Ladies and Gentlemen,

BIG NEWS FROM THE LAND OF THE US and A! I'm married...well kinda!

I'm not really sure whether I've kept you guys up to date with the pranks carried out by the junior boys' counsellors, but it basically involves all the guys organising to embarrass another counsellor (usually female) in the hope of setting two people up. Our first major event was singing a lovesong to a female counsellor by the pool at an eveing activity, which yielded great results for one lucky junior boy counsellor and the victim of the song! Anyway in an effort to supercede our own efforts the junior boys planned and enacted an entire wedding at Last Sunday's staff metting!

The scene was set with myself to be married to a counsellor called Jo, with no one except the planners having any idea what was going on! At the completion of the staff meeting we had a proposal in front of the entire 100 strong staff and then immediately began wedding proceddings in the dinning hall complete with and rhyming reverend, groomsmen and bridesmaids, ringbearer and costumes. The vows had been prepared from cheesy song lyrics and it was the most hillarious event imaginable. Poor Jo almost died of embaressment, but was a great sport and went along with the whole thing! After we said the I do's, we were whisked away in a golf cart (complete with trailing coke cans) to attend the reception held at the canteen with music, food, speeches and our first dance as Mr and Mrs Stone. The whole thing was priceless!! Luckily we were able to video the whole event and I'm in the process of getting it on DVD for the comedic reliefs of generations to come.

Perhaps even more perfect was the timing of our second "off days", which began on monday, providing an opportuntity for a genuine Honeymoon (with 14 other people). We all headed to New Jersey to go to the Six Flags amusment park. Aside from the fact that I had to drive the whole time, which was a bit of a drag, everyone loved it! We had a great time going out to dinner, having a few drinks, having a toga party in the hotel, getting visits from the Police, going shopping and ofcourse riding some serious roller coasters! Check out "kingda Ka" which is the biggest coaster in the world..scary just doesn't do it justice. It goes 120mph in something like 4 seconds. Phenomenal!

But alas we did have to eventually return to camp once more, with more and more people feeling as though they are 'getting over' camp and the restrictions like curfew. Whilst everyone has loved the summer I know a lot of people (myself included) will be glad it's over so they can enjoy travelling and being 22, not 12!

Everyone is beginning to plan for time after camp and I think the first stop will be Philadelphia for 3 days and then New York and a concert in Hartford, Connetticut. You can imagine how much fun it is trying to organise everything with big groups or 15 or more! Everyone wants to hang out, but I think realistically it just won't work very well as off days proved at times, but we'll see. It would be great to travel with a lot of the staff (esp. international) and most people want to do the same general things.

I'm in the process of transfering more photos so stay tuned! Hope you are all well and I'll let you know my american mobile number if you want to get in touch with me.

catchya guys!

luv mike