I can only apologise to those of you who take some interest
in where we are and what we are doing.
My blog entries have been pretty irregular for some time now. I could offer you a raft of excuses. For example, our propensity to book trade
shows late in the day. This effectively
means that we semi-unpack the van late on Sunday night, gather our thoughts and
brace ourselves for yet another Trump headline on Monday morning (or any given
day for that matter), muddle through to mid week catching up on online orders,
fielding enquiries, etc. before setting ourselves some impossible challenge
(usually in the form of new stock), which we then attempt to turn around in
time for the coming weekend. By the
time I’m in a position to update the blog, the next show has arrived and the
moment has passed.
I could also blame a whole host of other things, but this
time, in a typically British manner, I blame the weather. The heat wave we had (remember?), meant that
I ventured outside and whenever I venture outside for prolonged periods, I
discover that we actually live on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.
In short, I’ve been “on some shit” in the
garden. (Trust me, that’s the best
phrase to describe the job, which confronted me. Here's the link. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on%20some%20shit )
I will endeavour to give you a potted history of our recent
shows. Gaz has a 1964 Mini Cooper. Given that we sponsor the annual Mini and VW
Bus Meet in our hometown, it made sense that both the Mini and the T4 make an
appearance on our stand. The main
stumbling block was the fact that the Mini has been languishing in a relative’s
garage for 17 years, playing winter host to Fred, the tortoise and somewhere
along the way picking up a new furry occupant – a mouse. But Gaz was on a mission.
Cleared of mouse droppings and boxes of long forgotten
keepsakes (including a remote controlled skateboarder straight out of the 80s
and a wooden Woodpecker cigarette dispenser), Gaz grabbed the toolbox and WD40
and set to work.
Unfortunately, the gods had other ideas and progress was
slow to say the least. The inaccessible
fuel filter within the petrol tank was blocked and by Friday, the engine was
sparking but still not drawing fuel.
Knackered, jaded, beaten; all words, which could have described
Gaz on Saturday morning as he left to set up.
All that hard work for sweet FA.
By the time I arrived to help set up, I was greeted by two
familiar faces, Ben and Cerys, a couple we met at Dubs on the Wye. Ben’s a VW enthusiast and Cerys is a Mini
owner. They had decided to take a punt
on the show, breaking up their journey with an overnight stay in Shrewsbury
and, luckily for us, Ben had brought along his heavy duty Towing Dolly, which
he insisted on hitching up to our Golf to collect the Mini. What a star!
Within 30 seconds of the Mini’s arrival on site, a tearful
Gaz (bless) had had an offer on it and was soon surrounded by a dozen men - all
staring, prodding the engine and offering advice on what to do next.
Having built the 1 litre race engine from scratch in his
youth, we are thankful that Gaz had the foresight to retain most of the
original parts, as the consensus was to return it to its original 1964 Cooper
engine.
The thing all classic motoring enthusiasts have in common is
passion and a desire to see their favourite rides on the road. That is why one parts dealer, throughout the
day, systematically boxed up all the requisite parts for our Mini (worth just
shy of £100) and allowed Gaz to buy them from him for 30 quid! Talk about good karma!
 |
| Cookie |
Setting up at leisure only 5 minutes drive from home is
always a pleasure and I don’t think the stand has ever looked more
organised. We also managed to squeeze
in a couple of cheeky drinks with this man, better known as “Cookie” from E4’s
Tattoo Artist of the Year, and his lovely family. The creative juices were flowing on Saturday evening, so all we
can say is watch this space…
Next up was Camper Jam, which is always one of the
highlights of the calendar. We managed
to launch a new T-shirt design with hours to spare before the start of the
show. Talk about hot off the press!
Camper Jam was hot - very hot - and very busy. In it’s 10th year, it was a great
show and we had great neighbours on both sides, which included one fireman aka Brutebox Baz, four labradors (one who uses Jedi mind tricks to secure pork scratchings) and two "Happy Campers" from the Republic of Ireland.
We also had the luxury of chilling around the campfire with our
super organised friends on Saturday evening.
By “super organised,” I mean they brought the wherewithal to mix
lip-numbing cocktails. The only
downside was our first experience of theft at a VW show. Someone stole a rat from our rat bike. No biggy, just disappointing.
 |
| Campfire and cocktails |
Since then we have been posting out pre-orders of Vdubs in
the Valley show tees and working on re-stocking an early Voodoo Street design,
which seems to be suddenly in demand.
In our down time, we’ve made our first visit to Nozstock
Festival, in deepest Herefordshire, notable for 3 reasons:-
1. Excellent
music, including Remi Harris (a leader on the Gypsy Jazz scene and highly
rated by Jamie Cullum) and up and coming band and Nozstock regulars,
The Stiff Joints.
2. A fireworks display with a distinctly pagan feel.
3. We managed to get Bez from Happy Mondays, to wear one of our bucket hats on stage.
 |
| Bez doing his thing |
We also squeezed in the Camper & Bus Show at Eastnor
Castle last weekend and decanted the 9 gallons of water, which fell on Saturday
night from the top of our gazebos into saucepans. It didn’t spoil our fun.
Gaz, on his own on Friday night, spent the evening with Retro Classic
Clothing’s Adam and co. and on Saturday night, we whiled away a few hours (and
a few cans) in the company of Simon and Celia (and family). Thanks for your company and the amazing
brownie Celia – we were fighting over it!
Pictured above, is Nala, Celia's canine niece, in her Voodoo Street bandana.
 |
| Getting ready for the Soap Box Derby at Eastnor |
I will be updating our web store very soon, but with Skeg
Vegas looming, it’s possible that we will need to re-stock before then, so bear
with us.
We’re excited about our first visit to Skeg Vegas. It’s the furthest we will have travelled to
a show and therefore we will all be shoe horned into the van, but we’ve heard
many positive stories and have high hopes.
Maybe see some of you there!
