The day kicked off with a rather early start for me, leaving home at 9am to ensure I got to Leicester for 11. Babel and I were planning to be in Felixstowe by three, something which he assured me was going to be possible with the inclusion of an hour for lunch, despite my protestations that it would take five hours to get there. Babel turned out to be nearer the mark than I was and we did indeed arrive in the early afternoon after a very pleasant, if slightly warm, drive down to Suffolk and an enjoyable stop-off in a little pub somewhere called Stowmarket. I was impressed that we managed not to get lost during the entire journey until right at the end when we were looking for our campsite and Google Maps played its favourite trick of insisting our destination was somewhere where it couldn’t possibly be; this time, off the fifth exit of a roundabout which only had four exits

Nevertheless Babel averted disaster by cunningly following the signs that indicated a caravan park, and within a few minutes we had safely arrived at our destination. Babel came very near to exploding as we waited for the indecisive, dawdling staff to show us where we could pitch our tent, but luckily he managed not to and chose us an appropriate piece of grass. I have to confess that I was slightly apprehensive about putting up the tent, us only having done it once before and that time not succeeding without some other Esperantists coming to our rescue, but actually it went remarkably well. Well, it wouldn’t have gone terribly well at all if I had been trying to do it on my own because I couldn’t remember what to do and even when it was explained to me, I didn’t seem quite strong enough to push things in the right holes, but Babel did an admirable job and it no time at all we had a very respectable looking tent, complete with air mattress and sleeping bag at our disposal

All that remained now was to locate the rest of JEB. Punctuality isn’t necessarily JEB’s strongpoint though, so Tim and I began to stroll through Felixstowe whilst we waited Willow, a komencanto who was coming from Norfolk to meet with JEB for the first time. There was a slight logistical problem with us finding one another by virtue of the fact that none of us knew our way around Felixstowe but we managed it in the end and sat down to have a quick drink whilst Tim made her eyes glaze over by trying to explain the slightly bizarre premise of his phd

To prove that we could actually speak Esperanto, we soon relocated us to the nearby Tellier residence and invited ourselves in for a drink. Hopefully our colourful discussions about various ‘characters’ in the British Esperanto movement didn’t do too much to put Willow off becoming involved. After a certain amount of time we were joined by Mikeo, who had come all the way from Manchester, and by Gavan and Katarina, who had come somewhat less far but still contrived to be last We were all pleased to hear that Mikeo had managed to cancel the hotel room he had accidentally booked in Harwich (only a couple of miles away as the crow flies, but a drive of at least an hour around the estuary) and found a room in the Marlborough Hotel right on the sea front

Including the Telliers it was nine of us who headed out for a spot of dinner, a very good turnout for a JEB meeting and certainly far better than last year’s five It took us a bit of time to decide that we were going to have dinner, some of us being hungry and others not, but in the end we decided that we had to, it being eight pm by this time and there hence existing a real danger that pubs might not serving. We went to an establishment called the White Horse, which was very nice if a tad expensive. I had a chicken schnitzel with garlic which was a rather strange variation on the theme of chicken kiev, but most tasty. And a couple of glasses of wine, of course

It was very enjoyable to sit there in the sun and have a chat with people, sometimes in English, sometimes in Esperanto. It being a bright sunny evening, we eventually headed back into the town and had a stroll along the seafront. It was really beautiful to see the beach with the waves coming in and I was thoroughly enjoying myself, when Babel and I embarked on a conversation about where we were going to have breakfast in the morning. I advanced the opinion that we ought to have it in Macdonalds, having been reliably informed and shown on a map that there was an outlet a mere five minute walk from our campsite. Much to my surprise, Babel pulled a very scornful face and informed me that we wouldn’t be going to Macdonalds because I “look like a muffin”.

How rude! It is true to say that I have gained an entire stone in weight since this time last year, but even so I think it is a slight exaggeration to say that I am as round as a muffin, which would really be very round indeed. And even if I were as round as a muffin, I think it would be very bad manners to say that out loud, in front of over people, some of whom I didn’t know terribly well. I was rather hurt and upset and immediately proceeded to walk away from Babel and ignore him whilst I tried not to feel like I was going to cry.

I proceeded to ignore Babel quite effectively for some time, but the problem came when we had to leave together to go back to the tent. This unfortunately necessitated us walking next to one another, although we did manage to hardly speak which was a bonus. I was confident that I didn’t need to speak to him because I had deliberately memorised the location of the tent before we left, and ensured that it was me who had the key to the bathrooms in my bag. Haha! This confidence unfortunately became a bit unstuck when I remembered that all my clothes and other possessions were in a bag, inside Babel’s boot. Bother it

I had to condescend to speak to him to ask for the key, which was bad. What was worse was my complete failure to use the key (it was dark, I couldn’t see what buttons to press!) which resulted in me fumbling about for quite some time and accidentally causing the car to make a loud beeping noise. Whoops Even more annoyed I returned to the tent after getting changed and we proceeded to completely ignore each other to the full extent that it is possible to achieve such a thing whilst lying in close proximity in a tent. I was actually still genuinely upset and it took me quite a long time to manage to get to sleep.

Get to sleep I eventually did, however, and the problem was that when I woke up, I temporarily forgot what it was I had been offended about. Babel and I were in the process of being quite friendly when I suddenly remembered that I wasn’t speaking to him and used the opportunity to punch him and accuse him of calling me a muffin. He protested that he had called me no such thing, and swears blind that he was trying to say that I would look like a muffin if I ate too often at MacDonalds which is subtlely different. Hmmm. I wasn’t initially convinced but he seemed so genuinely amused by the fact that I thought he said I looked like a muffin that in the end I decided to drop it. Sniff.

It had rained somewhat during the night which had disturbed me slightly, but Sunday turned out to be another bright and sunny day. After a breakfast which we did indeed eat at MacDonalds, Babel and I got the tent down in no time at all and headed into the town to meet up with Mikeo. The Telliers had advised us to visit Landguard Fort, an old military installation on the coast line now run by English Heritage, and we decided to give it a go. Tim, Mikeo and I set off walking along the beach towards the fort and had a truly beautiful view out across the sea. I took lots of photos which I am utterly incapable of shrinking down to an appropriate size to put on this blog, but you can view a selection of them here and all of them if you add me as a friend on Facebook

My interest in military installations is normally severely limited, and although the audio tour at Landguard held my attention for longer than most, I still began to find it a little wearing towards the end. Tim, Mikeo and I finished the tour faster than the others, so embarked on our long walk back to Felixstowe before heading back to the pub of the night before to get something to eat. Unfortunately it turned out we had missed their serving times so we had an interesting satnav-fuelled drive around Felixstowe trying to find somewhere else, and eventually arrived at a pub whose name I can’t remember but where I had a most delicious meal followed by the biggest shared pudding you ever did see in your entire life

It would have been nice to go for another stroll along the beach, but unfortunately by this time it was half past five and we all had quite a long journey ahead of us. Babel very kindly offered to drop me back in Birmingham and since we’d established that he hadn’t called me a muffin, I decided to let him. The journey back was uneventful apart from the fact that we got slightly lost around Peterborough, and I was safely home by half past nine.

A big thank you to Babel for all the driving he did And a big thank you to everyone else who came and made it the pleasant and enjoyable experience that it was