So, the plan was originally to fly, but why fly for 2 hours when you can drive for 10! Yes fun! It turned out to be a good time though even with my two mongoloid compadres Brennan and Martin beating the absolute shite out of each other, with Brennan continually showering the van with his vile rear-end. Enough of that though. On to the memories....
Dicky picked me up from Kirkstall Brewery (my residence in Leeds), and we headed down to Birmingham Disruption HQ to meet the rest of the goons and their mother a.k.a Pikey (Just messing Pikey).
We hung out and went into downtown Scunthorpe to get some chips (clearly should be called fries). We then headed back to HQ and slept for about an hour. Got on the rented bus, and hit the road at about 3 am to Cheesy Baguette land!
It was a long journey from Pikey's to the ferry in Dover that Wednesday night/ Thursday morning, where in fact I got my first glimpse of the White cliffs. After telling Brennan they had just got a fresh coat of paint, we board the giant tin can and set off for Calais, France
After having a questionably expensive breakfast on the ferry and getting some Euro's, we landed in Frenchy land. It was deja vu as we were on the correct side of the road (the right) again. It was another 4 hour drive through odd little French communities and country sides till we started getting close to Euro-Disney. As we finally pulled in to the hotel where some of the guys were staying, I got a good look round. Place was sweet.
At the end of the day, it was time for me to head to my team's villa. Wow what a place. It was pretty far from the field but was an extremely nice villa with a pool, 3D HDTV massage parlour, and a number of other things! I unpacked my bags and a bunch of us attempted to find the nearest grocery store in the pouring rain. One thing about France when you are in the outskirts of a city, everything is tiny little shops and cafe's. So we spent an arm and a leg on random French food and walked home soaked, where I feasted on my ham and bread sandwich, which was glorious by the way.Friday morning my friends on Disruption were playing. I subsequently destroyed my voice through excellent Canadian patented coaching ability, with Disruption ending up winning against Paris Camp Carnage! After walking around the event site, Dan, Lucy, Alastair and Paco (Luke) decided it was time to go to central Paris and see what all the hype was about.
The train ride was very funny as we got some goofy looks from the French natives who apparently thought English was quite funny. After slowly figuring out what station we were to get off at, we hopped off onto the streets of Paris.
Now, when you visit Paris, you may be under the assumption that everything (Louvre, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Royal Palace) are all near each other or are in close proximity. Not the case in the bloody slightest.
We started off someone near the Louvre, which is massive. We decided that enough money would be spent on other parts of the trip, so we passed on being art connoisseurs for the day and continued on. As you walk around Paris you begin to see why it is one of Europe's top tourist destinations. Central Paris (apparently it is not the same on the outskirts) has a very clean-cut tidy feel to it with tons of beautiful buildings to look at. We walked alone getting some extremely nice pictures and then as a cloud was starting to come in we decided that the best thing would be to go and see the Eiffel tower.
This is the point where we actually realized exactly how far away it really was. An hour long walk later we finally were able to see the tower. We took some funny pictures, had a beer in front of it on the grass and then relaxed.While I was slightly mad I didn't get to see Notre Dame, my feet were killing me, I was hungry and it was match day tomorrow. Back to the villa we go. The train stations were quite packed on the way back, and a train was just arriving when we got onto the platform. It was full, but Alastair decided to be a bozo, and jumped on the train laughing at how we would have to wait. While he was getting lost and getting his face squeezed on the glass, we got the next train which was much more comfortable. We had to make a transfer and assumed Alastair had known this. He was no where to be seen along the locals, so we left him behind like the good friends we are, knowing he'd probably make it back or become a slave to some criminal organization.YOLO.
We arrived back at Disney land and after eating a very good Chinese/Korean meal we headed back to the villa. I slept on the pull out couch very comfortably and woke up to Ainsley playing Eye of the Tiger (scared me more than anything). We headed to the field and registered and started to make preparations to kick some ass. Our first two games of the 2012 Millennium World Cup of paintball did not go some well. We went 0-2 to start the tournament, mainly due to terrible paint and just a bad start. We knew we had to finish off the day strong, playing a UK team, Russian team and a Belgian team. In these three games, we got some new paint ball's and somehow the negativity from the first three games dissipated and we dusted the last 3 games off ending the day 3-2. We had one final game that decided if we went through to playoffs or not. It was against a French team with some pansy name that I can't recall because it was silly. We murdered them hands down, off to the playoffs the following day.
32 teams went on to the playoffs in a single elimination structure. Our first game was against the Moscow Bears. We were having paint issues again and the rain was becoming a really large factor affecting everyone's equipment. The little guy Jordan on our team was so cold he was shaking (maybe he should eat a burger once in a while). We started the game and quickly jumped out to a 1-0 lead with some sharp play up the middle of the field. I went on for the next point and was shooting flame thrower (paint was breaking inside the barrel) but still managed to shoot a couple while the rest were cleaned up by my teammates. On to the round of 16!In the round of 16 we were lucky, very lucky. We went back and forth and ended regular time tied 1-1. Going to the extra point we were unfortunate to get a penalty early on leaving us with only 3 guys remaining. The french team were good, but they also received a penalty. The only thing was, the player who was pulled out did not leave immediately, resulting in the ref giving them another penalty. Their team was left with one player, who Alastair blasted and we moved on. The French team were absolutely livid and flipping out, and would not shake me hand. Typical.
Heading into the quarter finals, everyone was cold, tired and had been through a lot of tough games that day. We tried to get through it and were playing the London Tigers, a very established team with quite good players on the roster. They weren't very good sportsman, but that's paintball for you. We essentially lost the match for ourselves with Dan getting a major wiping penalty very late in the first point, equaling a loss which we never recovered from. At the end of the match, the Tigers player absolutely leveled poor Jordan with an unnecessary but of overshooting (prick) which ended our tournament.From the game I headed straight off as the Disruption guys were waiting at the bus for our trip home (Yippeeee-- not). I was still soaked as we made our trip to the ferry. No messing about this time we were taking the quick way back.
We got to the ferry in great time, although Dicky and Pikey were quite worried as we had no petrol left and so far to go. We scrounged up what cash and coin we had (as you do) , and attempted to find petrol. We found it and were on our way. Some, Brennan and Martin still found a way to get pissed at each other, as Brennan let Jim use his Dr.Dre's while he wouldn't give them to his own brother..... everyone else found it funny until the punch up started getting out of hand and Bathy decided he'd seen enough.
It was about 3:30 am when I finally got back into residence. Somehow, my flat mates were still up after a night out, clearly affected by the alcohol hahah. I was so tired I threw everything on my bed on the floor and passed out.
Cool story right?
