Christmas / New Year Get Together
January 2009
I thought I would write a small review of our club new year / Christmas get together at Billing Aquadrome this January.
| I arrived at Billing at approximately
4.30 pm on the Saturday having only only had to stop once to fix a loose
connection in my front near side light. The hotel was welcoming after
driving up the M1 without the heater working and a draft coming through
the back window. I unloaded my gear for the off roading the next
day at Stourport and wheeled it into the hotel. Checking in I received a phone call from Mort telling me Sottie had major problems and blown a timing belt on the way up but he was still on his way, well that's dedication to the cause!! I checked in and then logged onto the forum to see who was about and to kill a bit of time before everyone else arrived. At about 6.30 I got the first call of the evening from Landymee telling me himself, EJparrot and Meisholly were in the bar. Having never met any of them I was a bit nervous about heading into the bar only to find all three of them offering me a warm welcome. We ordered our drinks and set to chatting and waiting for Sottie to arrive. Time and beer flowed quickly and in quantity respectively as is normal with land rover enthusiasts with lots of laughs and jokes around the table. At about 7.30 Sottie and Sarah arrived to a big cheer from the table. We had dinner and laughed our way to closing time, great company and great friends. Next day was off roading at Stourport and early start. Day 2: Met Sottie and Sarah for breakfast and had a coffee and chat before checking out and getting the off roader ready for the long trip to Stourport. We had arranged to meet with EJ, Holly and Landymee at junction 2 on the M6. Travelling at 50 miles an hour in the slow lane is painful enough but my heater fans decided to have a little protest so I had to drive with no heating. This was the first major trip since I built the off roader so was expecting a protest at any time, such is the way with projects and especially series 3 trucks. We arrived at junction 2 to find the guys and gals waiting for us. There is something about a landy convoy heading somewhere and we got a lot of looks as we rolled back onto the M6 heading for Stourport. I slipped in behind EJ with Sottie following in his volvo, with landyme at the back. Half way down the M6 I made my first clanger of the day...calling Sottie I said to him 'mate one of your lights is out best turn them off' only to get a reply 'its a volvo how do you think I will do that'....duh nice one lee... We rolled slowly down the M6 and onto the M42 pulling off at junction 2 services on the M42. Having been bounced around for a few hours in the off roader I was happy for the break, and EJ I think was also glad of the break in his series truck. Having returned from the services I heard a strange noise from my truck. upon investigation my heater fans had decided to come back on and so the cab was warm and ready for me to complete the journey, who says the gods of Landrover owners are not smiling on us. We arrived on site about 12 ish to be greeted by Dan, Mort and Ash who had already been on site a while and been enjoying things from the look of the mud on their trucks. We parked up and chatted for a while before signing in with SVL. Having not been on the site before myself and Sottie took a slow amble up the hill towards the high ground. We met Dan in his big 110 half way up the hill. I could not resist pushing past him in my old series 3 to jeers from Dan and his passenger. |