Black Sheep head to Bournemouth

The flock were happy to be off to pastures new in June, with a visit to Bournemouth Music Festival. Given that it was an early start, most of us stayed in hotels on Friday night, giving us an extra opportunity for socialising and friendship. As our flock continues to grow, there are always ewes for whom a competition or a Black Sheep weekend away are a new experience.

On Saturday, after an energising warm up in our hotel, we car-shared our way to the lovely Christchurch Priory, the venue for the competition. Luckily, it was a lovely day, as we had to continue our warm up in the car park.

However, some of us were a little inattentive to our shepherd, Pete, as they were too busy gazing in awe at the peregrines on the Priory Tower. You know who you are!

We thoroughly enjoyed the lively acoustic in the Priory, especially as our rehearsal venue’s acoustic is very flat. We sang in three classes, getting better and better results and comments from the adjudicator in each one. However, our highlight was singing “And so it goes” with such emotion that we brought our MD to tears. Or was it the number of ice creams we consumed between the classes?

Back to the hotel and we enjoyed a tasty evening meal and a great deal of singing, including to a lovely lady who was celebrating her birthday. Florabel insisted we accept her beautiful birthday cake because she was so thrilled by our singing. We enjoyed the cake for breakfast on Sunday. 
 

Some sheep had hardly any voice the next day after singing in the bar until the small hours!

The competition was over, but the fun continued for those who stayed on in Bournemouth on Sunday morning. Paddling in the sea, strolling in the park listening to the buskers, singing on the pier. Pretty standard stuff for the sheep.

Until Pete had a bright idea when he spotted the zip wire on the pier. On close inspection, it was much cheaper for 10 people than for one, so some sheep volunteered, while others were cordially encouraged into participating. Climbing up that wobbly tower in a chilly wind was nerve-wracking for some, but the ride down to the beach was fantastic!


      

Check out the zip wire video here https://youtu.be/S1gF4vGTIWw or click photo below:



And many thanks to Anne, for her superb job of organising our weekend, including the hotel accommodation and Saturday evening meal and, of course, making sure we were always where we were supposed to be. It's a lot like herding Sheep 😂.

What will we get up to on our next weekend away?!                                                        Debbie Ait-Kaci