Chinese New Year - a tale of two halves.

Tuesday, 31 January 2012 17:38

Bright and early on Saturday morning, a few of the team gathered at the boat house to get both the 10 man and 20 man boats out onto the water. The task – to get both boats down to the M Shed, Bristol’s lovely new museum in the docks, to help celebrate the Chinese New Year.

After some discussion, it was decided that the bulk of the crew would paddle the big boat, with Mr Corr at the helm and towing the smaller boat with Jo and Wendy steering with their paddles (not Jon though, cos he’s too fat!) * who would say such a thing – ed!. Whose bright idea was that then?

It was a long and hard paddle with the smaller boat swerving from side to side, pulling us back with every stroke forward – the blasted thing almost over took us at one point! Just goes to show, that despite what the press having been saying about women drivers, they can’t bloody steer! Even with this handicap, we managed to get the boat to the lock gates at Netham and after some confusion and waiting for the gates to open, we paddled through and on down to the docks, avoiding randy swans and other assorted debris. A great team effort saw us transporting the smaller boat out of the water on the Arnolfini side and wheeling it across the swing bridge and into the M Shed foyer.

We had a great spot right by the window, where we displayed the boat, showed videos of the team winning lots of races (nice editing Rob R!!), banners, flyers and posters – in fact, when I stood back and looked at the whole display, I thought ‘Hmmm, not bad! Quite professional looking actually!’.

The afternoon was spent talking to members of the public, letting kids clamber about the boat and give the drum a good seeing to (much to the distress of the foyer staff!! Ha Ha Haaaa..I love it!) The mood was good, everyone having fun chatting and of course, running our demonstrations out on the water to a fairly enthusiastic crowd.

Sunday we found that the drum beater had mysteriously been ‘alf inched (probably by the foyer staff, who by now were down to the last of their tattered nerves and were ready to kill any child who felt the urge to beat the drum – so it was off with the good drum, and on with the knackered drum – still good fun, but far less in the decibel dept! We did several demonstrations out on the water, having been joined by Chris, Ann, one of Shrek’s mates and a drummer first Jo and then Hayley (but not Jon, cos he’s too fat! ** have we hit a nerve – ed!) and we looked good in time and strength, some great pause paddling and race starts and plenty of interest from photographers – (just hope they got my slim side! *** I think he has really taken this to heart – ed!)

Then there was the journey back to the boat house! Now that’s another story altogether! Two teams, one far more attractive than the other (I’ll let you decide which was which!) Gary helming the large boat, and Rob B helming the small boat – and the race was on! Suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, the old Bristol Dragon raised it sleepy head, and was awoken in one hell of a piss! We tore through the dock and up to the Netham Locks, the big boat chasing down the small boat, on and on, no resting, relentlessly paddling against each other, rowers cheering us on, cars tooting their horns, – it seemed that all this time, everyone had been secretly on for a total beasting – but it certainly wasn’t over at Netham. The rest of the distance was even more of a battle, with both boats pulling forward only to be caught by the other, neck and neck, paddling hard, on and on, driving the paddle down, locking in and pulling the boats home! What a blast! I thought to myself ‘ not bad for a fat bloke!’ **** Oh dear do we have a complex Jon – I thought you appreciated having told like it is Ha-Ha ed!

The small boat won the race by a foot and well deserved foot to o! But everyone put such a titanic effort in, it left the team on a real high! Certainly was for me! And so the Bristol Dragon went back to sleep, but now, always with one eye open, because he knows it won’t be for long – the Bristol dragons spirit is still there, ready, waiting, quietly thinking to itself.....Henley, Henley , Henley............. By Jon Hoon aka Killer

..and the drum stick - that was returned by the M-Shed staff at the end of the weekend!!  Never mind we have been invited to attend again next year - a bigger drum is needed I think and a slimmer Jon Ha-Ha - ed