I often set my life to film music........before you get worried that I've finally flipped (you knew this anyway) I'll explain. If I'm driving down the motorway in a rush to get to work overtaking cars (all within the speed limit of course ahem!) That moment in time if I were in a movie the backing track would be ....something heavy rock! walking with wifey on a moonlit night by the sea just the two of us......a ballad. You get my gist? Together with the Mini Macheros and best friend M (aka fraggle.....but she doesn't like that .....fraggle it is then!) Wifey and I embarked on another amazing adventure in Eddy our 1973 VW camper........ the sun was out everyone was cheerful......we were going camping in Dorset without a care in the world (cue Summer Holiday by Sir Cliff). the debacle that was last Monday's rehearsal was long in the past .....we were in Camper van mode!
By 9pm our campsite was set up. Eddy's roof was up the awning erected kettle on. The night was ended off with my special Chilli con carne and Fraggle's concoction red wine and coke.......The camp site fell silent apart from the odd snore here or there. Eddy rested under the twinkling stars his body work glistening in the moonlight the awning moving ever so slightly in the sea breeze. The smoke from used Barbecues still wisping up into the night sky prodding the stars as if to feel they were real (tinkly little tune on a piano )
The next day we embarked on a two mile hike over hills into West bay and met The Dark Marge who lives down that way spent a bit of time with him and walked back to our campsite and chilled. Uncle Dark Marge came round gave the kids their Christmas presents.....yes I did say Christmas presents!!!
the evening was again rounded off with Red wine and Coke. Fraggle retired to her tent and Wifey and I fell into a wine and coke induced sleep............
The next day we awoke to rain ,dark clouds and hurricane like winds!!!!!!(Holst-the planets mars the God of war) the day was miserable we jumped into Eddy and Wifey took us on the most scary of coastal journeys Eddy was being gusted sideways by the wind. We visited Wifey's brother who together with his family runs a bed and breakfast down there ...nice place ....plug plug plug just call me for details......we reached the campsite that evening and you guessed it .....evening was again rounded off with Red wine and Coke. Fraggle retired to her tent and Wifey and I fell into a wine and coke induced sleep............except......I was awaken soon after getting into bed ..The wind was rocking the camper (no honestly it was the wind!) I looked out at the awning and Doodles our dog was looking at me as if to say " bloody heck Dad bit drafty innit?" I could see that the awning was kind of ......well ......falling over.
So I jumped out of my warm bed got on some clothes ventured outside the awning to be hit with gale forced winds and rain my suspicions were correct .....I stood back looked at the situation .......and realised yep...the awning was falling down the pegs were being pulled clean out of the ground . I reinforced every thing and got out of my sodden wet clothes and went to bed an hour later I repeated this process yet I was warmer in bed colder outside and wet right through ......This went on most of the night At three in the morning you can picture the scene.........Me standing holding a guy rope the awning flying about like a sail ........rain beating against my freshly suntanned face my clothes wet through........this was a scene from a perfect storm........I was muddy, exhausted ,cold and quite pissed off I eventually got to sleep . The next morning there was a scene of devastation flattened tents and awnings everywhere ...Eddy's awning stood tall battered bruised but not out. We packed away and by noon Bridport was in our rear view mirror awning on the roof Eddy was rolling back to Berkshire.
On the A31 we saw a car flashing us from behind........."go round us if you don't like travelling at campervan case!" I nearly shouted as they indicated that we had lost our awning about 2 miles back and was on the grass verge. !!!!! We parked up and sure enough the awning was AWOL. (cue tense music)
After a little time trying to get on and off the very fast A road I retrieved the awning...a strained bungee being the culprit for it's escape. We had to get back to Berkshire it was Monday ,it was band night we had to have a good rehearsal .Then the bomb shell............SJ texted me the trains were not running properly she was stuck in Brighton!!!!!!! She wouldn't make rehearsal. With less than two weeks to our first performance the band had only been at full compliment for rehearsals once in five weeks everything was against us..(cue sad violin music ) We got home at 4 pm and we off loaded Eddy. Then I was loading speakers instruments amps etc into my car there was no time to stop ...Fraggle came in to baby-sit ...she was equally exhausted the mini machero however had a new lease of life!!!! Arriving five minutes late for rehearsals, Eric the red...(aka Diddler for his habit of diddling on his guitar between songs) .....called me and told me he couldn't make it.....I was just about to go into orbit when he told me he was only joking and would see me in a moment........(Queen -under pressure) Dom was there so we had a drummer for the first time in two sessions , we also had a sound tech....oh yes!!!! James...(look at the blog Locker room liaisons from February) He set us up brilliantly .We divided up the singing...and to our amazement the band came together there on that night ...it was a turning point a Eureka moment ....Dom was drumming his heart out filling and bashing ,Wifey even managed her "In to the deep" solo. There was a lot of energy and drive about us that had been missing. We finished the evening with me inviting everyone to the Boot pub for a drink and a chat ...embarrassingly I forgot I had no cash...Diddler bailed us out!!!
We watched the video and it was plain to see Locker room James had helped tremendously. The next day I phoned Cruella my boss at work and asked for the day off which was granted without a quibble and to round off the weekend Wifey and I went to see Travis at the Hammersmith Apollo. Travis were brilliant.........and we enjoyed every moment of it. They sang "Sing" one of the songs we cover.....bless they did their best .....the Hot Machero version is better........LOL!!!!!!!!!
Half way though the concert I got a text from Diddler asking for the video of the rehearsal he had obviously been telling his Linda how well it went (she was oop north this weekend)
The drive home was filled with excited conversation of what we had seen and the band and where we want to go with it. My mind drifted off to the next day back to work.......
I wonder if Mr T is over the celery blog yet? The usual nice Mr T let slip that he felt that blog was a bit sexual???!?!?!?!?!?!? The mind boggles T! Can't wait for the next rehearsal and fitting SJ jn with our new arrangements
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