Dog shows and Camping.

Back in July we had our first camping trip together at Netley Marsh steam Show, which is only a few miles from us. We picked Netley Marsh to camp as Tracey and the dogs were taking part in the Agility display there with K9 K-os. The party consisted of Tracey, Stephanie, Jayde, Tyson, Bruno and myself. We had it all worked out. pitch the tent on the Thursday evening. Come back in 2 cars on the Friday. One consisting of the dogs, the other car carrying everything else.
So to start. We pitched the tent, as the instructions directed. Opened the door to the tent with the 2 zippers put the gazebo in there ready for the next day. Then closed the tent, at which point one of the zippers decided to come apart :(. 45 minutes later we were still unable to fix the zipper and decided that when we returned the following day we would bring some Velcro and needle and thread to at least give it some feeling of security.
So Thursday night it starts to rain (what a surprise)., and continues right through to Friday morning when we return to the site to continue the process of setting up camp. We arrive at the gate just past 08:00 as planned, only to be turned away for an hour and a half. Breakfast at McDonald's then, and back we go.

We were sent to wait in the main arena while arrangements were being made to move us to our camping area, this was by no means a quick turnaround. So after a couple of hours we decided to walk the equipment up to the tent and get ourselves set up for the coming weekend.
Well things got no better through Friday although we did manage to get one of the cars towed up to the camping area. We were joined by 3 other members of the team for Friday night, but, as we could not get the trailer with all the equipment in to the site, there was no display.
Saturday saw little change in the weather and still no equipment so still no display. 1 team member camping changed for another one. and that was the highlight of that day. Rain continued throughout the day and by 17:00 the show had decided to cancel. We stayed in the tent again for that night and Sunday got up bright and early to start packing all the equipment away. Tracey took the dogs on down to my car, which had remained in the main arena throughout the weekend, and managed to get out relatively quickly. Me, on the other hand, had volunteered to drive Tracey's car out from the top field. well after queuing for about 3 hours I finally got her car moving. Oh what great fun it was rally driving her car off the site. But ....what a mess was made.







Stephanie and Jayde sat in the tent

Getting Older

You only realise you're getting older when you start looking at your kids. It was my sons Prom the other week and to see him dressed up the way he was and looking so respectable was a shock. We tried for days to hire a Limo to take him and his friends there but, even though we were calling 3 months in advance, there was not one available. So Dad here comes up with this bright idea. We'll hire a car to take them. Good idea you may think, but, when you hire one car, and then get given a different car you can start to foresee problems arising. Truth be told we arranged to hire a Chrysler 300c, you know, the Bentley look alike, as we figured that no one else would think of going in one. Unfortunately though the hire company had stopped doing them and we had to be satisfied with a Mercedes E200 series. Luckily the lads thought it was great. With the added advantage that they got to be picked up in it as well as dropped off. Which their parents thought was great.!