Today we went with our friends Seth, Arthur and Matilda to Wrest Park to participate in their ‘Wrest at War’ event. It was really fun, but very hot as well, and luckily we just missed the rain-shower since it started as we got into the car! Wrest at War showed loads of fun stuff about the Second World War, and they made it exciting and funny too!
When we got there, we watched a little tournament-thing with a lady on a horse as the host. She pretended to be a World War II person, and described what it was like being ladies at the war going on horses to help the wounded soldiers. Apparently, the British didn’t want them so they had to work with the Belgians, galloping onto the battlefield and taking the injured away on stretchers to First-Aiders. It was quite interesting, really!
Then we watched the thing I call the ‘Gun Thing’ because I don’t know its actual name. Anyway, they fired a few guns and it wasn’t very noisy and not the most interesting show, although I think Arthur liked it because he kept saying, “Three milimetre bullet? My friend has one of them!” And we all started laughing because obviously his friend does not have a World War II three-milimetre-bullet firing gun!
After that, some men from modern-day Pakistan came along on horses, and did some tent-pegging. Basically, you have to gallop along as fast as you can on horses, and then, with a lance, you have to pick up a little blue flag on the floor. We all voted for someone whose name was pronounced ‘Zee’ but we’re not sure whether it was spelt ‘Zee’, ‘Xee’, ‘Ze’ or even just ‘Xe’!
Then we all participated (apart from Tilly, because she’s a spoilsport XD) in the assault course. There was this funny, very shouty man who was shouting at us and at the beginning he said, ‘RIGHT! I AM A VERY SHOUTY MAN! YOU ARE GOING TO SAY ‘YES CORPERAL [I don’t know how it’s spelt] AND YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT I AM VERY GRUMPY AND SHOUTY!’ Then everyone started laughing and he looked like he was going to burst with pretend rage. He was very funny! Once, because Little Matilda (that’s what we call them, Little Matilda and Big Matilda) was in front of me, and there was a bit of grass in her hair, so I reached out to get it, and he cried out, ‘OI! LEAVE HER ALONE!’ And I had to say, ‘Yes, Corperal,’ or however it’s spelt, so I had to look away so he didn’t see me laughing!
It was very, very hot so there was a lot of lounging in the shade and nearly falling asleep!
Then we went to the triage tent, where we got a load of realistic painted injuries! XD It was very funny because the doctor was hilarious! One of the things that happened went like this:
The nurse came in.
Doctor: Right, Seth with an F has got an arm injury.
Nurse: Oooh, that looks bad, very bad…
Doctor: Mm. You go and put Seth with an F in Stretcher 5, please, Florence.
‘Florence’ leaves.
Me: Was that Mrs Nightingale?
Doctor: Eh – what? There’s more than one Florence in the world, you know. I think her last name’s Cape.
Me: I see.
And he was so funny and serious at the same time! Anyway, everyone was tended to by Florence Cape and then the painting-on-wounds-lady came along. It was really realistic paint, I thought; first they dabbed on a tiny bit of blue-black to make it look bruised and swollen, and then they put on some red blood-lines, and then they oozed some gooey red stuff to make it look all thick and bleed-y. It was kind of horrid! Anyway, Little Matilda had a head wound; a massive bruise on the right of the forehead with red goo occupying the eyebrow; Seth (‘with an F’, as the doctor always called him) had an arm wound; a massive red gash streaked upon his forearm; Big Matilda also had an arm wound; even more gash-like, I would say, with a massive bruise erupting from all sides; I had a leg wound, just below the knee; a huge bruise with the red goo dripping down my leg so much I had to bandage it up with a blood-streaked bandage; and I’ve forgotten what Arthur’s was.
There were some games set up, which I didn’t participate in, because it was too hot and all I wanted to do was sleep on the picnic blanket.
There were some tents as well, all full of old-fashioned telephones and little things to tap Morse Code in. I tapped in ‘L. A. V. I. N. I. A.’ but the man said he wasn’t very good at it and he couldn’t tell what my name was XD So I tapped in ‘THAT. MAN. SHALL. DIE.’ and no one noticed that one either.
Which was actually quite lucky.
We then watched a sort of display, showing how the Germans and the British fought over the bridge at Arnhem by recreating it at the Chinese Bridge in Wrest Park. It was really was quite interesting, and there were lots and lots and lots of guns going off, so everyone was cupping their hands to their ears and opening their mouths (an odd way of stopping up sound, but apparently that’s what you’re meant to do). It was very confusing and nobody really knew which were the Germans and which were the British, but I think that the British won.
I think.
Then everyone was glad to get out of the boiling heat and go home, and I denied an ice cream so that I can have one tomorrow 🙂