Day 17, almost over

It always feels very strange, how quickly an event that's been the focus of everyone's efforts for so long is so soon done with. It's even more so this year, of course, as the show was a half day shorter. This is my penultimate post here; tomorrow's will be the last.

Good stuff about this year:

• The site was an easy one to work, being flat and of a regular shape.
• The weather was great, though it made things hard for the wrgies slogging in the sun
• For the third year running, no child was lost for long enough to require a sweep of the site to find it.
• Lots of people came; we're waiting to hear the final figures

and for us personally:

• We won the Calor Rose Bowl for the best galley on a private boat in the show.

Amazing; we've never won anything like that before – thank you Braidbar! The prize included a compact gas barbecue, which we're currently scratching our heads over, not having a lot of space on a liveaboard for such items.

Less good:

• That car park, of course. Saturday's gate was probably reduced by the need to turn cars away from the free parking, though on Sunday another car park was identified, and things were easier.
• There was a degree of confusion over timings for things like the Opening Ceremony and the finish yesterday. I've no idea what went wrong there; usually the team gets that exactly right.

Some final pictures:

Guy the Arena manager getting out of a classic dray

The Park and Ride shuttle from Burton Town Centre

A weary wrgie

The car park in use

Remains of the heap

So, nearly over. I plan to help the fencing team today, then there's the end of the event party tonight.