Balloon flashmob.

Josh looks thrilled

 Saturday May 15th 2010

Flashmob. Initially it sounds something rather rude....perhaps it gives you the idea of a group of people who pull down their pants and knickers? Or perhaps thats just my weird imagination lol. A flashmob is a group of people who arrange to attend somewhere all the same time doing something silly and the disappear as quickly as you arrived. We had come to Lincoln to be in such a flashmob. It was a balloon bashing event, near the castle and the cathedral. We arrived about 30 minutes early, and started blowing up balloons and putting them on

Balloon bashing commence

 Joshs pushchair. About 15 minutes later a couple carrying a massive balloon came and sat at the bench next to us. A few minutes later another family appeared on the other bench next to us. Slowly all aorund the square people starting appearing with concealed balloons....lets face it, its pretty hard to conceal a balloon. All of a sudden the cathedral bells starting its normal chime telling us it was 6pm. A whistle blew, and between 30-40 people converged on Lincolns main square bashing each other with balloons. Not since they hanged people in this square has there been so much violence lol.

Tigger and Piglet arrive in Lincoln

 Now you would have thought that the kids would have been enjoying it...and they were, but the real people who were enjoying it were the grown men. I have to admit even this Mr Shiltonpig couldn't help grinning at the site of so many people doing something so silly and random. Josh wasn't having any of it at all, he wasn't even paying attention to it all. That is until he saw the Piglet and Tigger balloons and then he went crazy. We were served some "dinner" which was some chocs and smarties....Josh seemed a little more interested in this. The people who were not involved were looking on in pure bewilderment and who could

Group photo in main square

 blame them. Its not often that you get to see this kind of thing. We all placed a calling card in a tin and one was pulled out of the hat, to which someone won a geocoin. Sadly it wasn't us...never mind. The whole event only lasts 15 minutes and so there was just enough time to get a group photo in and sure enough just as the last one was taken it turned 6.15pm, a whistle was blown and the 30-40 or so people disappeared in different directions bursting balloons as they went. It was team Shiltonpigs 1st falshmob and based on this one, it won't be our last. There are so many things in life which are so serious and was just nice to do

Are you looking at me?

something just absolutely stupid. Couldn't stop laughing all the way back to the car park. Who said geocaching was boring? It was also our 1st event cache which means a new icon for us as well. So this ends our day in Lincoln and one the way back to the car we spotted a face on a wall....pretty cool if we say so ourselves. This was one of many flashmobs occuring all over the world this weekend...we hope they had as much fun as we did. Oh and there is a video of the event done by the Panteras which can be found here.

The Imp!

"The Imps??"

 Saturday May 15th 2010

The Imp is the symbol of Lincoln. Imps are supposed to be little creatures who come down to do the work of satan himself. The story goes that two imps went to Lincoln, one started smashing tables and chairs up and even tripped a bishop up. An angel showed up and turned one of them into stone and you can see the Imp in the cathedral. Well we can't say we saw our creatures of Satan today...but I did look rough when I saw myself in the mirror. Mr Shiltonpig last came to Lincoln in 1991 when he was kne high to a grasshopper...well actually he was pretty tall even back then. However for some reason he cannot remember the cathedral. This is pretty shocking as the cathedral is surely one of the best in Europe....and trust us, we have seen a fair few of them. The cache is near the cathedral in a wall...but boy could we not find this thing...how many holes can one wall have?? Eventually after kneeling down (many must have thought we were

Simple things....please simple minds...

 praying) we found it and that was it. Lincoln is a pretty old city....even the Romans were here, they were looking for the nearest Pizza Hut. We couldn't find one either. One of the better caches of the day took us around a places and plaques where famous Lincolnshire people had been born. I'm sure one day there will be a plaque to celebrate where team Shiltonpig were born. It appears that a famous poet was born here such as the great man "Tennyson. However team Shiltonpig much prefer the poems that start "There was a young man from Peru"...much more at our level. Lol The cache however took us up and

Dr Shiltonpig I presume?

 around the whole of medieval Lincoln. Wow talk about hills in the centre...we have yet to find a hillier (is that even a word) city centre...plus you try pushing up a pushchair up a hill with a well fed Josh in it. An experience that we had to repeat many times today in search of some elusive caches. One took us to Joseph Banks conservatory the guy that made some voyages to Australia. Our journey just took us to a pretty little place called "The Lawn". The worst cache of the day was found on the outskirts of the city. It was well hidden and when Mr Shiltonpig opened it to sign the logbook, he found that someone had

House on a canal

 filled it with wee. And Mr Shiltonpig got it all over him...what a great feeling! And what a loser the man that had ever did that...Our journey took us to the Brayford Pool which is a natural lake used by the Romans and has the oldest working canal in the country dating back to before McDonalds arrived on these shores. (Foss Dyke). There is now a series of caches by this area alongside the restaurants and shopping centres. Lincoln is a great city and we really have enjoyed the few days here...but there is so much potential for caches in the area. The two remaining photos do not have a cache here and deserve one, in our humble opinion.

Do you know the way to Holland?

After completing an earth cache, which meant walking the length of the Brayford Pool, we made our to the west side of the city and did a couple of caches. We saw a large hedge in the shape of a pig and a cat. Pretty cool. And then on the way to the final cache of the day we came across Ellis windmill which is still in working order. Its only open 6 hours a week, and we amazingly found it open. And near closing time it was full...when I say full 5 other people were there, who were hogging the tour guides attention. Shame we needed some flour to make Joshs tea....oh well he would have to go hungry. There were so many little places in Lincoln that we took photos of...but this blog is only showing 5 of them. What a great place to spend some time...so small jungles, cathedrals with demons in, working mills and wee caches, all in the space of a few hours. Just another normal day in team Shiltonpigs life!

Lincolnshire Villages - Cache and Dash

Two rascals peeping through

Friday May 14th 2010

Thank goodness for Travelodge...in a world where the price of everything is going up, they seem to be the only thing where the price is going down. This is good news for team Shiltonpig as they embark on another crazy weekend away...this time to the city of Lincoln. Today after a very quick drive to Lincoln, we arrive ready for some serious caching. There were 2 main series that we attempted today...the first was a very small section of the UKs largest cache series....200 caches across 193 miles from Skegness to Ness. Wow that would be some

Can you spot team Shiltonpig?

serious eat into some petrol, but not to worrry for us, we were only to do 5. We however were going to tackle a series called "Lincolnshire Villages", these are best done as a drive series, taking you around some of the most bendy roads you will ever come across when not on a F1 circuit. Try doing 60 mph on one of these roads and you will soon find yourself calling the AA. Its very flat around here, and lots and lots of rural countryside and farms for miles around. Some of the caches we spotted without even leaving the car (don't worry we did sign the logbook). Some however were clever little hides meaning we had to look and look all around.

Scrambled,poached or fried?

One of the great things we found near the first couple of caches was a birds nest full of 12 eggs, whats strange is that we have been unable to identify what they are....we will keep looking. In addition we saw 2 Hares leaping around a nearby field. Something which is pretty rare, these days for us people that live in what is known as urban developments. We have never really done this type of caching before, as we usually are getting our arms and hands scratched in thorns out walking the fields, and was nice to try something different. Josh was having a mixed day today, he has a few little snuffles but by the end of the day was getting a little bit of

Don't drink and drive!

cabin fever. The usual happened halfway through the caches, Josh needed the toilet and so did a few others in the team. But hey you don't read this blog to here about our toilet habits? (or do you????) We won't tell you what happened...we will leave it up to our readers very vivid imagination. 20 caches later and we finsihed off the series....we had collected 10 numbers along the way and we were soon on our way to the bonus cache. A very cleverly hidden bonus cache which had taken us to almost every village in Lincolnshire....all we needed was a farmer chewing hay in a field and it would have finished

Team Shilton"pig"

off the day. However we had one final surprise as we came across a field with pigs in....and they had rings in their noses...what next pigs in space? Josh loves pigs and will happily snort till the cows come home....and when they come home he will moo as well. We enjoyed the day...very unusual not to have to walk for a change. However we finished the day finding the most amount of caches in a day we have ever done.....plus we crossed over the 400 mark as well. So there was only one way we could celebrate...off to the pub for some gammon...sorry pigs!!