A lovely day out

to Camber Sands

The sea was quite rough with some lovely white waves crashing in, it was my first visit there and i shall definitely be going again.
Luke and i had a lovely ramble through the dunes, well, i say through! It was more of an up and down movement and quite knackering but we had lots of fun and got soaked through as the long grass was quite wet round my legs and the rain was attacking me from the other end ::lol::
The day ended with a bit of a disaster unfortunately when Rob's van wouldn't work so after a bit of push-starting he got going and then decided that as he had no dynamo working to charge his battery we ought to stop somewhere so he could call the recovery. What a total pantomime that was! Three hours after pulling into the pub the recovery truck drove away without him on it! His van being lowered there was no way it could be hoisted onto the truck without doing significant damage :o(
He was then told that a suitable truck would be with him within 2-3 hours, as the pub was closing by now we decided to cram as many people into the Bug as possible and head home. There were five of us and the dog in the Bug and we left the other three in the van to wait it out!

Certainly an eventful day!

More T4!!

Work is coming along really well on the van.

The lino was laid last Saturday...

and all this week i have been staing and varnishing the backrests and the bare wood parts of the interior...

On Saturday i helped out with table making in the morning but as i had worked so hard during the week i was given a free pass and so i headed off to my knitting group, when i came home Roj had made the hole for the table leg and also got it all assembled!
The drawer (at the front of the picture) was made yesterday, it was a lot of work as it had to be measured precisely and the actual drawer has been custom built by Roj too.

So far, so good!
We hope to have made the interior as versatle as possible, with plenty of seating for visitors but also a cosy snuggle space if we are camped on our own :oD

This week the foam and fabric are arriving and next week i start sewing!
We ended up getting the fabric on Ebay, i have spent several days visiting local (and some not so local) markets and fabric shops but nothing suitable has presented itself - we have taken a gamble on the colour and hopefully it'll be perfect when it arrives!

A few things have altered along the way, we were going to attach the backrests with magnetic catches but they aren't strong enough so we are now using roller catches and another thing which we are now talking about is whether the drawer section on the other unit should be one big drawer like we've just done, or two smaller drawers - we'll find out what the decision is next weekend as that is Saturday's job ;o)

Saw some cars too!

Yes, that's right, there were some cars at Volksworld and i actually managed to take some photos too!!

Not many mind ;o)

But aren't they YUMMY!!

EXTERMINATE!!

Today we popped along to Sandown Park for the Volksworld Show and i was stunned when we were greeted by The Daleks!
Seems they've decided to be nice, this one was even collecting money for charity... it's either that or they need to boost the "Take Over The World Campaign" fund ;o)

A little further along and i managed to terrify myself when i spotted a Clockwork Robot, i was able to hide behind the TARDIS and get a shot of him and his new pals the Daleks, seems they had managed to capture some people... i dread to think what they did with them, i am just lucky i managed to escape!!

The conversion so far...

I've been meaning to post for ages but i'd rather blog about knitting ;o)
We decided to get a new van for camping last year cos our lovely bay is getting a bit knackered, lots of rust and related goings on and it needs a lot of fixing up. We'd planned on doing that this year and using the (new T4) as our camper during the year so we don't have to lower ourselves to tenting!! hehe
So, this is our T4 conversion so far. We're trying to do as much of it ourselves as we can, and so far we've managed, i'm a bit hesitant about the upholstery but i'm sure we can work it out between us - both our Mums know how to put a zip in and we can both work a sewing machine ;o)

So, here's our progress so far, the van used to be a mini-bus with two lots of seats but as they are surplus to requirement we started our project by gutting the interior...

27th Feb

All seats and carpet taken out, ready for the floor to be laid

28th Feb

New floor!

7th March:
Took a trip to Rainbow Conversions in Cambridgeshire to pick up the laminated ply for the units so no work done that weekend!

14th March:

The bench seats are taking shape, there is more thinking and planning going on than building at the moment, but it's getting there!

21st March:

Some more work is done to the bench seats, backrest supports have gone in along with the backrests on one side

22nd March:

Backrests on both sides now completed, along with the "lids" of the seats on both sides.
The two "open" boxes at the end will have non-removable lids as they are both drawer units.
The backrests are removable and fill the gap inbetween the bench seats to make a full-width bed.
We are very happy with our progress so far, it's really coming together well!

Tomorrow i am off to Kingston Market to try and find the right upholstery fabric!!

More Munksfest '08

Friday night - wicked photo!
Fantastic night too - impromptu guitar playing, singing, comedy duo and a lovely warm fire... oh and Sangria! :oD

Saturday evening gets underway with a BBQ
Your friendly servers this evening are Frannery, Robbery, Beckery and Manda.
Here i am serving a vegematarian with his cardboard burger ;o)
It was SO SO SO HOT!!! behind the BBQs - lots of beer was consumed ery quickly in a feeble attmept to cool down - next time we'll try water heheheheeeeee

Saturday night's alright for ROCKIN'!!
The band were AWESOME and they played for ages too with just one break

High FIIIIIIIVE! :oD

Munksfest '08

In an effort to document my many blurry weekends of fun i present to you:
Munksfest 2008!
In honour of our friend John who was celebrating his 30th birthday with camping and partying at his parents place in Lincolnshire.

We start with a shot of our camp from halfway through the meadow. Luke thoroughly enjoyed being allowed to roam off the lead and his recall was outstanding compared to his usual glance and wander off in the opposite direction - he actually came to me when i called him!! YAY! :oD


As you can see, portaloos were provided for our lavatorial pleasure (as well as everyone that just came for the party of course!) and very welcome they were indeed! It really does make all the difference having clean looked-after toilets when you're camping. There were 13 of us brave souls there until Monday with about 20-odd other campers who arrived either Friday or Saturday and left on Sunday.

Here we have a shot of the beer mountain that took about an hour to build with many different designs being tried and tested beforehand! I've never seen people arguing over what shape makes the best beer mountain before and i hope to never again ::lol::

Home from Stanford Hall

What a lovely weekend :o)
Very calm and peaceful, no manic rushing around or alcohol fuelled shenanigans, just very pleasant with nice company to boot :o)
An uneventful journey, a pleasant afternoon/evening camping and cooking and eating chillis! Wrapping in blankets to keep out the cold and trekking across the field for the loo!
An uneventful journey to the show, then we pulled into the carpark and whose van did we see but Ben's! YAY! We love Ben :o)
It was very nearly an uneventful show too but Becky bought a bug!! YAY! She'd never have done it if it weren't for the whip round though, but i am now the proud part owner of a '66 beetle ;o)
It's a really nice show, LOTS of vehicles and a proper concours competition. Unfortunately Andy lost out this time to the man he beat at Stansted and came 4th out of seven in category 3. Never mind, it's Dubs @ the Park next weekend, i'm sure he'll be defending his title very keenly :oD
It sounds like it was a really boring weekend with nothing happening and why did we drive for 3 hours yesterday to go and do nothing? But we didn't really do nothing, just nothing really exciting! It was special in it's own calm and chilled out way, with no manic alcohol consummmption, no need to stay up until 5am and plenty of good company, a weekend i'd like to repeat :o)
The journey home was exciting, we got lost for a while, then made our way back to the M1 and pootled home, left Andy and Amanda at the M25 to head in the opposite direction and pootled round the M25.
THEN! Something exciting happened!! We were about to overtake someone when a white van pulled alongside us and wouldn't get out the way, then when we both looked round there was Alex and SJ waving manically at us from his works van! It was a very surreal moment, i'm guessing he'd been to work and was heading home, maybe? So that was it, he drove along our convoy and waved manically at the others then sped off on his merry way :oD
So, we're home after a pleasant but uneventful weekend and looking forward to Bracknell next weekend and getting lost on the housing estate (again) :oD
Happy Bank Holiday Monday everyone :o)

THREEEEEEEEEE MOOOOOOOOORE

SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPS!!
I'm so excitied!!
Visit here to see just WHY!! :oD

Here kittykittykitty!

stansted33-pussy

So, there we were, just sitting round the fire, chilling and chatting and drinking tea ;o) when we were joined by the cutest little tabby cat. Luckily Lukey was asleep on the sofa with me and had the blanket over his head. Honestly, it was quite surreal! She was so friendly, after she'd made love to Amanda and me she threw herself at the boys and despite Rojjie and Andy both saying they didn't like cats they seemed to enjoy the experience! Rojjie was heard to shout "if you get off my throat i'll stroke you" after she made her way up from his lap and sat on his face! *LOL*
Unfortunately Lukey woke up when he heard the commotion, spied the cat and started stressing, so as unfair as it may seem i decided it was past his bedtime (which it was anyway) and put him to bed in the van. I love my dog, but when he starts getting stressed out it stresses me out too because i worry about him and what he might do :o(
I also like some "me" time when we are away and if i'm not worrying about other dogs (or cats!) coming into our camp then life is a bit more chilled :o)
We reckon she must be the caretakers cat, she was very at home in the field and around strangers and she had a collar on too so she wasn't a stray. Amanda left her car door open all night in the vain hope that she could lure the cat in to her car and take her home ;o)

Sunday morning and i was up at 8am after being awake off and on for what felt like hours and was probably 3, i popped to the loo, took Lukey out for his morning constitutional then settled in for more crochet while i waited for everyone else to wake up! Luckily i didn't have to wait too long ;o)
Once we were all up and tidied away and had decided not to bother with breakfast we headed off to find a pub for some lunch, which turned out to be not too far away and was bloody goooooorgeous! Roast beef with all the trimmings thankyouverymuch, proper fresh veg too and a non-frozen yorkiepud! Homemade puddings too! YUM!
I really enjoy our little camping trips, and i've made so many good friends over the last year too, it's GREAT!

WINNER WINNER WINNER!

stansted23-andytrophy

BUT! Deidre won best Type 1 *YAY* Cue lots of loud clapping and a few "YAY"s *lol* and much back slapping, hugging and spilling of beer!
Other winners were:
Best ratlook was a back to metal but very shiney split
Best type 2 was the lime green bay on spinners
Best in show was the lemon lowered split that was followed down the M11 and parked opposite but got no photos of *lol*
Best club went to Splitterz
People's Choice was a blue buggy
And then it gets a bit vague cos i wasn't playing proper attention!
A yellow corrado won something, as did a burgundy Karmann Kab and a blue new beetle, and that is possibly it ;o)
More wandering ensued, then it was back to the vehicles to decide on the plan of action for the night. My idea to move closer to the toilets was met with enthusiastic agreement from Amanda so we headed over and set up the BBQ with lots of mentions of setting up their tent and not much action!

Lukey@Stansted

Lukey@Stansted

Well! What a beautiful weekend it's been!
There were a few minor hitches on Saturday morning, Andy being over an hour late for our rendevous at Lakeside services being one of them and Roj forgetting the postcode of our destination being another :o(
Andy had Punto trouble, then he had traffic trouble but he eventually made it, and i used my phone to go online for the postcode so we set off for the show at Mountfitchet Maths and computing college. It was a nice drive up there, the roads were free flowing and the sun was shiiiining! It started to go wrong again though when we got to Mountfitchet. We'd been advised to take a different route to avoid some temporary traffic lights and a diversion... unfortunately the traffic people had obviously anticipated that people would attempt this and had closed that road too! Back on the main road, we made it through the lights, followed the diversion and found the college, to be waved on by an air-cadet. Now, i would have thought that if we were meant to be going IN A GATE that they would have indicated in the general direction of the gate and not waved as if to carry on down the road... unfortunately NOT! So another three point turn was executed and we headed back up to the entrance and paid our fees. "where do we park for camping?" we asked, "no idea" was the reply, "ask at a show stand, they might know" hmmmmmmmmm! So we parked up in the general parking bit with the idea of moving to camp when the show was finished :o)
We're smart, we are :o)
The show itself is small, only a handful of trade stands and a couple of people selling their "swapmeet" type stuff but despite that it was a fab day. There was quite a large club presence, and lots of lovely dubs to ogle which is always a good thing at a VW show :oD
After a wander round and some shopping by the boys we headed back to the bus for our picnic and a nice glass of Pimms :oD
While we were eating, a man came over to have a look at Andy's bug, Deidre, and he was very impressed. "Is that an original locking gearshift?" to which the answer was "yes" and he almost jumped up and down *lol* It turns out he was judging the cars for the awards to be given out later in the day and Deidre was a strong contender!!
After a bit of crochet while the others wandered off to chat to various people i wandered over to join them and luckily enough it coincided with a trip to the bar and the drawing of the raffle - guess how much we won between the four of us? Absolutely bugger all! Just our blummin luck! *lol*

Brighton's Breeeeeeezy!

So, we're back from Brighton and our small part in "Brighton Breeze" and i have to say the overall results are a little disappointing.
Firstly, we pre-paid (£32) to join the cruise and park up on Madiera Drive and when we got there we were actually parked past Madiera Drive where the lorries park up!
Yes, it's great that the event is SO popular, but surely if the organisers know that 450 people have pre-paid they would ensure that those people who are "cruising" down from Hook would have space to park and not to have to shove them down the end? There were a LOT of people who by-passed the cruise from Hook and went straight to Brighton and also a lot of people who paid on the day and they all got put on the main strip ahead of people arriving from the cruise. Whining, yes, i know i am but i feel justified.
Secondly, the cruise itself... i don't know exactly how many people left from Hook but i would guess it was more than 100 so you'd think that 100 VW's cruising down the M23 would make an impressive sight? Think again! There were no more than six or seven VW's in a cruise at any one time probably due to the fact that those who have taken part before knew they wouldn't get parked on Madiera Drive if they dawdled... a shame really as now we know what to expect we shan't be cruising down from Hook next year, we'll go straight there and maybe meet up with friends on the way and have our own cruise
So, the cruise itself was disappointing but the day was great. Caught up with some of the lovely people we have met this year, the weather stayed dry if a little windy - OK, so it was a lot windy but it's the seaside, it's always windy! Lukey had a whale of a time seeing all his friends, everyone loves Lukey and luckily as long as the person loving him isn't a dog he loves them back! We ummmed and ahhhed about camping, my head was banging and the weather was taking a turn for the worse and Bloke was feeling disappointed about the parking thing and we just felt generally blah about the whole thing really. More or less everyone had driven off by about six so we drove down the front to where some friends were parked and chatted to them for a while and they talked us into camping, which as it turned out was fun and we ended up camped in the traders and marshalls bit, lots of lovely tarmac, no getting stuck in any mud for us!

Still here!

Just forgetting to blog again!
Right, what's been happening? Well, last week i dashed off to help the neice out with her move into her new flat only to be told she was going out with her friend. Nice. So i did the same and went to the pub with friends, oh, and my Dad came too! It was a great evening, lots of fun was had by all and i do believe i may have been a little bit tipsy *VBG*
Saturday came and Neice and i had another row via phone calls and text messages - the upshot being that nobody ever helps her and she is alone. I wonder why that is. Perhaps it's because when people do help her and make 100 mile round trips to visit her she is unappreciative and then says things like that. I have said "no more" i will not go running down there next time she says she needs me to. If she thinks she is alone, i think it is time to let her see what that actually means. As the old cliche goes - time to stand on your own two feet girl!
So, Saturday afternoon, back home with Bloke for a BBQ in aid of his Sis-in-Law's birthday round their house. It was lovely, the kids were all well behaved, the food was very tasty and the company was very pleasant indeed. The only thing that spoiled it was football on the t.v. in the garden *lol*
Sunday... oh yes! Sunday we went to the Hop Farm at Paddock Wood. It used to be the Whitbread hop farm, i went there when i was 11! I didn't recognise any of it though *lol*
We were there for a VW show, only three of met up for the cruise, the rest of the club made their excuses. We were cruise leaders, mainly because we had the satnav and although the van seems to have a huge dislike for hills or anything remotely sloping in an upwards direction we made it there in good time. The show itself was quite big, lots of "autojumble" and a very nice lady selling her homemade beaded jewellery. I bought myself a spirally bangle with a dangly pendant thing to match it and a black beaded kilt pin to fasten up my cardis and wraps and schtuff like that. I'm going to e-mail her and find out what other shows she will be at as i would like to get "someone" a gift

Then we are on to Monday and that lovely rain, my garden really needed it so i am always grateful for rain in the summer. Mind you, it was sunny for a week, surely that's our summer over?