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]