This weekend is the annual Mrs Pondo’s family camping trip to Bala. I generally like this weekend, there’s a lot of faffing but we go sailing, walking, cycling and generally spend a bit of time together, which is quite nice. However, this weekend there is a weather warning for torrential downpours with 33.3mm of rain forecast for Bala between now and lunchtime tomorrow, rain forecast to continue into the evening (and now signs of rain Sunday evening too) and they STILL want to go. Now – I don’t mind a bit of rain, but everything we do is outdoorsy, and they won’t do any of it if it rains, can’t even sail because there’s zero wind forecast and they (with the exception of Mrs Pondo and one set of brother-and-sister-in-laws) don’t do sitting in the pub all day. But there’s nothing to do but sit in the tent and listen to the thunder. Why do they still want to go, and how can I get out of it?

Save me. Someone. Please.

Whats the worst that can happen? take your waterproofs and stop moaning. At the worst (best?) you will end up sitting in the pub with Mrs Pondo and one set of brother-and-sister-in-laws!

Hide your tent so Mrs Pondo can’t find it!
Or nobble the car so it won’t start.

Good luck

Poo in the car and blame the neighbours. No one will won’t go drive the car and you’ll be sorted.

This action may result in a spiralling chain of events that may/may not be hilarious. Please report back.

Just show your discontent in some way.

Err, that taxi – is it for me?

Tell them what you think, then spend the next 6 months with your smug hat on

If a thunderstorm is predicted, you could use the “I’d love to go but it’s too dangerous” argument. Tent’s are dangerous places to be in thunderstorms. Lots of sticky up metal poles and so on.

http://www.gocampingaustralia.com/10-tips-to-camping-in-thunderstorms.html

sounds like if you do go you’ll be in for an intents experience

oh, is that my coat?

Just say the frock’s at the cleaners…

Offer to pitch the tents in the garden and launch the dinghy on the lawn.. it will be a very similar experience. You could throw the odd bucket of water over them as they pretend to be sailing round the lake.

Throw yourself down the stairs stuntman stylee and then say you tripped and are too sore to go.

(Factor in the actual risk of breaking something and ending up in hospital)

Either way you will have an excuse.

HTH

Whats the worst that can happen? take your waterproofs and stop moaning.

I hear you, and normally I’d agree, I’m a glass-half-full kind of bloke. But there is nothing – nothing – for them to do in the wet, and they’ll get all bickery and snipey. Three of them are feeling a bit under the weather before we even set off, so everyone else will need to be even more careful around them “because they’re not feeling well”.

I hate to sound negative (it’s not in my nature, honestly), but I just can’t see how anything good is going to come of this weekend. I think we should all just do something round here. we’d have a much nicer time. 🙁

And thank you all for your many and various suggestions, they are all being given due consideration.

how the hell has no one mentioned PICOLAX? Either yourself or your nearest and dearest and offer to stay home with her. 😀

I’ve no idea where Bala is, but I’m sat overlooking Stourport amusements waiting for my girlfriend and her kids to turn up so we can go to a single parent with kids camping weekend. I get the feeling her turning up with a boyfriend’ll derail the frazzled single parent orgy that this is clearly meant to be. Or I’ll have to keep fending off weekend dads. And it’s pissing down. If it actually thunders I suspect we’ll end up back at my house tonight (bright side). Meh

I feel your pain OP

What’s the weather like in southern Portugal for the coming week?

Cos that’s where I’m off to with the kids in the morning 🙂

Just tell yourself, and the others, that it will be character building. That should put everyone off.

Try to get yourself arrested.

Spend the weekend making tents

The answer to your question is KAYAKING or at least rafting.

I’ve done lots of kayaking, and skiing, boarding, biking, climbing blah blah blah and can honestly tell you that kayaking is by far the most intensely exciting and absorbing of all those sports. Think mountain biking where the track moves with you.

Within 20 miles of Bala are some of the best kayaking rivers in the UK. Get yourself signed up on a kayaking course.

Or much more realisticaly, get yourself onto a white water rafting session on the Tryweryn. You’ll all love it and set yourself up with a real buzz for the rest of the day.

HTH

So, this bloke decided that he, the wife & dog, should go camping & he mentioned it to the Mrs. ‘no chance of me going camping’ she says. ‘It’ll be great, just me, you & the dog, the weather’s gonna be ok, the site’s spot on, you’ll love it’ says the bloke. ‘Not a hope’ says she, ‘no way Pedro’. ‘go on’ he says, ‘just this once, just for me, you, me, the dog, under canvas just for one night, you’ll love it I promise’. ‘Oh alright if it’ll shut you up’ she protests. ‘Brilliant! I’ll get stuff sorted’ he says.
So off he goes & gets all the gear sorted, dead excited all the time & keeps going on about it, ‘me the wife & the dog, going camping, can’t wait!’
The day finally arrives….’are you ready then pet, the car’s all packed, the site’s booked, the weather’s going to be great, can’t wait let’s go’.
‘No’! she says, ‘I’m not going, Iv’e decided & thats that! you & the dog can go’ ‘Damn’ says the husband, ‘I’ve been looking forward to this for ages! Your’e gonna have to make it up to me some way’ ‘if you let me have bum sex with you right now, I’ll forget all about it’. The woman is speechless & almost vomits at the thought! ‘less chance of that than me going camping!’ ‘If it’ll shut you up, i’ll give you oral sex instead, hows that sound’?
‘ok’ says he, ‘i suppose it’s better than nothing’, so he lobs his old fella out & she gets going on it for about 2 seconds, gags, spits it out & says, ‘oh my god, that tastes like shit’!

‘Not surprised’ says the husband, ‘the dog didn’t want to go either’

IGMC……

Listen to this…..

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WoxO5Nw0e0[/video]

My wife and I are going cycle touring around Norfolk this weekend. Tent packed. Van ready to go.

We may end up driving around Norfolk in a van…

What I do, when I don’t want to do something is…………not do it.

I’ve always found that works for me, rather than procrastinating over it.

If it’s work related, then sometimes it needs to be done, because I am being paid to not want to do it, however in my own time.

IME most things in life can be solved by either growing a pair or having the right equipment.

But there’s nothing to do but sit in the tent and listen to the thunder.

Ever wondered why it’s a big family?

“I don’t want go!”

Or just reliase that it’s only rain.

Did you go??

We did, and I must confess, we had a very nice time indeed. We waited until Saturday morning to go (because it was honking down on Friday night), it rained most of the way there but by the time we got there, it had lightened off to the occasional bit of drizzle, and it largely stayed that way. Which made it far more pleasant than the forecast 33.5mm of rain.

(Bless them, no-one said a word, but the frustrating thing on Friday was that, for the first time in recorded history, I was the sensible one looking at the ferocious forecasts, they were the blind eedjits heading for catastrophe and deep unhappiness, and by a quirk of weather they were the ones proven right. Would never have happened the other way round! 🙂 )

We went to the Dales for the weekend. Forecast was the same – heavy rain all day Saturday. Woke up to rain hitting the roof of the van Saturday but by the time I’d crawled out my sleeping back and stuck the kettle on it’d stopped and stayed away until 10 minutes after we’d packed up yesterday – a good weekend*

* especially if you were a mozzy in the vicinity of my legs this weekend judging by the state of them.