campsparkle | Entries tagged with camp sparkle 2010

If you have any special dietary requirements or strong dislikes, please leave them in a comment to this post, so that the chefs can find them easily.

nopseud

After the success of last year's cooking arrangements, we've decided to do the same this year. Pen (tasty pies) and I (spicy chorizo rice) will be cooking on Friday and Saturday nights, so we need people to sign up to cook evening meals on Sunday - Thursday. Anyone who doesn't feel like being head chef can sign themselves up as a minion.

For those of you who will be planning meals, there is an extremely large Tescos supermarket about 5 minutes walk from the house, which will make buying food a lot easier than last time.

I've signed up for a Tescos account, the log in details of which I've put on the sign-up post. If you log in to the Tescos page, you'll be able to get details of everything they sell, and put together a basket to check the pricing. Nearer the time, it should also show any special offers they have running. Please DON'T actually use that account to buy anything, though!

We will be bringing the food money along in cash, to make it easier for people to go out and buy their supplies. The budget for dinner is £3 per head, with slightly different numbers of people at the cottage depending on the day.
Sun, Mon: 18
Tues, Wed, Thurs: 17

Although we haven't made final plans, yet, it seems likely that trips out of the house will be organized for Monday and Wednesday. If you're signing up for cooking duty on those days, please plan your menus accordingly.

ninjetti75, you can find a pretty comprehensive set of conversion tables for American to metric measurements here. (Go down to the bottom for the American tables).

ETA: Current volunteer chefs:

ihearthings_ii &

bubbleforest - something Danish. (also baking kringle)

trumpeterodoom - Japanese curry.

chacopyrite - pasta and red sauce.

ninjetti75 - Cajun beef.

Current volunteer minions:

iconis

adelate (also baking muffins)

_titch

rikes

valya22 (also baking cake)

saba1789

fadedsouls
[Unknown site tag] (reserve chef)

nopseud

Thank you to everyone who has been getting their registrations to us.

There are now only a few places left for Camp Sparkle 2010. If we don't have a registration from you yet, then we can't guarantee there will be a space left for you. Please, if you're planning to be there, get a signed form to us ASAP. You can post it to the address on the sign-up form, or send a scanned copy by e-mail. We really don't want to disappoint anyone, and we hope there will be enough space for everyone who wants to come. But if we're oversubscribed then, to be fair to everyone, we will have to stick to the first-come-first-served rule.

If you have sent your form, then you can check to see if we've received it on the registrations post. If you don't have access to the post, we don't have your registration.

nopseud

Camp Sparkle registrations are now open.

To remind everyone, Camp Sparkle this year runs from 7th - 14th May, and will be held at Beech Hill House, in Alfreton, Derbyshire, UK.

Exact prices for accommodation will depend on the number of people attending, but it will be around 60-70 UKP per person for the whole week. Shorter stays will be priced up proportionately. Food will be extra (~45 UKP for the whole week), and we'll once again be organizing minibus transport to and from airports.

Since everything went swimmingly last year, we've decided not to take deposits this year, either. You'll need to pay the full amount about a month before Camp Sparkle.

Please don't sign up unless you're 100% sure you're coming, and conversely, if you are 100% sure you're coming, please sign up as soon as you can. The house can hold up to 23. If more people than that want to register, then places will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis.

Send an e-mail to campsparkle@nsa.slashcity.org. and I'll send you a registration form.

Current Mood: chipper

pensnest

Okay, everyone, I'm calling it NOW.

Camp Sparkle will be at Beech Hill House from May 7th - 14th.

YAY.

The amount we pay for the place will vary slightly depending on how many of us there are, but I would guesstimate that with the accommodation, food and minibus included you'll be looking at about £125-£135 each for the week. Get those piggybanks working!

My apologies to those of you who can't make it, or would have preferred September. :-( Next year?

pensnest

Right, folks!

nopseud and I have done much scouring of the internet, and have in fact found a place that looks perfect for this year's Camp Sparkle. SThe one possible disadvantage is that it's in the same general area as last year's Camp Sparkle—on the other hand, it's a very convenient area, whether you're, say, driving a minibus or getting a train or plane, and there's still *plenty* that we haven't explored around there. Oh, and it has a hot tub. Best of all, if there are twenty of us it will work out at just £61 per head - an incredible bargain compared to everything else we have found.

So nice is the place, indeed, that it is mostly booked already. I've just spoken to the owner and put in a provisional booking for the week of 7th-14th May, so what we need to do now is figure out if that week will work for Camp Sparkle, so that I can either confirm and pay up the booking deposit, or book for a week in, let us say, mid-September instead.

So what we need to know is - can you make it for May 7th, or shall we make it September (same rate as May, or possibly cheaper) instead?

[Poll #1513573]

Please comment with whatever extra information there may be - eg you can only make it for the weekend in May but could manage a week in September, or, you can't possibly do September so May is your only option—whatever.

nopseud

First of all, some general info about why it's taken us a while to get rolling with things this year.

Last time, several people weren't happy with the standard of the cottage. The truth is, it's proving pretty difficult to find somewhere large enough *and* low cost *and* sufficiently nice. (We're also establishing 'a shop within walking distance' as a new rule :-) For somewhere better than last year, with reasonable access to transport links, we're very probably going to have to spend more money.

Also, rental prices have gone up generally since we started Camp Sparkle. For example, when we rented The Old Stables, the charge for a week was £87/person. To book exactly the same week this year would be £110/person. Little Brampton cost £850 in 2007, and in 2010 the same weekend would be £1250.

Finally, in 2009 we rather seriously underbudgeted for food, which left us a shortfall in expenses. Luckily, there was a little bit of reserve left in the Camp Sparkle account from the last two years which covered some it, but the account is now completely empty. So we're also going to have to increase the amount we charge for food up front (probably somewhere in the region of £45 for the week), or come up with a system for collecting more during Camp Sparkle itself.

With this in mind, we want to run a poll to see what kind of places we're able to look at for this year. Please be honest about what you'd be willing to pay -- if we book something and no one else comes, we are going to have a rather expensive and lonely holiday for two :-)

[Poll #1511429]

It also makes a difference to price as to how closely we can tailor the size of the house to the number of people coming. Basically, most places charge a flat rate rather than per person, and so generally the better the match the better value it will be. Otherwise, we're paying for beds we don't use. *Please* fill in this poll if you want to come this year, because we'll be basing the size of the houses we look at on it.

The time we're looking at is somewhere in April/May.

[Poll #1511430]