Saturday 19th September.
Another restless night, I will be exhausted when I eventually get home from this 'holiday'!!
The first shift today was in Keaton's Corral, a husband and wife bring two of their horses twice a week to the village and every child has the opportunity to ride either a mare called Ginger who was 14 or JoJo who was 28. Now JoJo had to wear a muzzle, not because he was likely to snap the children but because he was a rescue horse who had been starved of food by its previous owners and even now, although well fed, if given the opportunity he will eat the wooden fences or his reins.
If a child was able to sit on the horse they did and were led around by a young lady who was training to be a horse therapist. they also had a volunteer either side of the horse who had a hand up to steady the child if necessary, this was Jill's very important job this morning. Now every child was given a cowboy hat after their ride which was Geraldine's job, she also guided the children and a parent up a slope to where they mounted the horse, each child had two turns around the corral and some even came back for another go. Every child had many photographs taken of them on the horse and my job was to take down their villa number and the number of their photographs.... was a challenge again but no mistakes this time I hope. It is very hot today and we all stripped off, got in our costumes and washed everything we had been wearing once we got home.
The replacement car was supposed to arrive about 2 pm but as there was no sign of it by 330 I gave Peter a call, he apologised but one of his customers had been involved in an accident so he had to go help with a police report, fortunately they were okay and not their fault, a minor shunt from behind . The car arrived at about 5 just before we were due to leave for the village, a bit of a different car for me to deal with at such short notice, a Toyota Prius, a hybrid to boot but it got us there and back tonight and was quite comfortable.
Now to the highlight of the day............... tonight I was a train driver, well not exactly a train but it was in fact a donated American Airlines Tug, once use to take passengers luggage to and from the terminal with an additional attached trailer with 5 rows of seats, enough to carry 20 - 25 people and at times it was full.
Geraldine and Jill were both conductors, Geraldine on my train and Jill with the charming Hector (not) . We of course needed training as none of us had done this type of work before either here or in any previous existence, Hector began the training but was mystified when I asked if he had a map of the village that I could use as a guide, there are 144 villas after all and it is a 70 acre site, fortunately at this point Mike from engineering showed up and he came around with me for 2 loops of the circuit we were to do for the following 4 hours. He was great and the only thing really he said that I mustn't do was to reverse or go above 10 mph.... there was no speedometer so I had no idea what speed I was travelling at but guess it was about 5mph tops! Now I unfortunately did make one very major strategic error and that was to turn left at Paige's Way, yes it was a dead end and there were no turning points so had to radio for help as of course I couldn't reverse. Mike was there in moments,had he been stalking me? We, sorry, he, got me out of that tricky situation and I continued on my route with Geraldine talking to me over the walking talkie, saying Lorna's train , all clear to go now, Lorna's train to turn right here, not left again, in a beautifully cut glass accent, neither of my friends were characters from "On the Buses" to be sure. I seriously cannot convey my initial terror at this shift tonight, or fully describe the situation I got us in but believe you me we laughed and laughed and laughed. I also think we convinced the majority of our passengers we knew what we were doing. What an achievement though, I drove an American Airlines luggage tug ( Google that!) and safely delivered many weary guests back to their villas/pool/talking tree/ Towne Hall etc, etc At one point we passed Jill and Hector going in the opposite direction, they had no one on board, we had 20 plus! I had much the bigger train as a first timer while Hector, who drives this shift 3 times a week had a much smaller engine.
Be assured if any help is needed with the luggage transportation when we get back to Gatwick, I am your woman!
Finally another funny moment on our way back to volunteer services to sign out of our shift, we were stopped by the lovely Derek from the Entertainment staff, he asked me how I had got on and I told him that I had jumped off the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere with less trepidation than tonight, I suggested he looked on YouTube at Lorna's Leap. He replied , Lorna as is Lorna Doone, impressed at his knowledge of literature we said yes, but it seems there is a cookie out her called Lorna Doone, so maybe not as smart as he looks!!.
Really must say goodnight now as very, very tired xx
Another restless night, I will be exhausted when I eventually get home from this 'holiday'!!
The first shift today was in Keaton's Corral, a husband and wife bring two of their horses twice a week to the village and every child has the opportunity to ride either a mare called Ginger who was 14 or JoJo who was 28. Now JoJo had to wear a muzzle, not because he was likely to snap the children but because he was a rescue horse who had been starved of food by its previous owners and even now, although well fed, if given the opportunity he will eat the wooden fences or his reins.
If a child was able to sit on the horse they did and were led around by a young lady who was training to be a horse therapist. they also had a volunteer either side of the horse who had a hand up to steady the child if necessary, this was Jill's very important job this morning. Now every child was given a cowboy hat after their ride which was Geraldine's job, she also guided the children and a parent up a slope to where they mounted the horse, each child had two turns around the corral and some even came back for another go. Every child had many photographs taken of them on the horse and my job was to take down their villa number and the number of their photographs.... was a challenge again but no mistakes this time I hope. It is very hot today and we all stripped off, got in our costumes and washed everything we had been wearing once we got home.
The replacement car was supposed to arrive about 2 pm but as there was no sign of it by 330 I gave Peter a call, he apologised but one of his customers had been involved in an accident so he had to go help with a police report, fortunately they were okay and not their fault, a minor shunt from behind . The car arrived at about 5 just before we were due to leave for the village, a bit of a different car for me to deal with at such short notice, a Toyota Prius, a hybrid to boot but it got us there and back tonight and was quite comfortable.
Now to the highlight of the day............... tonight I was a train driver, well not exactly a train but it was in fact a donated American Airlines Tug, once use to take passengers luggage to and from the terminal with an additional attached trailer with 5 rows of seats, enough to carry 20 - 25 people and at times it was full.
Geraldine and Jill were both conductors, Geraldine on my train and Jill with the charming Hector (not) . We of course needed training as none of us had done this type of work before either here or in any previous existence, Hector began the training but was mystified when I asked if he had a map of the village that I could use as a guide, there are 144 villas after all and it is a 70 acre site, fortunately at this point Mike from engineering showed up and he came around with me for 2 loops of the circuit we were to do for the following 4 hours. He was great and the only thing really he said that I mustn't do was to reverse or go above 10 mph.... there was no speedometer so I had no idea what speed I was travelling at but guess it was about 5mph tops! Now I unfortunately did make one very major strategic error and that was to turn left at Paige's Way, yes it was a dead end and there were no turning points so had to radio for help as of course I couldn't reverse. Mike was there in moments,had he been stalking me? We, sorry, he, got me out of that tricky situation and I continued on my route with Geraldine talking to me over the walking talkie, saying Lorna's train , all clear to go now, Lorna's train to turn right here, not left again, in a beautifully cut glass accent, neither of my friends were characters from "On the Buses" to be sure. I seriously cannot convey my initial terror at this shift tonight, or fully describe the situation I got us in but believe you me we laughed and laughed and laughed. I also think we convinced the majority of our passengers we knew what we were doing. What an achievement though, I drove an American Airlines luggage tug ( Google that!) and safely delivered many weary guests back to their villas/pool/talking tree/ Towne Hall etc, etc At one point we passed Jill and Hector going in the opposite direction, they had no one on board, we had 20 plus! I had much the bigger train as a first timer while Hector, who drives this shift 3 times a week had a much smaller engine.
Be assured if any help is needed with the luggage transportation when we get back to Gatwick, I am your woman!
Finally another funny moment on our way back to volunteer services to sign out of our shift, we were stopped by the lovely Derek from the Entertainment staff, he asked me how I had got on and I told him that I had jumped off the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere with less trepidation than tonight, I suggested he looked on YouTube at Lorna's Leap. He replied , Lorna as is Lorna Doone, impressed at his knowledge of literature we said yes, but it seems there is a cookie out her called Lorna Doone, so maybe not as smart as he looks!!.
Really must say goodnight now as very, very tired xx
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