NYJAM - Today!

The day has arrived. It's 25th July. Time for NYJAM.

It's currently 6.10am and I can't get back to sleep now. It may as well be December 25th. To say I'm looking forward to this is a bit of an understatement. I am looking forward to this more than any camp in recent years.

The fact is that on a normal camp there are any number of jobs to be done to get the thing off the ground, from programme planning to menu planning, from site bookings to kit organisation. Then there is the mammoth task of getting everything that 50 people need for a week into one place at the right time. It would be fair to say that by time any participants arrive at most camps I am pretty tired because I have usually been on site for a couple of days in advance.

Things with NYJAM have been a bit different. Although the flow of info to parents has been constant since the turn of the year, the Barton leaders jobs have been quite different. Apart from Jane who has dealt with all the admin in her usual efficient style, the rest of leaders have had almost no planning to do in the run-up.

Especially fortunate for me is Anthony's mobile contract; because he gets a bazillion free text messages each month he uses them to contact all the parents. As a result they all reply to him with questions and he in turn has to reply. He's a good secretary.

So in preparation for NYJAM I have created the tent list (so blame me if your tent-mates are snorers) and packed my own bags (including blue activity trousers and something red. And that is more-or-less it.

The good news for everyone else is that I have slept well (and in my own bed - not a field) for the past couple of nights, so my level of grumpiness will be at standard levels rather than the usual mid-camp ones.

So that's it. I'm ready. It's sunny outside. we have a full tank of gas ...... sorry - I digress.

For those of you checking Twitter/the blog at this time in the morning; I will see you in 3 hours. For those of you checking in through the week; we hope to have some ongoing Twitter updates - including pictures - in the coming days.

Morning to you all. Let's camp.