set up. Only one thing for it, make some appointments. Chris has become a ‘ Logistics Director ‘ . Martin has taken on a multitude of roles, not all of them with his consent I must add. He has become ‘ Director for Construction, Finance, Raffle, Food and Beverage Supplies and a few more ad-hoc type of positions. Jerry has become the ‘ Artistic Director and what a fantastic bonus Glen brought us this year. He has arrived with a Horsebox of all things and when it arrived I thought ‘ What the hell is that for ? ‘ It was not until he opened up the back did it become obvious. It was fitted out for the weekend with a generator, cooking equipment and a fridge full of food and drink. Glen definitely became the ‘ Catering Director ‘
Appointments made we got on with the job of setting up the tables and backdrops under the masterful direction of Martin, and I must congratulate him, it went as sweet as a nut, and by early afternoon we were ready to hand over to our newly appointed ‘ Artistic Director ‘ Jerry.
The support by the members this year to show their trees was truly fantastic, so Jerry had a bit of a job to display them all. Jerry set about his task with his usual attention to detail and relentless enthusiasm and didn't it pay off. By late afternoon Jerry was finally finished and what a great job he made of displaying the trees. So for the rest of the afternoon and evening we were treated to food and drink on tap by our ‘ Catering Director ‘. We were greeted on Saturday with what turned out to be a hot, blue skied sunny day as well as a full cooked breakfast supplied by Glen. The talk over breakfast was over how for once it appeared the weather forecast was going to be accurate, the deliciousness of the breakfast and the trophies up for grabs today. Over the last year we have come up with a couple of trophies to be presented at the Show. The discussion was over What should they be awarded for ? and How will they be judged ? Colin came up with the best suggestion for the categories, ‘ Best Evergreen ‘ and Best Deciduous ‘ That only left who would judge ? It was agreed that Guy, a friend of our society was ideally suited to do the judging and he was due to visit us around midday today. So breakfast over that only left the washing up to do, and it is only fitting to give a very big Thank You to Llinos and Ceri for not only exhibiting your trees but for looking after us all over the weekend and helping us to keep everything on order. Jerry made some final adjustments to the diplays, as we expected he would ! Colin set up his demonstration tables, while Owen with the help of his father Martin ( the multi-task Director ) set up the raffle tables. Then BANG the show was open.
Both Saturday and Sunday saw an unbelievable amount of people visiting our display. The interest in our Trees and the Art of Bonsai was truly rewarding. Questions ranged from the expected ‘ How old is that tree ? ‘ ‘ How much is that tree worth ‘ right through to questions about how best to look after their own Bonsai. We all had a great time taking the opportunity to talk to people about Bonsai and hopefully enlightening some people and dispelling some myths for others and generally spreading the word locally about Bonsai. Our objective at this show after all is nothing more simple than giving members a wonderful opportunity to show their trees and giving the public an opportunity to see Bonsai and understand the discipline more if they wish to. Definitely Objective Achieved.
Saturday lunchtime soon arrived and so did Guy our judge. Congratulations to Martin and Bob our two prize winners. Bob for the evergreen and Martin for deciduous.
I must mention ( tongue in cheek ) however that by membership approval, Bob has been banned for THREE YEARS from participation at our show after winning last year as well. A big Thank You to Guy also for taking time and trouble to judge our trees and make the presentations. The rest of the afternoon seemed to fly by and before we knew it the crowds were diminishing and the showground closed for the day. Time to finally be able to sit down and relax. And relax we all did. Barbeque on, drinks out, i-pod going, banter started and we were all sorted. We had another great evening in the West Wales sunshine before we all sorted ourselves out ready for Sunday.
Sunday arrived in the same way as Saturday. Blue skies and the smell of Glen cooking breakfast. Another glorious day ahead and no less busy than Saturday, and so it turned out to be. Come 5pm we were all dead on our feet so to speak, but it also had that feeling of a sense of achievement I suppose. We all felt we had achieved our objective, we all had a great time together , it was fun and rewarding. What a way to spend a glorious weekend eh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks to everyone at Dragon Bonsai for getting involved and making a great weekend happen. Special Thanks to Glen, Ceri, Llinos, Martin, Owen, Caitlin, Colin, Jerry and Chris for adding that something special.
© 2010 Dragon Bonsai Society |
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