MW45 ...REPORT.....
#1
Posted 04 April 2004 - 06:13 PM
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.
#2
Posted 04 April 2004 - 07:01 PM
#3
Posted 04 April 2004 - 10:09 PM
sunday
the rest will be up loaded to the site laters, (when we have unpacked the car lol)
Clair,Dave, then , Nicloa & Nick and michelle,
Attached Files
#4
Posted 05 April 2004 - 06:25 AM
#5
Posted 05 April 2004 - 08:02 AM
http://public.fotki....world_show_2004
i have lots of plans now, looks like i want a new "money pit" soon..
who was there when the canopy on that stand nearly blew away? hehe
#6
Posted 05 April 2004 - 02:36 PM
#7
Posted 05 April 2004 - 05:26 PM
friday morning we got up and rushed around trying to get some new rechargeable batterys for are camara ready for the MINI 45 show , we finaly got some and then relised that they needed 7 hours chargeing! :saywhat: so we then set are selfs a new mishion of finding a charger that will go in the car because we wanted to leave in about 2 hours time, anyways we found one and it cost us a bomb! :sick:
we rushed home feed all the pets and packed the car up, that was the hard part, took us around 1hr to pack it in bit by bit, anyways the car was now packed(my clio that is, the mini is off the road at the mo), the clio was backed up to the roof and we couldnt get no more in even if we wanted.
we set off around 11.30 ish friday,
remembering we have never met anyone ever before (not even nick who we both run the site with) we wasnt sure what to make if it all. but haven nick mobile number we kept in contact via text, (still never spoken to each other) i was too chick to ring him, so texts it was,
we got all the way down to the M25 down by the toll bridge, we had a text off nick saying hes about 1hr away from the site, so i thort cool we will be there at the same time.....
well we finaly found the site after missing a couple turning(it was a burger of a road to find, not signed very well) so anyways we got there for about 2.30 ish in the after noon,
pulling onto the camp site i seen this mad man jumping around waveing his arms right at the bottom of this field (it was DAVEnCLAIRE), they was on his own (as in there was NO other tents around????) i thort it was a camp site and they was filling up quickly...(so the man on the phone said) so anyways michelle was driven so i said that must be them, so we pulled up next to there tent only to find they have been there for about 2 hours, all unpacked, lol, :grin: we said hello like you do and broke the ice with a nice bottle of BUD, (cheers dave)the wind was strong and we then but up are tent, put in the inners for the tent, but down are ground sheet, then added are carpet! the are tables and chairs came out, all the food was layed out in the tent, then the best of all, the solour lights came out and placed out side are tent door lol
dave was laughing his ass off, at us,
heres the sit with 2 of us there
anyways 2 hours went by and i sudnly thort wheres nick!!!
so i rang him up, bit nervuse because i had never spoke to him before, but is misses answerd nic, and we then found out that they was major lost :grin: :grin: :grin:
between me and dave we got them too the site around 2 hours later,by the time he was all set up, we all sat down again and just chated for a bit, was cold due to the wind hammering thro the tents, so we moved the cars around to try and protect the tents and us.
it was around 6 by now and we realy thort that we was the only was comeing,
so michelle the clever one pulls out a letter that cowboys wife sent us when she got her stickers for the car, and she had nicley added her mobile number, so i rang it, she was very very very shocked to hear from us and it turned out they wasnt far away,
so we got the bbq going that dave had, the only thing was we never had any fire lighters for it, only cole, so we dug out as much cardboard as we could and then coverd it in derodient and set it alight., it didnt work, just caused a massive fire ball LOL :grin: think we both lost are hairs on are hands lol we ended up useing very small bit of wood to start it and also and throw ways BBQ we had all chucked in there, it went a,d finaly we had warmth,
by now cowboy wasnt here just yet and as if his ears was burning he rang up"where lost" he says lmao, so we managed to get him in too.
he arived as the sun was just going down, he set up his tent and we then eaten all the food, emmmm, was very nice.
we all then sat around chating and haven a drink, didnt no where jules was, then as if on que he heard a HORN, we was all up and looking around and there she was, pering around the corner with the spots on,
the only mini that made it down lol,(sad aint it) but next time we will have more minis we hope.
we all set them up and sat them down and got them haven a drink with us all, by now there was 6 tents and 11 of us, and it was starting to look up,hear a sort of group pic.
Still cold but we had the drink to warn us, well joe (JL Dockety) must had been well cold, because he had so much beer he near on passed out,
with in 5 min he want from ok to f**ked lmao
first min
second min the hat was off
third min, couldnt see
and 2 mins after that he couldnt stand and was out of it.
:grin: :grin:
and that sort of killed the night off then, so we put him to bed 3 times!!!
as he kept colapsing his tent trying to stand up in it, lol
as you can see, you cant stand in that tent lol, we even peged him in, didnt work, after he had finished doing what he was doing (other members who went all no lol) he was picked up and told by me" we can do it the easy way or the hard way", he chose the hard way :grin: , so so we all got a leg and arm, and in his tent he went!, he didnt come out after that, and we all went to bed. "Night john boy, any one got any rubbers,try it like this, get off me" unless you was there you will not under stand just how funny those words are, but thats to be kept with us, (if you wanted to no you should have been there) :nugget: :tongue:
didnt sleep much because it was fricken cold... we had each other a doble quelt, 3 blankets and still kept waken up due to the cold and wind, it started to rain about 5 in the moning .
that was friday, :grin:
we all got up after i shouted out to all tents WAKE UP lol, at 8.00 in the morning, most was awake already as sleep was very little,
they all started comeing out and ramping up, as it was that misty rain, and everthing was wet, (and the grass :grin: ) and we all went for a drive around on the grass, baz (cowboy) (( buzz )) in his rear wheel granda was loven it lol, dave was power slideing his saxo vts, my clio 172 was doing all sorts, and nick in his clio 1.2 16v was just skiding around left then right and he was LOL, was funny,we finished up break fast and headed off, and getting lost a couple times and driven around and about, as you seen in cowboys report we finly got there about 1hr 30 min later lol,
we follow rich in jules mini, hears a cople pic's of us on the way to the show saturday morning...
We all rolled in and there wasnt that many mini's parked up, well we all went in as a group, and due to numebrs we all spilt up into smaller groups,
i ended up going around with nick and nic, dave and clair and my michelle.
we had a right laugh, looked all over the show cars the stalles and everthing else. there wasnt much at the show well not much for 2 days anyways.
hears a pic of us going out side ready to watch the stund driven.
thats me then dave, clair, nic, and nick.
michelle took 90% of the photos over the hole show, i was on the dital camcorder.
After watching what can be done with a new mini exept from craping, we then watched a bit of mini raceing, then back inside to warm back up.
we carryed on looking around, and we shot off around 3 ish, went off to get some more BBQ cole some lighter fluid and some food for tea that nite,
we followed dave and clair back in there saxo, we in are clio. had a laugh driven back on the raods. well we got back only to find are tent zip open at the bottom, and we looked around and all the tents was pushed open at the bottoms expect daves tent, we opened up are tent to find the frezzer bag with lots of teeth marks in it, the bread rappers all over the place the plastic cheese rappers everywhereand the butter opened and half gone!!!
i looked closer and there was a paw print in there!, me and dave both thort it was a fox print, and it went in all tents after food, (as the day before we did see a fox legging it across the field in day light) but due to the fact we was the only ones with food out side in are seating area we got hit the worst.
when the farmer came down to cloect the money for camping we said about the fox or what we thort and showd him the print in the butter.
The laughed and said "its ya thats my little jack russes" HIS dog!!!!!
so that cleard that all up,
anyways we was going to get the BBQ going out side again but because of the weather we figerd that it would be better to have it in daves tent, so we all cramed in there, just as the BBQ was ready for use, the other turned up, just in time,
we all sat in there and dave doing the cooking and Joe doing the prepering useing the herbs and spices, because i was stuffed i never tryed any but i heard that it was spot on,
we finished the BBQ and closed up doors put lights on and braced are self's. we had a copule more drinks and just chated about the future plans for the site and things like that, (super ted and super man etc)lol
CARRYED ON LATER IN PART 2!
#8
Posted 05 April 2004 - 06:41 PM
Then we started off to London!!! hour or so later Rich asked me for the name of the campsite, were it was and were was the route planner!! Noooo I forgot it , all my bits of paper with marks number and the guy for the campsite number still left at the house!!! Who were we going to call, by this time it was half 4, couldn't turn around because then we would be reall late!! We stopped off at the services to see if they would have Internet access, but no luck, then I had a brain wave to call my mother, get her on the net and serch for the phone numbers. Believe me, this was quite difficult, it was a step by step procedure of what to click eventually got the farmer guys number and the address of the campsite!! got to the M25 and the farmer guy must have been drunk or something because he took us the long way round!!! by now it was dark bout 8ish and driving over those bloody speed bumps with my poor mini scraping on the floor
We then got to what looked like the campsite it was hard to tell, so we beeped the horn, then all we saw was flashing torches waving at us, by this time some people had already had a few drinks, then mark mentioned food, nooo I forgot the food to but thought hay we could go buy some now, then I remembered I forgot the gas even tho I remembered the stove :erm: plus I forgot to bring any equpiment to cook it in, the most important of all we had forgotten our alcohol!!!! :sad: But Terri came to the rescue with outta date breezers but they were good stuff Then after having a laugh at joe and at one point I think I heard a mallet being mentioned to knock him out!!!! :wink: we then went to bed, except the air bed, (or what was it Nicola, the inflateable matress ) had gone flat so freezing cold on the bumpy ground wasn't much fun so not much sleep, then woken up at a ridiclous hour by mark at 7.30 ( just when it started to get warm!! ) had bacon baps and a nice cuppa tea in the rain. It rained on my mini after all that cleaning!! Knew I should have brought the big tent to park her under
Then we decided to go on a tour of London courtesy of Buzz, (thank you buzz ) eventually getting to MW45 a hour an half later!!!
The mini show was good some really nice minis there that gave me some ideas of what to do with mine, even tho I didn't buy anything, (well I wouldn't have had room anyway in the mini) but it wasn't as big as I expected. Then we watched Ross Swift do his impressive stunts. Rich then gave some money to chartiy so he could go out with Mr. Swift, he opted to go in the EVO because he didn't want to go in the BMW mini (I dont blame him ) were he disappeared in a big cloud of smoke from so many doughnuts!! but he enjoyed himself!!! :grin: then went on the Go-Karts, which I didn't trust myself in so I just watched, plus couldn't really afford £10 for 10 minutes either!!
Then watched this cheesy show about the mini history, the story line was good but the dancing and happy clappy was :sick: !!!
Then followed buzz back to the campsite, stopping in a pub and store to grab some food!!
When we got the others were already there sheltering under DAVEnCLAIRE tent, by then it was already raining and getting quite windy, but it wasn't to bad because we had a feast, it tasted so good with Joes cooking!!!
Then sat around in the tent, doing impression of superman :wink: like you do DAVE!!!!! The wind really stared picking up but we were all quite cosy in the tent!!
Then back in my tent was a different story everything was soaking went from the wind blowing the inside to the outside and then the flappy thing at the front went it was horrible and couldn't sleep. Rich went out to peg the tent down, he just got back in when we heard Mark shouting, his tent had blown and knocked all his shelves and food every where, it was at this point he decided to take down their tent, but the wind was so strong we decided to take them all down and sleep in the car!!! Good idea except we lost the frigging mini keys and couldn't get in.
We turned the whole tent upside down and they were no where looked outside no where, then half hour later, absolutley drenched we found them in a box in the tent!!!
By then we were all wet and covered in mud, so drove to the nearest travel lodge. Being freezing cold and couldn't warm up thought it would be a good idea to have a hot shower, no it was freezing cold!! which made me even colder, guess they turn the hot water off at half 3 in the morning! :nugget:
By the time we had woken up in the morning and packed our stuff in the car the others had already left for the show again, but we decided to go back home.
But all in all it was a good weekend, especially for our first ever meet. It was definately team buliding. We all had a laugh and it was nice meeting you all, nice to see you all the flesh instead of hiding behind screens!!!
Hope that our next meet more members will come along for our team buliding exercises, because it is good fun!!! Just watch out for mark and his camera!!! :wink:
#9
Posted 05 April 2004 - 08:23 PM
we then had a look round went to a show upstairs and got the tent pitched in the already cramped site. and had a play on my m8s cb radio pick up a couple of people at the camp site and some loonie on drugs. also had some french guys trying to sell me wine for a fiver.
i then walked in to russ swift and nearly knocked him flying b4 watchin him an hour l8r.
went carting on the saturday was well worth a tenner!!!
got rather rained on on the sat night as i forgot my coat(stupid) but had a laugh in the tent. got a few pics but my digital camer doesnt wana play with the computyer so i will get um up asap inc vids.
finally set off for grimsby at 3pm after buying loadsa bits! got on the M25 and went the wrong way all the way to junction 8 b4 going back north. we then took a detore after missing the turning on the M1 and ended up passing santa pod when crossing over to the A1.
the yet another wrong turnign toook us through granthem b4 finally getting home and stright to the mini club meeeting for 8pm absolutly shattered.
shame didnt see anmy1, it was my fault for the lack of organsiation and the mad rush at the end but over all was a good weekend if not a little expensive.
o and 1 last thing the hire car was a right laugh, rich got changing gear without the clutch dialed and the poor thing probably needs a new set of break pads but was the biggest laugh iv had in years!
hope every1 else had a good time- flappyplasticbits(tim) madmax(james wynn) and rich
#10
Posted 05 April 2004 - 08:40 PM
PART 2 :grin:
any ways carry on with the story,
joe got *Drunk or yellow human water* again, and had to be put to bed again. because he couldnt stand,
anyways just after we put joe to bed and we all went are self. sort of put a damper on the nite.
well by now the wind was F***ing strong and the tents was taken a battering, it was about 11.00 when we went bed, it was so strong we was finding it hard to walk against it!
barry(cowboy) and terri (his better half) slept in there car, and the rest of us was in tents, we had about 1hr's sleep, when about 1.00am came and we had a massive crash in our tent, it was our table that was in the middle of the tent being blown over and everthing on it going everywhere!
i just said sod it and roled over again, then the tent was over and it folded in Half, i shouted o f**k, dave said whats up, i said TENT DOWN, he shouted across you ok i said no, then by the time i got some clothes on they was all out in the rain and F***ing strong winds trying to hold the tent back in place, the guid line was so wet it wouldnt grip, so the tent kept caven in, dave managed to get another gide line onto it to hold our tent up a bit better,
we had a quick check and found are tent poles all snaped and broken into two!
that was it, everyone up, we need to get our tent down now, thats everything out and tent down,
by this time daves massive tent (as you can see at the top in the pic), that was going too, he moved his car down and tied the tent to the car!
even that didnt hold his ,and then crack, his tent pole snaped into 2!
all hands on, we had all car lights on tourches out and all 11 of us on one tent, we got ours down just, it wasnt easy in the wind and dark and rain,
i looked up to see things flying in the air, massive signs,!
i had to warn nick because one was very close to him and if it hit, it would have done damege big time!.
next we had to get the smaller tents down, as they was being riped out due to the mud being so soft and ropes not holding! so one by one we just colasped them and ramed them in the cars.
then jules lost her car keys for her mini so we couldnt do her tent.... we was all coverd in C**p mud wet and cold, being tired didnt even come into it, the wind was so strong, terri (cowboys better half) was saying the car was rocking so much they didnt sleep, looking at it, you could see where the car had moved in the wind! ! ! !
we all finshed getting the tents down and cars packet best we could at 3 in the morning ish,
and we needed sleep so we drove for 20 min down the road to the M25 and stoped off in the travel lodge, barry and jl dockerty and terri went off on the way home back to wales, stright off.
we just needed sleep.
£50 pounds a night! we got there at 3.30am and we had to be out by 12.00, what a con!
well we all payed as they would only do any more than 2 to a room, £50 each couple and went to bed.
it was well nice to be in the warm dry and in a bed.
We woke up at 9 and we was ready to roll by 9.30 ish.we tryed find out what room jules and rich was in as they wasnt up.
We later heard the winds we came across that night was somewhere around force 12 (no wounder everything was ripped to bits lol)
this lady wouldnt tell us what room they was in, so i took her pic lmao
so we went and repacked the cars in the car pack correctly ready for the road again, we had a look around for a bit trying to kill time hopeing jules and rich was up, we even tryed using the internet in the services to put a post up on the site, but nick broke it lol, :grin:
anyways we took some pic's as you can see....
we left there at 10.45 am, jules was no where to be seen we left her a message on a bit of paper saying what we have done and a map etc... and off we went back to mini 45 lol. We later got a call from Jules at 11.45 am saything that they hadnt long been up and that they were going straight home.
and im so glad we did go to the show again, it was tops, double the amount there, i had one last look around met up with freda at mid day, got my bumpers for my car and then mad off around 3 to home,
was a great weekend loved it, very tired though,and muddy,
The tent all dry now and can be repaired,
A big thank you to all that help that nite, and to those that camped with us, you made it a good meet, cheers,
BUT the next one will be bigger and better, trust me,
see you all there,
mark!
p.s i will have more memory on my camara next time so be warned! lol
#11
Posted 05 April 2004 - 09:42 PM
Seriously this was a TOP weekend!! and im over the moon that everybody was sooo friendly, and this really made it for me. Considering we had never met before. SO THANKS
The next one should be a laff. BE THERE :tongue:
#12
Posted 05 April 2004 - 09:48 PM
Thanks for a brilliant weekend guys, it was lovely meetin you all and I cant wait to do it again in August, :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:
And I hope we get a nicer team building exercise next time :grin: :grin: :grin:
#13
Posted 06 April 2004 - 08:07 AM
The day started off well, I got up on time and drove to pick my mate in Hatfield. Here we waited on a bridge above the motorway for a small convoy of driver’s form the A’s of Herts Mini Club (Photos to follow). The plan was that they would ring us when they got to Hatfield and we would catch up with them. After waiting there for a bit we got a call and a mini drove under the bridge, we jumped in the car and started our pursuit. They were apparently going 60mph and after 20 mins of doing 75-80 I was wondering why I hadn’t caught them up. We gave them a ring and got directions just in case we couldn't catch them.
After travelling the whole journey and not catching them I was a little puzzled but soon forgot about it as we pulled into the car park and parked amongst the most minis in one place id ever seen (Sweet!).
We went into Sandown and met up with the A’s of Herts guys and between us soon realised why I hadn’t caught them up.
We were following the wrong mini!!!!!!
They had phoned us when they were coming up to Hatfield and it just happened that when they did we saw another mini which flashed us about half a mile infront of them???? What are the chances of that?
We all had a good laugh about it. (If I had caught up with the other mini ive no idea where we would have ended up!)
As for the show, it was the first mini show id been to, I expected it to be bigger but still really enjoyed it, Russ Swift was ace.
I saw somewhere on the forum that someone suggested meeting on Sunday midday near the MiniWorld stand, well I was there??? Didn’t see you guys. Ah well.
I had 12 flyers with me that I gave out (Outside car park on Sunday), hope they worked!
It sounded like you guys had a great time, Ill have to sort out camping at the next meet.
#14
Posted 06 April 2004 - 08:23 AM
#15
Posted 06 April 2004 - 08:24 AM
Next time Ill have to camp with you guys, look like you had a great time!
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