it was time to go, picking up JL doherty
in Guilford on the way. due to setting off late, joe was stood around for 30 min as traffic was terrable to go with being late.the ford granada was just about big enough for everything that we all braught along, mini still not being ready yet :sad:
after getting lost on the way, and a bit of physic power from "marksmini" who phoned us just as i was thinking we should have swapped mobile No's, we got to the full campsite!, no let me put that into the correct terminolaggy, the 3 tents, in a field big enough for 2 or 3 football pitches. the tents belonged to dave & clair, mark and michelle, Nick and NIchola, and no they didn't have their mini's either, so when i turned up with terri and Joe that made 4 and a half coulpes from a mini forum, without a mini in sight :sad:
Terri and I put up our tent, making the tents more into a horseshoe formation, continueing from where those before had started, and joe pulled out his tent (borrowed from a freind). Now i hadn't seen one of these tents for over 15 years, and didn't think anyone had one anymore, sadly none of us managed to get a picture, but i will try to do a picture which will show everyone just how old the tent was.
dave and Clair had the barby on the go and burgeres where passed around aswell as a few beers, at this point the weather was still good from the the day so we were all sat outside the tents on chairs chatting away. having a few beers talking about who else was coming camping, and wondering where Jules was as she was the only other one who hadn't turned up.
with non of us having her mobile No we were just hoping that she hadn't got lost like the rest of us had on the way to the site. when a horn sounded, we all looked at each other, that's a mini we all said, a few minutes later, a pair of headlights and spots appeared, close together, with a purring engine, very low to the ground, this could only be one car.
Jules had arrived with Rich, in the ONLY MINI TO BE THERE, 3 cheers for jules hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray, hip hip hurray. we all helped to get the tent up as it was getting dark by this time 9ish i think it was.
we all had a few more beers, not to many apart from joe, who braught out the tequilla and finished of the bottle he brought with him, thatand a few cans of stella, one minute he was sat upright the next eyes closed, followed by falling backwards into a semidrunkencoma, pictures of which mark has.
we all went to bed about 11.30, then up about 8, with the wind blowing hard, makinf breakfast of bacon sarnies and a brew, turned out to be more of a challange.
cooking the bacon was the easy bit, wind kept blowing out the second burner, so it took hours to boil the water for a brew, ( the most important part of the morning for some of us).
with breakfast out of the way, we all got into our cars, Mark & Michelle going with Nick and Nichola, and Dave leading the way, some bad roadsigns later we were back at the camp site. NOT DAVE'S fault. the way to the meeting was then left upto me, and a good job i was doing if i don't say so myself, only got lost twice. then i found out i was heading the wrong way, i was heading for epsom NOT sandown race course, who felt stupid(yes me)(thank you mark for pointing out that fact).
we did make it to sandown park at a resanable time of the morning, pleanty off flyiers for the site where handed out by everyone while there.
when we got there , we all more or less went our own ways around the stalls, Terri and I, me mostlly was checking the prices for all and anything that i might need to finish my mini.
we all meet up just before 1 to see the mini display by russ swift, which was a good display of mini driving, (ok he was using a spice girl mini(a wanabee)).
it was then back into the main hall to do some buying for me, Rich went down to have a go on the go karts, and the rest will prob tell you what they did soon.
i managed to get all plus some more for my mini, and i have now got to start doing some serious work on it.
Terri, Joe, Jules, Rich & I, watched the Sump display by one of the mini clubs, it was a tribute to the mini through the years from when it was first introduced until cease of production, i personally enjoyed it, it had a good rytham and told the story of the mini well.
by this time Mark, Nick, Dave, Michelle, Nicloa & Clair, had all seen enough for the day, and had headed of for food and then back to teh camp site.
Mark having trouble with the wind, naughty boy, accidentally put a dent in the door of Jules MINI. (how dare you) when the wind took hold of the door when he was opening it. (hopefully rich will be able to pop out the dent with out to many problems, for Jules).
The rest of us after having watched sump preform, headed back to the camp site, poping into a pub and the local supermarket on the way, for refreshments and something to cook on the barby, At which Joe exelled himself, with Dave cooking all the food for everyone, before having to much to drink again, and falling asleep, he was then put to bed again, this time Terri and I slept in the car because of the bad wind giving Joe our tent.
I was sleeping soundly until about 12.30 when Mark wake us up asking if we could give him a hand taking down his tent as the wind was getting the better of it. everyone then helped to take down all the tents, until about 2 in the morning when we all finally managed to get all the tents down. Terri, Joe and I headed back home while the rest went on to a travel lodge? the weather getting the best of us sadly.
hopefully the next meet will have better weather.
