Garden clearence/BBQ. 29/30 September 07

[Manky Monkey]

Sheesh! Glad you're safely home Gareth. We were starting to get a little worried that we hadn't heard from you. You're a top chap -another asset in the MMMotors team. Good to meet you mate.

[VALLEYSBOY]

i tried to ring you but was not enough signal thought id give u a roaming report of the ferking traffic lol

[Manky Monkey]

  Just glad you got home in one piece. Everyone else had reported in within a couple of hours of leaving except you, so we were getting worried.

Right, Taz has already been on & said her Thank Yous, so I'd better do the same. It was fantastic to see everybody. 14 of us in all. Really meant a lot to Taz & I that you all made the effort to come along -especially those that travelled so far to be there. It wouldn't have mattered if we'd only made a small dent in the wilderness at the bottom of the garden, it was just great to see you all. Can't believe just how much we managed to achieve. The bramble jungle wasn't the 30 feet deep I thought it was. Once we'd cleared it & I paced it out, it's actually nearer 80! To have done all that with basic hand tools, plus 5 minute's use of a chainsaw is quite incredible. In 2 days we went from this...

[Manky Monkey]

To better than this...

[Manky Monkey]

Taz & I have had a great time. Hope you all did too.
Absolutely shattered now though & got to get up for work in 4 hour's time so I'll make it brief.
Thank you one & all for sweating your socks off all weekend for us. We couldn't have done a fraction of it without you. We're privileged to have such a fantastic bunch of friends.
Funniest moments? VB falling off the camp bed in the middle of the night. Coming downstairs this morning to find a trail of turkey crumbs from the kitchen to the lounge where the boys were sleeping. Counting the comatose bodies & realising one was missing, then finding Doc asleep in the shed.

[Manky Monkey]

How many guys does it take to remove a drive shaft from a Reliant axle? And fail.

[Manky Monkey]

Even barbecuing it didn't do the trick.

[Manky Monkey]

.

[Manky Monkey]

Hope you all know you're welcome to call in any time you're passing.
Thanks once more from Manky HQ. 

[davesatan]

thanks for the invite mate
not to many buns for nellie

[Manky Monkey]

One last personal thank you.
To Tazzie -Mrs Manky, who's worked so hard for the last couple of weeks, organising everything from signs to direct people to the house, to preparing, cooking & distributing enough food to feed most of Guildford. She's hardly stopped all weekend. I could type for England here but in person I'm pretty quiet. Taz has been the life & soul of the weekend. The perfect hostess.
So from me, thank you Hon.  

[Manky Monkey]

Ah yes, your pet elephant. You left it behind. We're too scared to go near it.

[tazet]

Thank you babe  blushing now 
Oh the back ache and sore hands today  I have a nice blister on my thumb from raking up where the gloves rubbed as they were too big but I'm not complaining as the result now at the end or the garden is so much better than I ever could have imagined.  I wish I had a camera on me though when TrikerPete first saw what was to be done  Things had grown much more since I first took the pictures at the start of the thread.

Coming downstairs this morning to find a trail of turkey crumbs from the kitchen to the lounge where the boys were sleeping. Counting the comatose bodies & realising one was missing, then finding Doc asleep in the shed.

Yes that was very funny looking into the front room and trying to figure out how to get through them to get to the kitchen so I could have a cofee and get things ready for breakfast. In the end Manky and I bare footed it out the front door, ran round the house into the back door. God knows what the neighbours must have thought.   

Oh and the Turkey crumbs. We know who dunit 

Dave like Manky said Nellie is just fine but we are too scared to go near it  We don't know and don't wish to know where it has been. 

VB i'm so glad you eventually got back home in one piece as Manky said we were very worried but didn't have your number to text to check you were ok. You said ages ago when you asked if you could come that didn't think you would be much use. You did just as brilliantly as everyone else and managed to wave that machetti around with the best of em. Thank you 

So many great moments from the weekend I could sit here for hours typing. Perhaps if all those that came why don't you jot down a small write up including  your best moments and we can put a write up from you all with the pictures in the gallery. Over 300 pictures to sort through so will take a day or so anyway.

Chrissie a big thank you for keeping us all in order with clean mugs and cutlery. It did make it much easier for me. 

A huge thank you again to everyone and please if you are in the area and we are home just stop by for a cuppa and food. Our door will always be open.   

[tazet]

Nellie and a very tired puppy 

[trikerpete]

ValleysBoy.......glad to hear you got back ok, we were also wondering how you were doing travelling all that way.... did you get the longest travelled trophy? I think the trophy this event may be the "unearthed bike frame" donated by the "manky monkey time team" .

It really was good to meet you, enjoyed your company, as we did everyones. Thanks everyone for making it the weekend it was....when are we gonna do it again
Special thanks to Taz and Mankey for feeding and putting up with us

Was going to do some gardening here today, but its raining so I'll just have to go into the workshop and do some more work on our friends Nippi now the parts have arrived.
Take care all