4 wonderful days in the company of Enrico (I need good coffee) Savini, Hans (vibrating eggs) van Meer, Pavel (Pine God) Slovak, Terry (too humble) Foster, Will (Capt’n Sawdust) Baddeley and the Ticklemeister himself – who could ask for more? Burrs 2012 was just awesome, a weekend filled with wine, women and song but above all else terrific trees! Here’s my sideways slant on the weekend.
Thursday – I’ve had better days!
I was to be the chauffer of the Makita Magician (aka Mr B) for the weekend so off to sunny Suffolk I went. After an unexpected “falling out” with Mrs Sat-Nav (she didn’t talk to me all weekend!) and getting a wee bit lost I arrived. Much to Will’s relief I don't drive like in a pursuit from a video game like Need for Speed but although I might not kill him on the journey throughout the rest of the day I severely tested the sanity of him agreeing to the lift. Thursday, for me, was a catalogue of disaster including leaving my bag at the services where Will kindly treated me to lunch, non-working key cards at the hotel, accidently turning all the instrument lights off in the car, the list is endless. That said we did make light of the situation and found it rather funny all in all.
The evening for me was, well, heaven. Sitting down to have drinks, then dinner, then more drinks with some of the leading lights in European Bonsai was something money can’t buy. Ok, there were bumps in the road on the way (never, ever ask Tickle for a postcode – he’ll get you sooooo lost!) but a fantastic experience all the same. By the time we were booted out of Tony’s place it was already Friday and as his arse had moved up to Defcon 1 on the toxic scale the trip back to the hotel was a relief to our poor eyes & noses. The problem is that when you are wired sleep don’t come easy so at 2.20am Will and I are still talking!
A 21hour day – time for some shut eye. Sleep-o-meter – 4.5hrs