Brian had been into the garage for the week previous, and had come home with new ball joints and boots, an oil and gasket change, and an MOT pass. There was also a note from the garage man.
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NO ANTI-ROLL BAR FITTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Not only that, but he was driving completely differently than he had been before, down to the new ball joints actually doing their job, and so it was a difficult day. Paul-the-Garage-Man said there'd be no problem getting one and fitting it, and so not to worry, go away if we were going to.
So we did.
We left here straight after school, having packed up the night before. We'd realised we couldn't take the awning, nor yet the bunks, as the roof won't stay up, which is an issue for both of those items. However, we had no children that weekend, so it wasn't that much of a problem.... for us...... Pete (who'd been planning on sleeping in the awning) had to bring his tent instead.
We had been sent Brian's bra from Spirit of the Fifties and it had arrived on Thursday.
We got to Santa Pod with no worries, found our friends, and parked up, pulled the ring on a can, and that was us. ARRIVED!
Previously, we've had to put up a tent, organise beds, sort out storage, and so on. This was much nicer. Pitch up and park certainly seems to be the way forward!
Friday night was all about catching up with people, eating bacon sandwiches, drinking cider, and relaxing.
And then we put the bed up.
At this point, Dear Reader, you need to know some things. I am 5ft3. My other half, Jack, is 6ft2. We have a Dormobile conversion on a van with a roof that doesn't open. I can stand up, just, but Jack can't. No way.
The bed is very high on one of these conversions, as the table is slotted in, then the seat is pulled up and rests on top of it to make the bed. The head end is over the engine bay, but a Dormobile conversion has a big storage box that sits on top of the engine bay, and thus the space is limited.
To this.
As you can see, there is not a lot of clearance space! However, as you can also see, the curtains are Very Blackout and work very well and look awesome. We were warm, we were as comfortable as we could be on pads that are 42 years old, and woke up in the morning in excellent moods.
It was great to be able to get up and brew tea. Previous shows we've had to wait until the butty van opened so that we could get a brew. This time, I got up, pulled on some REALLY COLD jeans (mental note to self, put clothes under my pillow or at the end of my bed or something next time!) put the gas on and made a cup of tea.
We had a good wander about the show, which, to be fair, had some good bits. There wasn't the vast array of traders there that some shows seem to have, but there was also a distinct lack of the 'tat' stall that is appearing at so many places. (BVF was like a rummage sale in places last year.) The Autojumble was spread out and had plenty to look at and there were a good range of show and shine vehicles on both days.
My favourites (seeing as I had the camera!) were these.....
My absolute favourite was obviously this blue pickup. Utterly gorgeous and something I've always wanted. And then it was for sale..........
So we went back and raised the Scotty's Little Soldiers flag because Pete had brought string, and I thought about it some more.
Obviously in the evening there was the usual fairground things, the live entertainment (A fairly good Take That tribute band) and the highlight for me were, as usual the fire poi people from the Poi Bus who were their fascinating, fabulous selves.
Evening led us to this shot - the Scotty's flag at sunset. A beautiful, poignant shot.
Anyway, I'll do Sunday tomorrow. There's a fair bit to write on that!
