Laughter After

Laughter After

Bramber Castle Ruins

One summer day in West Sussex England,  I attended a family picnic in Bramber on the top of a hill on the grounds where  Bramber Castle once stood and now lays in ruin. Just some of the walls are all that's left  It's a busy little place where people go to have picnics. The castle once stood at the sea shore  before powerful storms changed the shape of the coastline forever, leaving the castle high and dry. 


After a few games of Rounders and a bite to eat, I decided I would explore the  moat at the bottom of the hill to  poke around for anything that might be a relic from the past. I left the hilltop and upon searching around the base of the hill,  and deciding there was little and nothing to look at or find;   an idea came to me. if  I could reach the top of the hill from here,  I could sneak up on my family and from behind the wall where they sat,  I could jump up and scare them as a joke. I noticed the hill was very muddy from the rains of the last few weeks and was very slick,  so I would have to be careful going up this hill or I would end up falling and getting very muddy.


This was a challenge,  and I took a run at the hill and only got about 6 ft up the hill before I slid back down in the slick surface.  But I didn't fall!  This would be harder than I previously thought. I took two more tries at it and desperately clung onto a few small saplings to try to gain a few more feet upwards. Each time I would slip back down as a small sapling or weed I had latched onto pulled out of the ground. I kept trying until finally I made it halfway up the hill to some better hand holds where I patted myself on the back for my progress.  A little too prematurely perhaps.


I now had a new problem as in front of me stood what looked  like an impenetrable wall of bramble bushes. What to do?  Keep going up,  or try to go back down and probably slide and fall and get very muddy and return to the party looking  like 'An Idiot Abroad' in reverse.  No way, this mission was only half complete so I made the decision to go up. I began wading through the Brambles.  They were like a living breathing entity,  scratching, clawing, grabbing at me and trying to trap me as I waded upwards through them.  Every step forward was like having to break another restraint.


At times, they held me fast and I had to barge my way heavily to gain any distance a few feet upwards at a time. When I was almost through and could see the clearing ahead of me, I looked down and not only were my pants undone,  but my belt was undone and gone. I turned around and saw it several feet behind me on a Bramble Bush,  retrieved it and put it back on. I couldn't believe it.  Talk about castle defenses.  I pushed through the last few feet and examined myself.  I had scratches everywhere on my arms and face. I looked and felt like I had gone 10 rounds in the ring with a Bengal  Tiger.  Hmm!  This isn't what I had in mind at all.


I edged over to the wall and climbed up to the top and peeked over. My family were not even there, but instead were at least 200 ft from where I thought they were sitting.  Upon seeing this,  I gave up on trying to play silly buggers and just walked around the outside wall and back in through the gate. Eyes lit up like saucers as they saw me walking towards them.  "What the hell happened to you?"  With some embarrassment  a little red faced and angry crimson scratches,  I related my mission to hardy laughter.  Can't win them all,  really,  can you?


My curiosity and mischievous personality,  does lend itself to getting me into some precarious situations sometimes. I  know better now though,  not to ever go up against  these proficient masters of self defense.  Do not tangle with these things,  I'm telling you,  It's not pretty!


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Do Have A Good Day And A Good Laugh.


                            Jeffrey R Hilton