Sunday - (again) one of the awards handed out was a baseball cap. It was emblazoned 'ASBO Jim' and awarded for first known motorcycling ASBO. The gentleman in question was extremely proud of both his award and his ASBO.
ASBOs - not just for kids any more, yer' dad's got one as well!
posted by zedley 3:32 PM[edit]
IoW Over The Edge - Sunday
Dawn broke with an excessively loud bang, but I managed to get back to sleep. I do remember dreaming about driving a car, but because I was still drunk IRL, I was driving drunk in the dream-car. Odd eh?
Stumbled out of bed later on to the sounds of K&E cooking eggs & toast. they have a portable camping toaster-iser. What? Who would think of such a thing, let alone buy one!
Today's plan was to wisit the vax-verks in (some dreadful eastern bit of the island). Wendy Woo got a fone call from one of the Steves, so she & Mark headed off for a zoom. Poor M's R1 hadn't really had much of a chance to stretch it's legs since leaving MK, so playing with the sports bike boys would prolly do it good.
I felt I should get some food, so took me book an' the excessively loud XS into Brighstone, to the tea-shoppe place that was so nice to us last year. Sadly, the 'awwright me mate' attitude seemed to have been replaced with a 'ahaha giss yer muney tourist scum' air, as a simple (but tasty) cooked breakfast ran out at £6.50!
M&W & the Steves hadn't made it ver' far, as they were piled into one corner. Not being overly in the mood for conversation, I found a table outside in the freshness. M later said I looked so far out of it, sat at the table, that he nearly cried for me. That's a true friend, one who will do your crying when you're too monged to do it y'self!
K&E ambled up (using some form of primtive transport I understand is called "Shanks' pony"?), just as the breakfast began to arrive, somewhat piecemeal. they seemed to interpret the mumbling noises as conversation, so that was OK. A communication from Tory via the mystical word device confirmed The Dewellers in the Shalets had arisen & were in imminent danger of being nearly ready to consider departure. M&W set off to circumnavigate the Island at warp factor 8.7, so I bade farewell to K&E an set off back to site.
TM had a new fangled get-lost-much-better box, but good ol' Bill had local knowledge. A right, a left, a small stream of cars and suddenly both these forms of navigation were put to the test simultaneously; Tory & ever'one else testing the Bill directions; me, TM&T blindly obeying the magic-speaking-map-device.
Although it appeared to be an offical "ride your pushbike on the road & bring the island's traffic to a halt" day, we made a bit of progress. Some lovely roads, some boring roads, pretty willages & stupid signposts later ('give way to traffic on your right' - WTF? ever'where else has perfectly reasonable roundabouts, but out here on the East of the Island you're all fucking slack jawed yokels?) we arrived at the place, just as the sun came out. No sign of anyone else, so we had tea & cake at the Carousel Cafe. 1st class Victoria Sponge, home made, perfectly moist, filled with clotted cream 'n jam & dusted with fine sugar.
Tart Mart was working on his 2nd coffee by the time ever'one else arrived, cursing us for having 'overtaken all the traffic, not pulled over to wait and gone zoooming on so far ahead we couldn't even be seen. We pointed out that they had gone on straight on when we (initally) went left, & so they were in front of us. How had we arrived in time for cake? Magic, just a happenstance of magic.
N&C decided they were unbreakfasted, so ordered scoff from the Cafe, Christian's soup turning out to be a particularly fine garlic & bacon concoction. A plan was hatched to race round the museum at top speed & then back to the soup-a-rama.
Some handy negotitaion at the till by I think Nicky, secured us all a discount of a pound off, and storing our lids & jackets in reception. N revealed her phobia of wax-works. Phew, just in time there. Not like we'd ridden halfway across the island or anything.
Museum was entertaining, freaky - one headed three eyed four legged lamb, terrifiying - the wax-work of Diana Princess of Thing, smelly - Jebus left behind his own exhibit of the Fart Of Doom, Staircase of Hell, awful - torture chamber, and had interesting room of steam engines, steam road-rollers, traction engines, sports cars & etcs.
Exit through ye gifte shoppe (after Theresa had put a penny in the mashing machine), & round to ticket office - locked. Oh yes, that was a possibility owing to shortage of staffs. Ah well, round to the Carousel. Soup sadly changed to Mulligatawny - ick. A table for all was procured, tastefully next to the bogs & beneath the looming presence of skewered horses. Somewhat disturbing after the torture chamber.
All fed & watered, I ordered another slice of the Sponge cake. This turned out to be a mistake, as it did not sit well with the bacon baguette I'd just eaten. We headed back to site, along a much, much shorted path than the one we'd taken, coming back through Chale Green. I waved ever'one passed me, and stopped in at the gallybagger to see my friend Pauline. Stood an chatted to her for ages, until the rain began.
Got to the tent, which was looking decidely lonely. Ever'one else had packed up! Fortranately I spotted Jebus, & remembered that the Steves were leaving a day early. Their chalet had been been taken over, in the manner of hermit crabs. Had a quick wander round, but decided I'd rather stick to my little green home, than pack it all up in the rain.
Chair, cider & torch in hand, Tory & I headed for the marquee. The 1st band had been doing their 1st set during our usual faffing, and had been sounding rather better than expected. A rock and blues type thing, but with more on the rock than layin' down de blues.
The primary number of the secondary set was a pretty good redition of 'She caught the katy'. The foolish words 'see? a good band' had no sooner left my mouth than they cranked up 'mustang sally'. Gah. Should be against the law I say.
Having trotted out such tripe, they did get better, although N professed to have heard them in her chalet & hated them. Ah such is muscial life.
Stan & Wendy Woo sold a barrel load of raffle tickeys. The Man got up on stage & began to hand out trophies, and the plaques that should have been on last years ones. This meant Ken going back on stage to collect his for Pole Dancing, Christian for Long Distance (he rode from Chermany last year) & WW for her Pole Dancing. STM proudly annouced that 'anything you get told off for at the /other rally/, you get a trophy for here!' and gave one out to the Ogri, for pole dancing a table to death. Apparently it took 21 of them, hefty buggers all, using the pole implanted in the table, in order to finally break it.
2nd band were awful rubbish. Made my way to the other end of the marquee to chat to Tiger Sue & her posse. At one point her, Paul & CW's boyf were clustered round a (particularly fiendish looking) digital camera like the monkeys round the obelisk in 2001. With similar noises, jabberings, pokings and 'ooks' of surprise when anything happened. ChrissyWissy apparently made it her mission to sneak into ever'one elses photos with a comedy grin all weekend, but this was made much harder in this case. The baboon/camera entertainment carried on for a while, until Paul's tall friend got the thing to do something, while we all did a 'stacked starfish' of glad-hands an comedy grins.
Back at the SPC base by the mixing desk, the lead singer from Camouflage and his lady appeared, leaning against a main support pole. He was quietly singing along, and giving them a look of amazement & disdain combined. All the songs that he had threatened us with last night, these people were singing for true! Camouflage - "if you bastards don't make some noise, it'll be the Bay City Rollers for you, I'm warning you!" (Awful Band - Bay City Rollers) "do you really want Delilah, you sad bastards? do you?" (AB - dreadful version of Delilah: he didn't know half the words - ever'one else in the room did) "you miserable so and so's! we know WigWamBam, and we're not afraid to use it! (AB - WWB).
I did ask him if he was paying this band in order to make Camouflage look good; he didn't deny it.
The band got worse & the storm outside got worse, until "Summer of '69" was dragged out. Unable to take such aural treatment twice in one weekend, I went off to bed.
Minor point - while lesser tents were blown to smithereens, my dreadfully expensive tent proved itself once again and stood firm. Two guy ropes, and it was steady as a rock.
posted by zedley 12:50 PM[edit]
Over the Edge Saturday.
Morning dawned bright(ish), early & far too loudly, courtesy of Esther's Posse of Old Farts, who had gathered outside her & Ken's tent for a gab. Eventually ever'one sucuumbed to the noise & got up to sit round 'n mumble away at each other. The creatures from the chalets arose & ambled over as well.
I decided to head into Newport for petrol & cash, declaring I would be back by 11. Sadly the XS had other plans: started 2nd kick, began to turn round on the grass and she declared a no-go. Lots of helpful advice from bystanders failed to arouse her, so I fetched my tool kit & sent for Jebus. Main fuse was popping repeatedly when the engine was turned over. Slowly we stripped the entire bike - tank off, coil exploded (bloody stupid Boyer crimp terminal that don't crimp grrr), left casing off. After the blood and swearing had abated slightly, we popped the headlight. To find: one blue bullet connector pulled apart. Reconnected, taped up & re-assembled the bike - broooom brooom noises followed.
By now it was half 11, so V promised to buy me breakfast on-site. Poring over 'Wight Life' produced little enuthiasm for any of island's delights, except V's demands to 'Pick A Pearl'. 'Pick A Pearl' 'Pick A Pearl' 'Pick A Pearl''Pick A Pearl''pckapral''pap''pp'. So she & I set off into the Wild Green Wilds of Wight.
IoW Pearl sancutary turned out to be literally round the corner - I can remember Sam & I & Zoidberg's Missus walking to the back of it in 2004. But we didn't know what it was then. Basically a big shop selling pearl jewellery, with a copy of Diana's famous seed pearl dress and some other things.
We wandered round the display cases for a bit, 'oohing' and 'ahhing' - occasionally 'eeking' at the prices - till we got to the Pick a Pearl stand. We had plenty of time to admire the lovely hand-painted undersea scenes on the walls & up the ceilings, with a slightly tacky waterfall & pool for the oysters. V asked the tattooed biker lad for some advice on which oyster to pick & he (gently) suggested one of those on the waterfall thing. Prising it open revealed a lovely pink pearl, which he gave a valuation of at least £43. V was well chuffed as there is a fixed fee of £14.99 for each oyster, regardless of the value of the pearl inside.
I bought some nice blue-ish pearl studs for Emma & we began the long trek back to site. Once there, a general consensus was established to do nuffink, and carefully. Wishing for a taste of the high-life, I took a blast into Newport. Found a nice little goth shop with some black lipstick, a handy buy-one-get-one free on skirts in the Oxfam shop, a cheep snake-skin print top, some pink stockings in Purple Dreams & a hand-bag for Tory - black patent with 'Babe' picked out in studding. Back to site to meet ever'one drying off from the pool, then away to Morrisons in Newport with Mark, J&V, M&T, N&C. Agreed to meet T,W, K&E in the Three Bishops pub when we got back, as they assured us the service there way better than last time.
Coming back was a bit fraught & ver' slow, owing to the amount of glass bottle in my top box. A stop to stuff grass in as packing revealed one of Tart Mart's newkies had given up under the pressure and the bouncing :-(.
Service had improved at the 3 Bish, but the food had gone downhil. My pie wasn't bad, but the fish was almost completely tasteless. Cake was too expensive to contemplate. Back to site, quick change into stockings etc., grabbed me big bottle of cider, torch & new chair & into the marquee.
don't really remember the 1st band. Stan did an ace quick change number with a piss-take of each different country. Confused the german by ever'one doing a 'Dam Busters' impression. The rally virgins got up on stage, but the carefully planned 'Time-Warp' went a-gley, leaving Stan to lead them in some improvised dancing.
A long line for the burger van provided some entertainment, and the chance to tell the bunch of cappouchino drinking wierdos behind me in the queue what I thought of their girly woofta drink. It seems I told ever'one else what I thought of people who drank such rubbish as well.
The most excellent Camouflage came on & began by abusing me. He asked if we were ready to sing, & I replied we didn't want to. So I was sent off back to my tent. But I did sneak back, quietly, to the front of the stage. As quietly as a man in black lipstick & pink stockings ever can. Their sets were as excellent as ever, really getting the crowd going. A spiffing night, not particularly marred by my spat with the ol' digtal camera.
By 3am myself, TigerSue, Paul & his well dressed dress-wearing friend were sitting around the marquee discussing the Norfolk Gliding Club & other such improbabillities. TS spied the lead singer from Camou sitting in a curious attitude on a nearby bench.
"he looks quite morose, poor man"; TS was quite pleased with 'morose' as an adjective at 3am.
"i'll see your morose, and raise you 'despondent'"; if we were playing word games, I didn't want to fold on the 1st round. Paul upped the ante with 'depressed'. I believe 'dismayed' was thrown into the pot. Finally, the hand was called, and so was the singer.
"how're you feeling?"
"fucking knackered" came the reply, which did the same to our betting. The follow up of "too bloody old" did not improve the situation, and the party broke up in disarray.
And so to bed.
posted by zedley 12:37 PM[edit]
Cake 'n Beer 'n Rock 'n Roll - IoW Over The Edge Apr. 2006
Long time no post!
Lots of work to get the XS ready in time, including clutch swap the night before. Tried to take as little as possible, but settled for airbed & pump rather than mats. Not sure if thats a good idea. Esp. as airbed is now fucked cos it fell off the bike :-(
Friday 10am - meet at Tart Marts. Except I was at petrol station & then went back for me back-support girdle and shemagh. Tart not quite ready. Jebus & Nessa already there. Waited for Nicky & Christian, then Mark T arrvied. TM stuffed his tank mounted panniers on an we was ready!
Apparently Tory 'Skidmark' & Wendy Woo had made it there OK thursday but Tory suffered a major pannier/tyre/new pants incident on the Military Road. The IoW council are after going to fine her for messing up the only bit of smooth tarmac on the island. Was a totally impressive skid mark tho!
Zooming (relativily speaking) along the A34, Nicky came passed & indicated petrol & turned into the handy services. More-or-less (Didcot roundabout lies & directs you into a business park). All filled up with go, the scoff options were MacDoofus, or a nice resturant style place, offering main meals for £4.99. Bargain! Charged in, re-arranged the furniture to get 8 peeps at round table, ordered food from nice trainee girl who was a secret tattooed rocker / biker & abused t'bogs.
Grub was 1st class all round. TM & Theresa both had gammon steaks, of which there was soo much Mart took some with him to eat in chalet later. Dessert was one of the best chocolate fudge type cakes I ever had in a commercial establishment. Finger lickingtastic.
Adjusted TM & Christian's clutches & set off, only for mine to come detached futher down the road, leading to an exciting layby pull-over.
Down to S'ton & onto the bus (ever'one - "what bus?" me - "the water bus. what we have tickets to"). No time for gassing & admiring the view, load up the ferry! Text conv with my friend Pauline - "I'm at the rally" "which rally" "the gallybagger" "doh!, that's not helpful"
Brief stop for more go & admiring teeny expensive yellow car with 600cc turbo engine at petrol station just outside Cowes. Oops with my bag of oranges off the back of the bike (an omen, it seemed). Zoooooom across the island, beep at the 'bagger, on to control. Confronted by nice man Bill demanding his PiL ticket, which I, like, didn't know I was meant to bring. He did suggest I should be more aggressive when confronted by people I didn't know demanding stuff, but I said the Polis had recommended otherwise. Got badge & tings from Stan's gorgeous wife of 1 year (almost exactly), Jane. Looking lovely in dark hair & dress thing.
Big hugs for all, Tory, Esther & Ken, & Wendy Woo. Set up tents (or chalets for N & C + TM & T) & into Brighstone willage shoppe for beer & stuff. Except Mark & his Stealth R1 of Doom, wheelieing handily past the turning & Off Into The Wild Blue Oblivion. (found his way back by cunning use of mobey).
Found seats in the marquee near the front with Tiger Sue's friend Paul (no Leslie) & his tall friend. TS turned up in hot-pink tights with tribal-style tiger prints on! Perfect for her :-). Chrissy Wissy and her boyf also there, I think someone had botoxed the smile onto his face, as it was there all weekend.
1st band were a tad nervous. "does anyone here like motorbikes?" "no you twat we all came by space-hopper!". As TS said, instinctive crowd reaction to silly questions - outright denial. Some cool outfits around, the Hairy Groovers were mostly being Elvis or Evel Kneivel. Few dresses and things. Scary looking nun too! I got a few pics. TS pointed out that it didn't matter how much make-up, false boobs, wigs or skimpy/flowery dresses were being worn, as long at they had their combat boots on, they were still bikers. At least in their own minds :-). Of course, it is not much fun to wear stilletoes in the mud all weekend either.
1st band not bad, but lead singer got flatter and flatter over the set until it was painful. eventually they fecked off. Stan got up for a bit & then Peartree Bridge Family came on. Not much that can be said about them, except it was damn good to see Rob up & singing again. Good fun set. Drinking an dancing followed.
And so to bed.
(or somebody's bed, for some. But no naming here ;-) )
posted by zedley 1:11 PM[edit]
Since I can't edit these posts, I'll just bung a new one in - think of it as going in the middle of saturday morning, post breakfast...
Me & Mart, sat by the tents, enjoying the sunshine. A Tiger goes past on one of the moped mayhem 'peds, blonde hair & leather waistcoat flapping in the breeze, happily making 'brmmmm' noises to herself. Class.
posted by zedley 11:28 AM[edit]
Tiger MCC Soggy Moggy 12-14th (Ish) September 03
Packed most of my stuff Thursday night, after Pete's funeral. Got home from work & loaded up, waited to Mart. P. Who arrived in due course, and we departed in fine style with Marts horrifically noisy VF750 & my XS650 with the XS Martin two-into-one motad / harris / wot no baffles special. Petrol & cash then off to M1 J13. I had a complete hoot tearing past the home-ward bound traffic, well bent for trevor, rattling windows & not having to look behind or slow down; I just knew the VF was behind. Partly through the noise it makes & partly cos I know Mart.
We stopped at the pet food place just past J13, who were closed despite the open sign, but the lady served us anyway. After some confusion, we told her what we wanted & she agreed to sell us a 15kg bag of dog food, after we had utterly assured her it was possible to carry such a thing on a motoybike. She then gave us two bags of eukanoba free, which went nicely on the VF. A bit of rebungee-ing later, the big bag was on the XS and the other with Mart, wedging him in completely.
A gentle bimble later, we arrived on site, paid & parked up. Got the tents up (Mart's new airbed pump thing didn't work well, & my campbed is a nightmare to put up in the dark, esp. with Mart waving the torch at his rollies & not where I needed it!). We made friends with the Crooked Rook's next door with an impromptu striptease and a 'waggly bum dance' by request.
Headed off for food & beer. Got some excellent beef & noodles from the chineses stall; fresh cooked in front of you & I got a fair bit of beef in mine. Sat in the chilling out tent to eat & chat to Annie, Tony, Heidi & Heidi's bra.
Most of the rest of friday is kind of haaazy... We got some newkie & old rosie cider an headed into the marquee where we met up with the cambridge lot; Tiger Sue, Leoni & Chrissy & some of their bloaks. And some other people. And listen to Camoflage, who were'nt bad, really. I think. I do remember Mart coming back with some sherbert dips, which caused hours of fun. Sue's friends who she hadn't seen for years (late note; Griz & Laura) we're ver' impressed, esp. Laura who was ver' ver' rude with it, and me laff a lot. Until I had to go outside & be sick, in fact. Which is not so easy with someone taking pictures. Hmph. I think I upset a Renegade cos I was laffing so much while he was trying to talk to me. Ah well. Laura eventually found the sherbert stall & shared hers with me :-) There was some trouble with my mobile fone, & someone (later confessed to be Sue) commenting that I was 'completely wankered': which got a followup (from Leo?) that 'he's always wankered'. I feel that's bit harsh, but prolly not overly. I have a recollection of telling people that I was too tired to keep my eyes open & too drunk to close them, a situation J describes as 'having your own private merry-go-round' LOL. I used my inhaler at some point, but I was convinced I had put in back into my side pouch. Apparently not...
Ahah, I have just uncovered a pic of Big Pete & his Rally Dethmix of vodka, tequila & I forgot what else. That prolly didn't help the evening. Sue's assertion that Chrissy was fairly wankered also appear to be borne out by the evidence. And a pic of Debbie, from satuday, when she was slightly less pissed than she was friday night; when she was /shitfaced/. There are a couple of pics of Roz looking a bit worse for wear too.
It was unfeasibly bright out when I went to bed and unfeasibly cold later on. Brr.
Saturday arrvied in due course, bright n sunny. So I got up, posted to Bikersweb & went for breakfast. Which I shared with a nice lady from Naaritch called Sarah & Big Pete. Then sat in the sunshine for a bit with Mart & said 'allo to bloak on a chop who I met at the Pissed Indian but have 0 clue what his name is - I had said 'allo on friday night but then got distracted by beer. He did say it was a bit quieter without Gaynor hehe that'll teech him! Afterwards I headed into Huntingdon tescos, via a fone call to Chuffy to confirm 1) his attendance at the condom + b) the location of said tescos. Which I've not been to before but wanted a tescos in case they had the zoider I like. which they didn't, gits. It was really nice to ride out on me XS with just a t-shirt & some lovely sunshine, through some nice bits of countryside & Ye Olde Englishe Godmanchester. Forgot Mart's filters so stopped at the 7-11 in Godmanchester - really nice bit of the river there on the bend, y'can't see it on the way past! In a bit of a rush cos I had some ice-creams in the pannier.
Found Mart & Big Pete and gave them each a Magnum, then went n sat with Naaritch Sarah to watch the silly games. Good fun, esp. the Chicken Chokers MCC & their bloak in a complete chicken suit (as Tiger Sue says, who has room for an 8ft chicken suit in their luggage?? sleeping bag? check. kip mat? check. bog roll? check. 8ft chicken suit? check. !!!?? it's not like you can sleep in it or on it or even under it!) who got ever'where; the sack race, the sled race (complete with flappy wings for extra speed, sadly to no avail in the final heat) the moped mayhem. He had to wear protective gear under it for most of the events which looked ver' hot. Griz & Laura got got in the rally virgins, in true Tiger MCC style. One last touch, after the goo & ick & cling film, was that Tony The Tiger's widow brought an urn out; 'in accordance with Tony's last wishes, he would like to be sprinkled on the field at the Soggy Moggy'. This gave some of the virgins a bit of a fright! But the urn was filled with teeny squares of paper :-) and what I think was more flour. Funny but slightly creepy.
I had a look for my inhaler & checked with control & had an annoucement over the tannoy but no luck. I did find Ezri & her friend who'd had a crap time getting down from Manchester! They sat & watched the rest of the games with us (Mart, T Sue, Nick & random other peeps) before going off to locate another Bikersweb person who was on a 'chickkle stand', with no luck as I understand. I had a brief chat with Jane, ex-of the Pissed n Confused MCC, who said Elaine might arrive later, provided she hadn't broken down or lost interest, & that most of the Iceni MCC had gone back to Mersea Island. This reminded me I'd promised Elaine some mint choc., so about 17:00ish I went back to the 7-11, which was an ace excuse for another blast. On the way out I met Elaine, while I was saying 'allo Mart blarbed past on his way out for a blat.
Wandering around I also found Gaynor, a friend of Jenners who'd been the Pissed Indian.
When we'd both got back, we had a bit of a kip till about 20:00; about then a pack of men ran round the camp-site, dressed in shorts, running shirts, black curly wigs & huuge mustaches and wearing '118' runners numbers. Strange but fun. This woke me, so I woke Mart, packed some zoider, put on the t'rara Tiger Sue bought me from her local shop, a flashing magnetic earring Mart bought (blue for me & red for him), shouldered the 15kg bag of dawg food & headed off to control. In the marquee I found Elaine & Jane so I gave them the After Eights, then ambled over to the Cambridge lot, where I also found Ezri.
The t'rara attracted a few smiles & is an excellent way of separting those with a sense of humour from those without - it's a t'rara monkey boy, not an 'I like turkish prisons' tattoo! The blues band that were on (stop it stop it we don't want any more bleedin blues) eventually buggered off, and gave way to...we could hardly believe it... the f-in Peartree Bridge Fambly. Who, shockingly, had learnt a few new songs! Wonders will never cease.
Poor Gaynor had a bit of a bad night; she started off dressed as a tree, with purple camo on her face as there was an elephant pretending to be a blackberry bush hiding in her tree. I told her off for chucking a drinks bottle into the crowd & hitting one of Chrissy's exs & made her sit. She then bit me on the leg, harder than she meant to (she was pissed) & as I grabbed her head to pull her off I poked her in the eye. She wandered off & the next time I saw her she was covered in blood & bandages; seems one of her ex's (who 'is a reely good maate, we get on reeely well') had pulled a knife and stabbed her in the hand.
Ezri located GSXboy & his girlie (who had also been having breakfast at the same table as me LOL) and they came an sat with us GSXboy's girlie leaned over at one point and grabbed my t'rara, only to be shocked that it was plastic! Leo kindly agreed to lend me her FJ to run back to MK & pickup my nebulizer.
By about midnight the marquee had started to empty, Ezri & her mate had gone to bed, Mart had gone to boogie & Peartree Fridge laid into 'whole lotta rosie'. My breathing was getting worse, so I said goodbye to ever'one I could find then went to pack my tent & load the bike by torchlight & moonlight.
The ride home was fun, esp. well at least the bit between Wood Green & Papworth Everard, a long straight bit of road that avoid being Belgian by having a load of hills in it! Ran up to about 80 zooom hehe. Reminded me of countless flims with a motoycycle and the open road by night, just trees + the white line going past. The bit between Papworth & the main road isn't really fun under a ton, so just bimbled along, plus my neck was starting to ache, so had to keep under 60 on the way back. Got home about 2.30 am
I got a text from Tiger Sue on sunday to say my inhaler had been found & handed to control, so I got Mart to pick it up & bring it back. He had had a ver' good night & enjoyed himself imensely.
posted by zedley 4:45 AM[edit]
Renegade MCC Pissed Indian
15th August 2003
I was already down in (it's not Margate as much as that leaps to mind) Maidstone staying with a good friend of mine. I won two tickets from Bikersweb on Thursday & they arranged to have them on the gate. I didn't know anyone else who was going except Jenner, so I sent her a text & had her collect the tickets in my name, as she was getting there earlier.
Friday morning my friend and I went to see some beautiful stained glass in a tiny church & stoppped for a pub lunch. "stained glass" does not even begin to hint at this windows.
Maidstone is an awful place, full of oneway systems, traffic lights & ludicrus lane changes. Got there, got my ticket from Jenner & followed her back to where she was camped with some friends, in the flat bit behind the stalls. Set-up teeny one man tent borrowed from Jeff & Weeble.
1st thing, pop over to the Bikersweb stand to say hi & thank you to them, & hand over some jaffa cakes. Wandered around the site for a bit. A fair few stalls there, well layed out, and a huge big top thing. Met up with Jenner & her mate Gaynor over by the food stand.
Said hi to G & his girlie, & ran into Chrissy from Cambridge. Mostly we just sat around eating & drinking & chatting. I have no idea what the support band were like, they registered on me not one bit. Usual stuff I assume. I did buy an inflatable kip mat & a jumper from the army surplus people.
Eventually the Wurzels came on stage & I managed to get a place one row back from the front. They were, simply, bloody brilliant. They've spent a long, long time in the music business and they know how to work a crowd. There were people jumping up & down, bunches of sweaty people dancing in heaps. I didn't know most of the songs, except for 'zoider drinka' but they were good fun. The band finished the set & left the stage WITHOUT playing 'combine harvester' which led to much shouting & screaming. They came back & gave an excellent version of "don't look back in aaanger" and the accordian player dropped his trousers to expose his thong. Wild stuff.
They then left again! There was nearly a riot going on in the crowd by this point, so they came on stage once more and let loose the 'techno / dance' live re-mix of 'oi got a bran new combine arvester'. Fucking ace.
Went back outside & chatted to peeps for a bit, then danced with Chrissy for a while. To, as far as I recall 'the locomotion', amongst other things.
And so to bed.
The next morning I awoke to find a signed 'Never Mind the Bullocks' CD, by the Wurzels, which I faintly remembered buying. And talking to the lead singer for a bit. I am, indeed, a zoider drinka.
After breakfast, went into Maidstone & eventually found a bueruo de change in a travel agents, who ripped me off changing my euros back to £. Quick trip to insainsburys then half a bleedin' hour trying to get back to site. Eventually got one junction up on the motorway & came back that way.
Wandered around the stalls, got a price on some nice pointy new rock stilletos for my friend and found out she'd got them for nearly £40 less than the show price! And bought a huge tent.
Et some food & tied my basha to some things to get a bit of shade & read & slept for most of the afternoon. A wander around the site produced some photos, esp. of a nice neat long line of bikes.
posted by zedley 2:52 PM[edit]