As the KYR team mascot, Oscar the Octopus,
I had an excellent time travelling around Nottingham. I started off the weekend by coming up from Chatham on the train. At Rochester I was given to my Custodian, Lottie, and I continued my journey to London. On arriving at London St Pancras Station, we met up with the rest of the team.
Having found them all, I went into Pret and got some dinner, which was delicious. Finally we got on the train, settled in and I had a nap. I woke up just as we got into Nottingham station. After getting off the train we went into the co-op to buy carrots, which is a KYR tradition, but sadly could not find any. Luckily I spotted a Tesco so we went in and bought a pack of carrots there.
When we arrived at the hotel where we were staying for the weekend, I went straight to sleep as it was a long day and I was very tired.
Waking up the next morning, there was a buzzing atmosphere and I was very excited. I went down to breakfast and had a cooked breakfast. After we left, we went by tram to pick up our mini bus. There was a mini ring here but sadly we did not get to ring on it then as we were driven straight down to the competition tower. When we arrived, the team played throw and catch with me so I could get all of my excess energy; this made me really excited because then it was time for the team to ring in the competition. I wasn’t allowed up the tower so I sat in the church with my ‘purposefully’ sign and became an extra ‘unofficial’ judge. In my opinion, they did really well.
After the competition piece, the day then continued along with various different activities where I tried out handbells and the mini ring and rang at various other towers. The Team tried out handbells and they rang plain bob minor and plain hunt on 6 while I watched. Sadly as I am just a small octopus, I can’t ring in the towers so I sat on the side and watched, but I didn’t mind as I was there to support.
After all of the ringing at the towers, we went to the results and listened to all of the thank you speeches and found out who all of the judges were. I was really proud of my Kent Young Ringers when I found out that they came second in their category👏👏
