Mad, Not Bad, Eccentricity

Quirky or weird, Britain’s clubs and associations are a way of life.

Can you think of anything more therapeutic

than lying on your back in a summer meadow, gazing up at the clouds? Depending on

the wind, they race or float slowly by, looking like dragons, whales, mountain ranges or even famous people. It all depends on

your imagination. If you are a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society (CAS), the sky is the limit.

CAS founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, thought bright blue cloudless skies boring and preferred constantly changing cotton

wool shapes or black thunder clouds. He soon attracted fellow cloud fans. There are

now CAS members in 120 countries all over the world who see clouds as nature’s poetry, recognising the beauty above our heads. The society publishes photos, films and members’ pictures on their website. It also fundraises for not-for-profit water projects. They are currently looking at ways of obtaining drinking water from fog in rainpoor regions.

Our human passion of getting together to pursue a special interest, hobby or sport is universal. In the UK, this passion has created some strange clubs and associations.

Let’s take roundabouts, which most visitors to Britain, tourists and lorry drivers alike dislike intensely. The UK is full of them, dotting town and country in great numbers. If you have just left the Channel Tunnel or ferry by car, you’ll have seen multilingual signs at each roundabout, reminding you to keep left. But the “Roundabouts of Great Britain“fan club encourages pretty

planting and local sponsorship of these circular marvels. Try not to hate them, roundabouts are environmentally friendly and

great fuel savers, too. Don’t forget to KEEP LEFT, though, or you’ll drive round them

the wrong way.

For motor freaks with a passion for the

green outdoors, there’s “The British Lawn Mower Racing Association”, at its most active during the summer months. Pundits say it takes at least 400 years to cultivate

the perfect English lawn, but fortunately club members race their powerful, highly

tuned machines on specially designed tracks and not on their favourite lawns!

The “Sing Along Sound of Music Fan Club” in Central London holds private

viewings of the classic film at a Soho cinema on Sunday afternoons. Members

must be dressed in costume. Cross-dressing is very popular. Bearded nuns dance

with nymphs in leather shorts while buxom ladies, with blond plaits and wearing dirndls, swing teddy bears to the music, as they accompany each song lustily. It’s weird and wonderful.

Anybody can set up an enthusiasts’ club. In Cornwall, one summer, my godfather Uncle Vorley and I set up the SSSS, after an experimental BBQ on a pebbled

beach by the Fowey Estuary. Rosamunde Pilcher fans will know the location. While I collected driftwood, Vorley stacked it

professionally, then lit the pile with a flourish … and several matches. A breeze

blew across the water, the flames leapt. We were very hungry and, instead of waiting for glowing embers to form, we thrust our raw sausages on sticks into the flames.

They blackened fast! And thus the Secret Society of Sausage Singers was formed.

We were so ashamed of our amateurish BBQ technique that it had to be secret, and very short-lived. If you haven’t found a club to suit your hobby, why not found

your own? Just try. You might well find like-minded fans out there!