The Adventures Of Big Gom And Berticusdan Continued...

This week, as you may have already read, there are two people in particular in my life that have been making me giggle due to their adventurous Geocaching nature - Big Gom and Berticusdan (aka Matt from the Gom Squad and Mr Custard).  Seriously, the pair of them are quickly gaining famous sidekick status and their adventures are way better than any that Batman and Robin or Dangermouse and Penfold could ever wish for! 

Big Gom and Berticusdan...sorry, I mean Batman and Robin

Earlier in the week, as you may have read, they had an adventure whilst out on a caching series that resulted in Mr Custards shorts being torn and then patched back together by the two of them (if you haven't read it see the 'Dear Bear Grylls' post). 

The saga now continues as they went out again last night to finish the series and got into what can only be described as a hilariously funny comedy sketch which was explained by Matt from the Gom Squad in his cache log.  The adventure is written in some of the funniest comic writing I have ever seen, in fact I am still chuckling now!  It would only be right that I shared the amazing writing skills of Matt with you - so here is the log as written by him!  Please note before reading:  I will not be held responsible for any falls from chairs or sides splitting from laughing....

Matts Log:

'Right here we go again, the three muggle men were in front of us again. Time for a bit of setting the scene. One man was old, the other was pretty young and the third was ancient (I am talking Mummy old). Once again we had to walk past them. They didn't seem to think it strange that we had just walked past them a minute or so before. Perhaps they didn't notice or maybe they thought we were doing very fast circuits around the area.

Anyway we left them behind and headed off to the left, following the arrow. It soon became apparent where we need to be and as we were planning our entry we heard the now familiar guttural speech of our three new friends. The only thing to do was hide! So we headed in and stood very, very still. Now a couple of things were not ideal in our pursuit of perfect camouflage. Firstly Rob had a very red top on, a shade of red that couldn't possibly be found in nature. Secondly I was holding a very thorny and very sharp bramble, under tension, away from my caching buddy.

I have to admit is was quite exciting as the first old man made his way past us. He was so close I could have reached out and ruffled his hair. Then along came the Tollund Man. He was moving slowly. At this point I left go of the bramble, which flew at amazing speed and embedded itself into Rob. Not a murmur from Rob, but a bit of a laugh may have slipped out from me. The vulture like stare of the muggle swept across the bush, but somehow he didn't see the two idiots hiding inside.

Right two down, where is the younger muggle? What we saw next is an image I can never wipe from my mind. He had a wee. We didn't actually see him doing the deed but we did see him and his little friend as he tucked everything away. Oh my eyes.

Well after all that any normal cache was bound to be a anti-climax. Luckily this is no ordinary cache. Brilliant. SL, TFTC.'

I know for a fact that you will all be falling about laughing now at this genius piece of writing by Matt and the very thought of those two little comics getting up to mischief!  Now you know I like to make you laugh on a Friday (by Fun time Friday posts), however, I do believe on this particular Friday, Matt and Mr C deserve all of the credit completely for this little giggle session!  Bless em!  I think I'm going to enter them in the next comedy awards....Peter Kay ain't got nothing on these two!

...and the winners are....Big Gom and Berticusdan!

Dear Bear Grylls....

Yesterday Mr Custard went out on a mad Geocaching stomp with our good buddy Matt from the Gom Squad.  Now you all know that he loves his Geocaching very much and on such a sunny day like yesterday when they're 'in the zone' he can add quite a few numbers to his stats - something he is always proud of! Yesterdays jaunt was a little different however, as Mr C and Matt seem to be taking this Bear Grylls adventure mentality to new extremes....

Bear Grylls...adventurous inspiration to many

I became aware of the adventure when I received a tweet from Matt around lunch time that included a photo of the outcome of the antics - the tweet went something like this:

'Wow, Berticusdan has had a tough day #geocaching - that tape is actually holding his leg on!'

At first I panicked and thought that Mr C had had another accident - then I opened the attached photo and started to giggle - here is what I saw:

Thank god for the Gom Squad kit bag!

Now that's what I call a tear!  Luckily for Mr C, Matt is super organized and ready for any eventuality and carries a roll of gaffer tape around in his kit bag - I can just imagine them now getting into the 'Bear Grylls survival' spirit and patching the shorts up!  Bless their little hearts!  However, this huge tear now means we need to buy 'another' pair of Bear Grylls pants so I thought I would send a little letter to Bear Grylls that goes something like this:

'Dear Bear Grylls

Please can you supply my husband with yet another pair of your trousers. As you can see from the picture, he and his friend manage to take your 'adventure' mentality to an extreme when out in the field.  They love your clothing and won't buy anything else - they think its the bees knees.

However, due to your marvelous marketing techniques such as regular emails to them with 'money off' of your products our bank account just can't take any more so I would be delighted if you could shout him a complimentary pair rather than us going into bankruptcy because you are so good at marketing and inspiring adventure which in my husbands case normally results in huge tears in his clothes!

Yours sincerely

Kimmi Custard'

I'm only kidding really (although a free pair would be good!) - Bear's clothes are worth every single penny and really do have a technical but cool purpose to them - like I said above, Mr C and his friends won't buy anything else - they love them!

Looks like its time to find one of those 'money off' online codes.....we can't have Mr C walking round like that can we?  People might think he's a vagrant!

Please note: the aforementioned trousers ripped through no fault of Bear Grylls' choice in quality fabric - it was completely the fault of Mr C and Matt's over adventurous nature!

Reprieve From A Wet Tent - The White Bear Hotel, Masham

Hi-de-hi campers!.....Or maybe not!  Last weekend Mr Custard and I had planned to go camping in Masham at the Old Station campsite.  We had had it planned for a good while because there was to be a Geocaching event held there over this particular weekend.  However, in the lead up to the event, the Met Office weather report got worse and worse and began to show heavy rain for the whole weekend...boo!  Camping in the rain?  I don't think so - where is the fun in that?

After seeing the dreaded double raindrops on the weather reports for a good few days solid, we decided to take action and started to look for a hotel room in Masham instead.  That would then mean rather than climbing into a soggy, wet, cold and muddy tent at the end of a fun day with friends, we could go to sleep in a nice comfy bed in a room that was dry and warm - there's no contest if you ask me!  So, after a bit of a search, Mr C came across The White Bear Hotel - right in the heart of Masham! When I saw the first picture on their website I was sold.......how would you not be with an image like this?

Picture from The White Bear Hotel

As it was so close to the event, we weren't sure that we would get in at this late stage so we crossed our fingers and sent an email to the hotel regarding availability........an hour later there were songs of joy because the hotel staff emailed back and they had a room available!  Woohoo!  My smile that day was one of the biggest ever because I didn't have to get wet on a weekend away!  Hallelujah! Mr C booked the room quick sharp before it went - and that was that!

Right from pulling up to the hotel, we had a good feeling about it - it was very close to the main square in Masham and right next door to the Black Sheep Brewery visitors centre.  We arrived at lunch time and right from our first contact with the staff, we felt very at ease because they were so friendly!  We told them how pleased we were to be staying there rather in a tent because of the forecast - and as we were having this conversation the heavens opened - check out Mr C's picture:

Camping in that?  Don't make me laugh!

We had definitely made the right decision!  So, rather than get wet, we sat down, ordered lunch and breathed a sigh of relief and then discussed our adoration for cozy pubs with rooms!  The lunch was beautiful - very simply, we had a sandwich and a portion of chips but the roast meat was gorgeous (with plenty in it) and the chips were fried properly like my Grandma used to make - they were what we would call 'proper' chips.  Delicious!  Even better washed down with a pint of real ale for Mr C and a glass of red for me.

After lunch we checked into our 'dry' abode and were chuffed to bits when we went through the door to our room - it was beautiful - with a super king size bed to boot!  Every little touch was there like hot chocolate (a measure of a good hotel for Mr C and I), lovely toiletries and even 2 wine glasses and a bottle opener - something which I haven't seen before as standard in a room - you normally have to ask for those! Arrrrrrr!  This was going to be a fab weekend! 

Picture from The White Bear Hotel

After a chill out in our lovely room while we waited for our friends to arrive in Masham, we began a little pub crawl in the village (starting at The White Bear of course) before we ate our dinner and then watched the England versus Sweden game with the locals. 

After a great night out with our friends (England won too so that was a bonus!), I have to say it was the best feeling ever to walk around the corner to get to bed, rather than have to walk back to a wet campsite.  The huge bed was amazingly comfy and for the first time ever, Mr C and I were last down for breakfast (we didn't want to get up!).  The breakfast was superb, just like the rest of the place and the young staff were extremely chirpy - at breakfast I think this is important to a customer as it starts your day off with a smile!

Yum Yum!

After breakfast we reluctantly went to get our bags to check out - we were very sad that we couldn't stay a second night but they had no rooms left.....what a shame, however, we will just have to go back someday and stay again!  Again, upon checking out, the young lad that served us was absolutely lovely and even went so far as to ask us what we had planned for the rest of the day - a nice little touch I thought!  We will definitely go back to this place I think!

The White Bear Hotel at Masham is another deserving establishment of the 'Custard favourite places award' and we hope that after reading this you will take a trip to this lovely place and grab some rest and relaxation here!