New clothes

We bought a couple of presents for Lily in the vast shop at the Park yesterday. She loves her new Paralympics t-shirt.

At the Paralympics

We failed to get tickets for anything at the Olympics, but Kims friend who runs a Guide group had managed to get a load of tickets for the Paralympics. Jenny is  quite amazing at her ability to get hold of cool things. Train ride there and back and entrance for £10! We watched the Wheelchair Basketball at the North Greenwich Arena, Team BG ladies were playing amongst others. It was quite a spectacle to see them bashing and crashing and hurtling up and down the court. The icing on the cake was the free tickets a couple gave us to walk round the Olympic Park later in the afternoon. It was a long day but I'm glad we finally made it there.

Lunchtime

Walking back to collect some kit from the van during an install this slug reminded me it was time to hunt out some food!

The big clearup

August bank holiday is Reading Festival time, the great unwashed descend on the town for several days and create havoc! Each year I manage to avoid the place and the only signs of it are the AA signs. This lucky chap was removing several miles of them from the routes in from the M4 today.

Supercar Showdown

I know we only went in March, but we were back at Beaulieu today. Ours friends Phil & Fiona were heading down as there was a Supercar display and they hadn't been for years. We tagged along for the ride. It obviously hasn't changed in the few months since our last visit, but there were dozens of supercars lined up and it was a chance to catch up with some good friends. We queued for ages for the monorail, but timed it to perfection. As we trundled over the road an F50 was returning from its run up the road. A different viewpoint on a rare car

Swapping roles

We decided to have a BBQ for a couple of friends yesterday. Normally the men are to be found gathered round the coals speaking in hushed tones about meat. But as the BTCC and MotoGP were on at the same time the ladies were on meat flipping duties while the bloke drank beer!

A practical classic

The Camper has proved very versatile this week. It took me to a weekend show and gave me somewhere to kip each night. Its transported us around the place on trips. It picked up and carried home Lilys new Little Tikes car and today it took my MTB in the back so I could cycle home from Danny Foxs. Its in there to have the engine dropped out to hopefully get to the bottom of the oil leak and burning issues. Danny reckons its either piston rings or the barrels and pistons themselves. So expect several hundred pounds worth of bill soon!

Woop, woop. Its the sound of da Police

Kim has been on eBay again following a trip to Kids'n'Action and Lily getting excited driving a Little Tikes car around the place. Normally about £60, Kim picked this up for half that and PC Lily has been scooting round the garden, sirens wailing for the rest of the afternoon.

Feeding time

Animals can be scary things for toddlers. Lily is that keen on dogs when they get close up but is happy to watch from afar so a farm park is the perfect place to get her close up to some new animals. Wellington Country Park has a petting farm at the end of it and we spent an hour wandering round meeting all the animals. Donkeys, pigs, sheep, loads of chickens and some goats. She wasn't happy feeding them, but would load up Kims hand with feed for her to do it whilst she watched.

Trip to London

We've been meaning to go to the London Aquarium for ages and finally had some time to do so. Letting the train take the strain we ended up on the South Bank with a sleeping Lily in her buggy. Luckily the Olympic mascot displays are still around. There are several tours around areas of London with painted Wenlocks and Mandevilles lining the route. This one was Underwater Wenlock, stood opposite the Houses of Parliament and right outside the Aquarium itself.

The magic roundabout

Day two of our family week off and we heading into town for some shopping, mainly for new shoes for Lily, as we walked up Broad St Lily caught sight of the roundabout with cars and bikes on it and exclaimed "I try!" She took some convinving to put the seat belt on and I had to ride the first go kneeling alongside, but she stayed there for a second run and loved it. Not sure about the 12 exhaust pipes sticking out the bonnet of a V8 though!

Blue skies

After a busy weekend away the first day of my week off started overcast. But soon enough the sun burst through and Lily and I spent a couple of hours in the garden playing.

Trip up the hill

Normally I am happy to stand around and watch the other RRers hurtle up the hill climb track. The camper makes a great hauler and bed, but a rubbish hillclimber. This year I took the safety briefing and was tagged with a  wristband that enabled me to get passenger rides. The only thing to do was to blag a ride in something cool. A chance meeting with Seth and a chat to Frankenhealey, the owner of this monster V8 Healey that kicks out around 440hp!!!!!! lead to a possible chance of a ride. Sadly somebody else had been promised the last ride of the day, but if they didn't appear it was mine. I grabbed a hoody from the Camper so I had covered arms and headed back to the paddock. As I arrived the shark fronted classic was a couple of cars from the start line with an empty seat. I didn't need to be asked twice. It was amazing. The noise, the heat, the speed.

Saturday night at the bar

Normally at the Gathering we sit around the cars and drink what ever has been brought along. This year we decided to hike up the field and onto the site to Prescotts clubhouse for a cold one while looking out over the rolling countryside. This bunch of loons is the "bottom of the field under Steves gazebo gang"

Chilling at the Gathering

Its the weekend of the Retro Rides Gathering, a three day show of chilled camping, drinking, eating, talking twaddle and cars. Friday is set up day, with loads of people arriving and camps forming. Somebody has usually bought something amazing and automotive for everyone to gaze at. But all we had was Pollitts Oldsmobile. Stand to close and you'd need  a tetnus jab!

Cool model

I do like a nice cutaway model. Its normally travel agents windows that have massive models of planes in them, but this was tucked away in the reception of todays customer.

Warning

I do like a dramatic warning sign. An theres nothing more dramatic than four of them squashed together on a door!

Hard day, cold pint

After a long and pretty rubbish day at work there is no better way to unwind than with a nice cold pint!

Proper toy cars

There are loads of super shiny Hotwheels cars around, vast engines sticking out and chrome everywhere. Back in my day it was the same and so it was with much delight that I spotted a pair of funky 70s Matchbox cars for sale yesterday. The chap only wanted a £1 each so I nabbed them. They needed a clean up before being handed over to Lily.

A trip to the seaside

We decided to head to the coast today as Beach Buggin, the VW show was being held on Southsea Common. As well as loads of nice Dubs, some cracking company and fish & chips there is the added bonus of several sightings of the Isle of Wight Hovercraft bombing back and forth across the Solent all day.

Summer chores

I had already ruined a perfectly good saturday morning by having to go into work to finish off some paperwork from last weeks job and prep for next weeks work so I decided to really spoil things and cut the grass in the middle of the day!

Bouncy bounce

Kim picked up a bargain little trampoline earlier in the week and Lily has been in love with it ever since. I got a picture of her sent to me as she jumped on it at breakfast time in PJs and wellies! When I got home tonight it was party dress and sandles!

Oast House

Another night away from home, another hotel. At least this one looks a bit different being based in the design of an old Oast House.

Frustrating work

Health & Safety, the bane of many a building site workers life. We have a few days work on a site in Derby to do and it required an induction at 8:30am followed by donning full PPE, hat, boots, hi-viz, glasses and gloves. You may think its some incredibly dangerous place, but no. Its a primary school. All building work is pretty much complete and some of the classrooms could hold lessons as they are finished. Blanket H&S rules do nothing but slow down the work to a snails pace. We got done in a full day what should have taken an hour or two such was the redtape we had to cut through and the people we had to consult before lifting a tool. Have you ever tried to wire up a plug in over 30°c heat with a hardhat and gloves on, sweat running down your face and lenses steaming up!

Derelict

Our site today was next door to what the locals call "the biggest pigeon loft in town" An abandoned church in the city centre. Boarded up several years ago, the grade II listed building was once a big part of the local community before being sold to developers who now can't afford to do anything with the land.

Ironic sponsors

There are many companies that are the "official ......" of the Olympics, but the most ironic two are McDonalds and Coke. Are Team GB really munching Big Macs and downing pints of soft drinks in the build up?

Gymkhana

A bit of a first for me today. We decided to take part in the Hants & Berks Motorclubs Gymkhana. A cheap and cheerful entrance into the world of motorsport, next stop F1! Its basically an untimed event where you have to travel round a series of tests designed to score your ability to manoeuvre your car through gates and get as close as possible to various points. For a first go I managed an average 65 penalty points in the morning session, by the afternoon I had got into it and dropped that to just 15. The winner scored -3 as he was able to park on the cone and throw hoops over stakes.....he was also half my age!

Chalking it up

After a morning at the local green fair we came home for a well earned rest, laying on the sofa watching yet more Olympics before heading into the garden for a play. Lily was let loose with some chalk on the patio and I created a patriotic slab as well as an air-cooled masterpiece.

Olympic lights

A bit of a cheat here. On the spur of the moment late on Thursday, we made are way up to Windsor. With Eton Dorney and the rowing not far away they were celebrating the achievements both past and present with a massive slide show. Projected onto the three towers of the Lower Ward of the castle it didn't start until almost 10pm. We bundled a sleepy Lily into the car and drove up to the rowing lakes for a look round before parking in the town and joining the hundreds of revellers as the show began. The images filled the tower walls and changed every few seconds for about 10 minutes before repeating. Having watched it for a while we slowly headed home, rolling into bed not long before midnight.

 

Few days late

We never managed to get Olympics tickets, despite bidding for loads in a couple of the rounds nothing came our way. I was a bit disappointed as it would have been great to get to a venue and say we had been there when the greatest sporting event came to London. I've been trying to make up for it by watching as much as I can on TV and popping by some of the sites before or after the events. Today I was in Surrey and was close enough to drive part of the route used by the various road cycling.

Welsh Olympics

A trip to the capital of Wales shows that its not just London thats getting into the Olympic spirit.Outside City Hall in Cardiff I spotted this massive set of rings. We escaped the city just before it was locked down for the football at the Millennium Stadium.