Grand Day Out

Today

How it was that I agreed to attend the Bexhill 100 classic car club's annual classic car show last Monday I'm not sure. Perhaps because my sister is membership secretary; perhaps because Paul was longing for an excuse to bring the Humber Imperial down.

Anyway, on about the only fine August Bank Holiday in the last 50 years (and also Becky's actual 30th birthday), I found myself on a recreation ground in Bexhill with nothing to do all day but sit in or near the car and listen to people tell us all about it (often incorrectly). As I'm a person who likes to be active, this was a little stultifying, to say the least.

The day was enlivened by the presence of my nephews Jacob & James who, both in their special ways, brought extra sunshine to the day. The presence of Clive the Dalek, manipulated by my brother in law, was less exciting.

We didn't win any prizes despite the number of people who came up and said " the best car ever made - I (my father, uncle) used to have one" and despite the car's seriously shiny state.

In My Day

If you follow this blog you will know that it was Paul who introduced me to delights of elderly wheeled machinery. many a Sunday we went to classic car shows, traction engine rallies and railway exhibitions. I sometimes enjoyed the traction engine rallies as there was quite a few parades of these amazing beasts and I always liked the fairground organs with their elaborate decorations and silly boom-boom renditions of the classics. and there were usually some stalls selling honey or clothes or something. Classic car and railway exhibitions were altogether duller.

Eventually I told Paul that I'd just about exhausted the possibilities of these events and could he please find another companion? Which meant that I've managed to avoid the Dorset Steam Fair altogether.

Still, even Paul got bored on Monday and we left a whole hour before the end.