Saturday was a new experience for the Baked Beaners. Niece Lorna's husband Karl is in the Royal Navy and based at HMS Collingwood the navy's Maritime Warfare School, this is a highly secure military base and they decided to have an open day. So to get in you needed a 10 pound note and a strip search, no not the strip search but the bags checked and even the 5 year old was passed over with the electronic wand.
The main event was the Gun Run, those of you old enough to remember the Royal Tournament from Earls Court and watched as muscle men from the services raced against each other to manhandle a field gun from one end of the arena to the other, turns out that the tournament was cancelled some years ago but the Gun Run continues apace at HMS Collingwood.
So with brawn and six packs everywhere ( and that was just the women ) teams from all services (except the Royal Marines who were disqualified for life for cheating one year) raced across the parade ground pulling field guns apart, putting them back together and firing several rounds. It's more exciting than it sounds believe me.
More to follow, 5-30am just preparing to drive to the ferry at Dover on day 12