Arrived on Friday and was shown around the "Industrial estate" by the Farm manager for Hatton, a chap called Richard. He was most apologetic that the Rally (Sponge) Field was too wet to be used. It was completely sodden; you could see the water laying on the surface.
I went down to The Site and set-up and was shortly followed by "Kell", From then on people started to arrive thick and fast. Everyone seemed pleasantly surprised that the Industrial estate was not very “Industrial”. The units all seemed, with exception of one –
I must admit when I was there with the Farm manger there seemed to be more BMWs than you could shake a stick at.
As the evening progressed it naturally started to rain. We gathered under the awning on Pat Cobra’s van, Charley(ashbyspannerman), Pat, LT Mike and myself. Soon we scuttling backwards and forwards to our vans getting more supplies of Grog.
The rain bucketed down
More grog was consumed. All this time the rain snivelled down and the awning began to sag ominously.
“Have you got your support bar for the awning Pat?” asked LT and with that started to push to water off… Pat was standing exactly where the torrent would do the most good / damage and he ended up swamped – Not quite like Davy meant but just as effective.
The drinks became more bizarre; I decided to go to bed but by then Charlie was on White Port and Pat and LT had moved onto black Absinthe, rum, Jim Beam and Rainwater. They said it was most palatable…
The following morning a few more people came in. Driftwood, (Barry) just popped over to say hallo. He also brought his two Daschunds with him. He is a new Member and has a useful looking LDV. I get the impression that he has done one or two vans before but he is looking forward to having the extra space that the LDV will give him. I know that he’s been involved with the Street rod scene for a number of years
Bob Wild (zbobwild) appeared but Lorna showed more sense and decided to stay at home. Something along the lines of “warmer weather, no rain etc”
But this was the Saturday and the weather had cleared up. Although the wind had an edge to it the Sun was in the sky and that makes everything so much more enjoyable
LT’s boys had found some broken toy tractors and were trying to find out they would float in a small pond. Kieran, Pat and Wendy’s son, was directing operations and everyone was making a Book on how long before they went in. They didn’t so all bets were off.
Towards the evening The Kells, John and Julie produced a hissy gassy BBQy thingy, a Cadac being the term used by most. They had managed to beg, borrow or steal it from a friend or relative, I was not sure which. It turned out to be a Godsend. It produced all the food that we needed. John managed to find a chair that was just the right height and showed great enterprise in managing to produce all the BBQ food that we could possibly manage
In the meantime time the Coaly burny thingy had been coaxed into life and was beginning to produce heat as well as smoke. Charley had obviously put a lot of research and development into the device. And, all credit, it was very effective *
The wild Pikey dancing had to be cancelled due to Pat’s HiFi refusing to play dodgy CDs: So everyone had to make do with an impromptu display of Chechen dancing. This was led by LT and HB and they dedicated it to their Fraternal Palestinian brothers. Everyone so impressed by this masterly display that after only one minute there were cries of “Sit down you’re blocking the fire” “Get out of the light” Good grief “
The evening wore on and we had the most perfect weather conditions for the Lunar Eclipse. Everyone half-expected that the weather would suddenly cloud over but we had the most wonderful conditions. It was a terrific thing to see.
Normally when these sort of events happen there will always be some-one who will not be interested but, and this purely my own opinion, because the Self Bilder tends to be an inquisitive person by nature everyone took a keen interest in the event
The Westewoos had gone off into their van having dragged round Warwick Castle all day and at about 11.00pm Steve Westewoo came out. I said that we were on the verge of giving him a knock so that Donna and he didn’t miss it.
“Don’t worry” he said” We’ve been watching it on Sky” How kewl is that?
* Reports that the Blaenau Ffestiniog, the Bluebell Line and the Dorset and Somerset Railways are without coal and it is vicious lie. We shall not hesitate to issue Writs
