Sad day in the world of photography

For a few weeks now, my trusty Canon 400D that I got as a 30th birthday present has been throwing up an error message. "Err99" is a vague message covering all sorts of potential problems. Mine seem to centre around the built in flash and using lenses at full zoom. The shutter is the most likely source of the problem as it was rated for 40-50000 operations and mine has gone past 100000 now. It looks like I shall be camera shopping soon

Racing Sevens

A real last minute trip out today. My brother managed to blag some free tickets to the Caterham Finals at Rockingham. The track isn't the greatest being a vast slightly soulless oval track with an infield. Viewing is limited to a couple of corners up close or the overview from the grandstands, but it was sunny and it was an unexpected motorsport hit.

I Spy with my little eye

At bedtime we read some stories to Lily, she tends to pick some books out and we settling in. Tonight she nabbed a book she got for her birthday off the desk in the study. I Spy - Classic Cars. Whilst flicking through we spied the 1960s Amphicar which, by studying the photo and seeing a car and water, Lily named "boatcar"!

Birthday girl

Two years has flown by. Lily has gone from a tiny bundle of joy in an operating theatre to a walking, talking learning machine thats into  everything. We had a little party at home for her as the weather wasn't going to be good. She loved her new Little Tikes house, so much so infact she spent almost an hour inside after breakfast and returned several times dragging anyone who was nearby with her.

Little park with added toys

At the start of the month we cleared an area in the corner of the garden ready for a little bark play area for Lily. Fast forward and her birthday is tomorrow so the Little Tiles house we bought her needs building and setting up. I decided to take a day off work to do this and tidy up. The weather had other ideas and its been lashing it down since last night. Undeterred I put my work boots and a coat on and ventured outside. An hour of heaving plastic panels about and slotting things together and its finished. I hope she likes it and gets hours of fun just mucking about in the garden.

Party girl

We're in the party season right now. Lily and all her NCT toddler friends are about to be two, so for several weekends we have been off to parties. Its a good excuse for somebody to dress up.

Kop Hill Climb

First run in 1910 and stopped due to an accident in 1925. Kop Hill was revived as a hill climb for demo runs in 2009. I've never managed to get to it until this year. Hundreds of cars and bikes from all eras along with a Spitfire entertained the crowds. This 4½ Blower Bentley sounded glorious and looked amazing as it powered up the hill.

More running in

Another weekend and another 100 miles put on the camper engine. This time Kim came with us and we also picked up her work colleague Steve. We headed down to the end of the Watercress Line and worked our way up finishing up in Alton for a cuppa with our friend Alan and ending the day at Lasham to watch the gliders. This was at Medstead and Fourmarks Station as a pair of steam trains passed by.

Running in

Having had a bottom end rebuild of the engine, the Camper now needs a 500 mile running in period. Basically a load of longish journeys to bed it all in before being tuned again. With Kim having some craft things to be getting on with and the fact I'm due to be away most of next week I decided that my co-pilot Lily and me needed to go on a daddy & daughter roadtrip somewhere. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the tank was full so we headed West down the A303 from Basingstoke to Popham airfield. They were having an Auster fly in so we were able to park up next to the grass strip and watch the planes land. We even got to walk around the planes and see the helicopter come and go. Lily loved it and spent as long watching planes as she did driving the Camper. When it came time for lunch it was a picnic out the side of the sliding door as the craft landed 50m away. With a slow drive home I managed to rack up 100 miles today. 400 to go now!

Windsor Concours

I've been to far too many classic car shows to count them all, but I've never been to a Concours show. Its basically a super posh do with very rare cars laid out in nice surroundings with a few people wandering round them. This is a 1938 Bentley Pourtout Coupe, its the only one of its kind. The lady in front is my gorgeous wife, also one of a kind as she accompanied me to the Windsor Concours of Elegance at the Castle to mark the Queens Jubilee. It was amazing.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

 

Very late Christmas presents

Our old next door neighbour Carole, who we still keep in contact with. Is a fan of the daytrip as a gift idea, so stealing it from her we decided for Christmas last year to take her to Highclere Castle, the place where Downton Abbey is filmed. She is a big fan of the series and was very excited by the prospect. Fast forward nearly eight months and we finally had a dry (to start with) free day to go. I use to look after the security system in a former life and have been all over the building, but it was interesting to go back having watched a few snippets of the TV program to see the set.