As I sit here this evening, I have to admit to feeling totally smug.

I’ve just got back from spending a weekend with a group of 12 fabulous friends.  We left on Friday in convoy from Adamson Towers, armed with walkie talkies and booze and drove through the blazing sunshine to the only place in the UK where the sun stubbornly refused to shine, Santa Pod raceway, near Northampton.  We arrived and erected base camp in the field, cracking open the cider as we went.

I can’t imagine that there was a single VW in the UK that wasn’t with us this weekend!  It was wall to wall camper, fun and frolics!

After a lovely BBQ’d buffalo burger and sausage we headed into the center of the festival. Once we got over our initial worry about ray, we managed to see the Hoosiers and dance our socks off after a brief spell in the SKA tent.  I say it was a brief spell…. for everyone except Stew, who decided the Hoosiers weren’t for him, he wasn’t about Ray and would like to scamper off and relive the SKA tent on his own!  The hoosiers finished and we hit the Dance tent for a bit of dance music.  After a few minuets it soon became apparent that we were a:not cool enough, b:not wearing neon body paint and c: not high on substances and we decided bed was calling.  The thing was though, that we had to walk back through the festival…. and we found a silent disco!  It was hilarious! picture the scene…. it’s 1am, we’ve all had a wine or two, and you walk into a room with about 100 other like minded people, all slightly sweaty, singing their heats out… to different songs!! There were 2 DJ’s, each playing slightly different songs and you could pick what you listened to.  At one point Stew was waving arms to Hey Jude, and i was rocking out to Tone Loc singing wild thing! Awesome with hilarious parts.  Equally as funny was taking off the headphones and listing to people singing with no music behind! If only i’d thought to film it!

When we got back to base camp our less hardcore friend were enjoying a cointreau and ameretto! we really were retro!

A few hours sleep was necessary before we made the most of saturday.  We started with an awesome breakfast to wash away any feeling of tenderness in the head department, before cracking open a tinny and going to watch the jet car! powered by a helicopter engine apparently.  We made the necessary purchase of a new wing mirror, a new key ring for the van keys and a number of t-shirts…. not to mention getting a babygrow printed to match his campervan for my new nephew!

We had managed to get a wonderful new solar panel for the van which lead to a slight 12v obsession! last week I became the proud owner of some 12v hair straighteners and a 12v hairdryer.  I also have a solar shower so i decided that a shower was now entirely possible.  With clean hair and a shinny body i was ready and raring to go! not before a quick stop at the tattooist (temporary!!) and some BBQ ribs and some other bits and pieces that were delivered to the site and exchanged for a pimms!

After an impromtue plank from Mr A we all donned our wigs for the big wig night out and headed over to see the commitments and Toploader.  Now, who in my opinion totally rocked!! Mr A would disagree but as this is my blog i can say what i like!  We wriggled our way to the front and really REALLY enjoyed the old stuff!!

If i’m honest the rest of the night is a bit of a blur! so I will summarise the weekend in the following bullet points!!

• Dubonnet
• Pooh
• Silent Disco
• I’m still worried about ray
•  Dave could do the deal?
• (if heather will let you?!)
• Random negotiations with balloons – paid in pimms!
• Disco Dave preforming an impromptu plank on the table
• Stew the Dressage Pony
• Random people!
• Dancing in the moonlight
• stolen cone hat
• Solar shower!
• Lamination
• Leg ejaculation
• Tramp Stamp
• Alan!

And some drunken Pics!

I’ve been awake since 5am this morning.  P woke up with a problem and ended up in our bed and to be honest, once my brain had switched on, I couldn’t get back to sleep.  I’m too excited to sleep and keep thinking of all the things that I need to do this morning to be ready for the off in the convoy at 1!

So i’ve completely over prepared, and now plan to go with the flow…. the flow of cider and wine that is all packed, and the endless flow of food that is also planned in great detail!  I’m currently downloading some tunes for the 3 hour journey to Santa Pod race track.  Of course it’s the Hoosiers and Top loader who are each headlining a night.  I was chatting to a lovely lady yesterday who I thought was roughtly about the same age as me, and as the conversation progressed it became apparent that I was somewhat flattering myself with this assumption!  Making the assumption that I was quite “Down Wit Da Kidz” I thought it would make me sound cool to say I was popping to a festival at the weekend, and we’d be just chilling out in the sunshine, and listening to some good music and bands.  When I said that Toploader were headlining the Saturday night, expecting her reaction to be something along the lines of “cool” or “I love top loader, what a relevant and cool band” I was disappointed when she said “Ah, Oldskool retro music….. Great”!!!! At what point does something become Old Skool! please! So I hastily agreed and moved the conversation on, in the silent realisation that I was in fact not quite as cool or relevant as I thought I was!  This morning i’m feeling better about being Old Skool cool! so bring it on I say!  My first festival that I am throwing caution to the wind and simply refusing to pack wellington boots and living on the edge with a handful of fabulous friends will rock!

(Should I admit to secretly sneaking in a pack-a-mack just in case?!…….. Doh!)

Yesterday was a lovely day! We were in the sunshine pottering with Freckle for most of the day. The stereo now works off the leisure battery and there is now a cable that can link the 2 battery’s and give is an easy way to trickle charge the battery when we make the decision which solar panel is right for freckle.

I also went out and bought a 12 volt hair dryer! I was completely sceptical that it would work but I think it’s going to be fine! I’m actually going to be able to go camping to the middle of nowhere and dry my hair! I don’t know why I’m so excited by this as I often don’t dry my hair but it feels liberating!

We tried the generator attached to freckle too. It’s not a quiet option but I think for bug jam next weekend it’s going to be amazing! Again hair implements are driving this need as is the ability to charge phones and play music!

So much to look forward to. Today’s plan is to sort out our bikes, get them loaded onto the trailer as this is the best way we have found to take our bits around whilst on hols. It gives us the ability to stop and sleep easily too. I think this is a blue job (one for Stew), so I’m going to head to the supermarket and get the food for bug jam!