Milton Keynes Weekend
On 23rd-26th May 2008
East Midlands Mensa held a transport and travel themed weekend over the late May bank holiday weekend. Despite the wet and windy weather 82 members came along and a great time was had by all.
We held a 'single mingle' event prior to the icebreaker and although quiet at the start the noise level soon rose as introductions were made. The icebreaker included an optional game which involved guests finding out facts about each other all related to our theme of transport and travel, i.e. who has ridden on an elephant, who has walked on the Great Wall of China, who has flown in a hot air balloon. The pizza/pasta buffet was plentiful with some guests managing to devour four platefuls! The evening continued with background music, drinks, chat and a few rounds of the Mensa Connections boardgame.
Our adrenalin activity for Saturday morning was indoor flying in a wind tunnel where Mensa had exclusively reserved two sessions. After a short walk from the Holiday Inn to the Airkix venue the flyers were given a safety briefing and kitted out in their flying suit, goggles and helmet before taking two flights in the wind tunnel. I think the smiles on faces as they left the wind tunnel said it all! Back at the hotel others listened to an informative and interesting talk on the development of the new town of Milton Keynes. Then both groups met up for lunch at Nando's, a Portuguese peri-peri chicken restaurant in the XScape complex. Perfect for our group as the venue is very informal and diners could stay as long as they liked. Although not everyone was hungry due to the huge buffet breakfast at the Holiday Inn!
The afternoon activity was tobogganing on a real snow slope where the temperature was -3 C. So despite it being the best weather of the weekend we still got cold and wet in the snow! We split into two teams and raced boys against girls with each team leader wearing a fancy dress costume. Hilarious fun although exhausting walking back up the slope after each race. Following the racing we had half an hour of individual tobogganing on our exclusively reserved slope.
Meanwhile a coach headed to the old coaching town of Stony Stratford where there was a choice of taking a walk with a Blue Badge guide or taking a historic pub crawl visiting such places at The Cock and The Bull (origin of the saying cock and bull story) or The Crown (featured in the film Withnail & I). Whether guests stayed in Milton Keynes or ventured out to Stony Stratford there was opportunity to see the infamous concrete cows either in a field or another herd now located in the shopping centre.
A cocktail party was arranged prior to the evening events and we were impressed that the Holiday Inn had roped off a private area of the bar for our use in addition to providing a menu with 'around the world' themed cocktails. This led nicely into our 'around the world' themed dinner where each course originated from a different continent. The room was decorated with national flags and photos of the new seven wonders and an after-dinner speech was given by John Williams, who had participated in the Mongol Rally and related his entertaining yet sometimes dangerous experiences between London and Ulaanbaatar. Once the bowlers returned the disco began in earnest with music from all generations as well as the popular party tunes.
We held a charity prize draw in aid of the British Lung Foundation in memory of Milton Keynes member Colin Zealley who died of the disease in October 2007. Members had donated unwanted Nectar points which provided five fantastic prizes so that every penny went to charity. Tickets had been sold via the Justgiving web site as well as during the weekend itself. During the disco we held the prize draw. The first name drawn was weekend co-organiser Jo Sidebottom who kindly asked for it to be drawn again. The second name was Maxine Bates, the other co-organiser. It wasn't a fix - honest!! Maxine kept the prize of an adventure day for two people to use at her next charity event in August to raise more money but this time for Cancer Research UK. The other winners won an adventure day for one, theatre tokens and book tokens. Thanks to all those who participated by either donating prizes and/or buying tickets. We raised the wonderful sum of £289.
On Sunday our adrenalin activities were based around Willen Lake with choices of powerboating, wakeboarding or an aerial adventure course consisting of high ropes, log swings, cargo nets and zip wires. The heavy rain didn't really matter for the first two activities as participants were going to get wet anyway. And for the latter we had the venue to ourselves and it just made the course more challenging. So rain definitely didn't stop play! Others opted for a day trip to Woburn Safari Park and Woburn Abbey where we managed to see wild animals on the safari drive although many were hiding out of the rain. There was opportunity to listen to keeper talks and see a sea lion show before heading to the home of the 15th Duke of Bedford. On Sunday there was also the popular treasure hunt with Merry and Giles Metcalf being the worthy winners having trailed around Milton Keynes in the pouring rain!
In the evening 48 of us headed to Leighton Buzzard railway where we were fed with copious amounts of pasta bake and chocolate gateaux in the station buffet before boarding our exclusive 'sunset special' narrowgauge train ride - although there was no sun, just more rain! At the end of the quirky railway line there was a small exhibition about the railway and we found the volunteer staff to be very enthusiastic about their little railway. Back at the hotel guests either sat chatting in the hotel bar or headed out to sample the local nightlife.
Unfortunately the microlight flight booked for Monday morning had to be cancelled due to the bad weather but the other events still went ahead. A dozen of us boarded a self-steer narrowboat for the day sailing south from Cosgrove through Milton Keynes and having the canal almost to ourselves. We sailed through a lock, over an aquaduct, past a new development of waterside apartments, stopped for a delicious pub lunch, and drank several mugs of hot chocolate on board to keep warm. The trip to the World War 2 codebreaking venue at Bletchley Park once again proved very popular, especially the restored Colossus machine. And for those wanting to stay in the city there was the Art Walk; a walking trail around sculptures and best of all completely free!
With our original Oriental restaurant closing down, the farewell meal was moved to Wetherspoons on Midsummer Boulevard and was a good choice as we had many vouchers still to use on food on drink before they expired at the start of June. Then sadly it was time to say goodbye and head home north, east, south and west.
Maxine Bates