Techenders

I’ll just say it was a bit damp. Went off on Friday to Techenders but not quite as early as I’d have liked as I’d been at an old friends funeral. However went there to the crematorium all packed up and ready to roll. So left Westerleigh just outside if Bristol just after three and it had been raining non stop for the last couple of hours. I drove North towards Cirencester to pick up the Old Fosse Way which will take you right to the door of Techenders at Victoria Farm in Lutterworth. Nice steady run into Tetbury which is the perfect place to fill up with fuel at their local self serve Tesco but only E10, bugger, then just as steady into Cirencester and until Cirencester the traffic was fairly light as the weather was getting increasingly soggy. As we’re going around the outside of the town we suddenly hit traffic and roadworks and two lanes into one then we really slowed as we are trying to sidestep a massive puddle about a quarter the size of a football pitch so as you can imagine peeps were gingerly driving through. Finally got through and the rain was pounding on the roof of the van and it’s the first time I can remember needing to use the faster speed of the wipers. Every dip in the road now had huge puddles mostly straddling the whole road and in places there was a queue of cars from each direction taking it in turns to drive through the water. Really needed to concentrate as sometimes you couldn’t quite see them because of them hiding naturally in dips. Two places I was right up and probably over my brake drums, the worst one was going under a bridge where the road narrowed and luckily there was a Range Rover came through the opposite way that gave me an idea that I’d be able to get through. The rain got heavier and there were people parking up on the sides of the road and some were actually just stopped on the road as they couldn’t see because they’d steamed up in their cars, I didn’t have any of this, possibly because I’d opened both front windows about a quarter of an inch. Finally got a bit further to Stow on The Wold and Moreton On The Marsh and as usual hit some traffic going through these towns but nowhere near as much as usual. And once past these, I heard a squeak from the wipers and turned them down to first speed then within a half a dozen miles ish I’d turned them off and just flicked them on every minute or so as the weather was easing. A half hour later I spotted a patch of blue sky and the wipers were finally stood down. Beautiful drive after that with the road virtually to myself and got to Victoria Farm in record breaking time for a Friday afternoon run in approximately three and a half hours. My mate Doug got there ten minutes after me but had driven up the M5 as he had an errand or two to sort on the way, he’d left Bristol and from Thornbury on it had been beautiful sunshine all the way, yet I ran parallel mostly less than twenty miles away, weird weird weird.
Paid my dosh at Victoria Farm and it’s a tenner a night, then rolled in to the driest campsite that I wasn’t expecting and heard they’d had less than ten minutes of a light shower all day. Rounded up all the undesirables and took a van full down to the Pig In Muck although some walked with a head start. So loads of us in the pub and had the upstairs almost to ourselves and had a brilliant steak and ale pie and chips. Back to camp and a couple of pints in the camp site bar to be greeted by a dozen or so other bay peeps and about the same from the SSVC that were also Techendering. Then back to the van and camp fire, Stella, and choons.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,, Saturday was a bit different

Saturday, well you might have been in a completely different time zone or even a different country that Saturday.. Started off dry but a fair bit of cloud scudding about and peeps were gradually shaking off the previous night and the smell of sausages was being out done by the smell of bacon. Couple of cups of coffee to kick off and chatting to others as they too and fro’d and made their ways to the facilities. Eventually Gaz rose from his pit looking even uglier than the night before and between us we decided we was gonna cook up a brunch. Gaz had some tomatoes, some mushyrooms, two eggs, some bacon and half a tin of bakedy beans. I supplied some milk some more coffee and a packet of five sausages. The cling film holding the sausages was stuck to another bunch, so long story short, I ended up cooking ten sausages. Gaz is doing the bacon , I’ve had the sausages on for twenty minutes or so and we’re deciding how to cook the rest of it. My plan was that as the sausages are all but done, we could pop the bacon on top of em to keep them hot and Gaz could do the beans in his fry pan. It started off great then the bacon got to my frying pan via a short spell on the grass! No matter, we’ve now had a cunning plan forming that we’re going to bang the eggs in with the beans and a splash of milk and have a beans omlettes to go with the rest. I’ll start by saying that it just didn’t look good, it wasn’t how I’d pictured it in my minds eye , if I’d had any brains I’d have got Gaz to Chuck it straight in the bin, but in all fairness to myself, I’d been a bit busy turning over the ten sausages, some rashers of bacon, and by this time we’d popped in a half punnet of mushrooms all in my fry pan. The whole brunch was fantastic apart from the beans omelette disaster, don’t bother with our recipe for that one.
I’d popped up to the farm and put our names down for the fish and chips fun run later on. Up at the farm were three or four groups of the splitty gang (SSVC) all in their overalls and getting stuck in to some maintenance issues and clutch changing and zoorst changing and they even had one up on the ramp doing whatever. Had a great chat with some of them and apparently I knew a few of em from wherever and I slinky slinked off and left them to their endeavours. Wandered around their splits and there was a few crackers there. Later on in the afternoon had a few come down to check out our bays etc. So eventually later that afternoon/ evening the word is out that the chips have arrived so we wander up to the farm and partake in fish and chips. These are always so very very nice and this time was no exception apart from they had crammed so many in and the pieces of fish were so large that even fat gutsy bit me couldn’t make it all the way through, I guess I got about a half way. So a couple of pints at the farms bar then wander back to the van and get that fire going. Fire, Stella, great company and music. Usually I drag out the same old reggae tunes camp after camp, but it was suggested to use up a bit of data and pass the phone around take it in turns to pick a track around the camp fire. I’m amazed that this wasn’t my idea as this is something we do at home when we have guests and always goes down a treat. We had a bit of singing, a bit if dancing, Wobbly Bobs Mrs, Marney was doing the Texas Holdem thing and I did it but sat down. Then about eleven thirty ish we’d decided it would be a great idea to have toasted crumpets with loads of butter and marmalade and jam toasted on a burger rack, Brilliant,, gone down a treat. Then just around midnight there was a spotting of rain for a few seconds then KKkerrrassh, thunder and lightning everywhere and the raindrops were as big as grapes. We all shouted good night and peeps sprinted off to their vans,. I covered up the firewood and threw stuff under the van and jumped in and slammed the door!

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,gonna be a sleepless night !