The Friday gang Wally campout

Its now a tradition that one of the many camping trips of the year is to Wally with all Lily's little friends that used to meet up on a Friday. With most now in pre-school and with parents working it was a slow start. I roll in just after midday and found our spot under the trees at the end of the site.



Within a couple of hours I was pitched, showered and sipping ice cold cider in the chair before falling asleep reading a book! Soon the tranquillity was shattered by the arrival one after the other of the five families joining us.



Much pegging and erecting and we had a little village of tents. Dinner was rustled up and soon it was bedtime for the small ones. Herding nine children to bed is never an easy task, but by the time it was dark most were snoozing away. Leaving the adults to natter until midnight.





Saturday dawned bright and sunny and soon everyone was up, pancakes were made for the kids and a variety of fried efforts fed the adults.







As is the norm we set off for town, coffees and lunches were taken to the Castle grounds where a picnic under the trees gave enough energy to climb to the top of the castle hill and back.







On to the splashpool to cool off and ice creams before the majority headed back to camp for the afternoon. A couple of us went hunter gatherer and bought meat for the BBQ.





With three hot grills going we turned £50 worth of meat into feast and left many with the meat sweats. Then a round of smores were served up, choccy biscuits with melted marshmallow in the middle.















With the knackered kids far easier to get into bed we again settled in for a night of natter and cider.





Rain greeted us on Sunday, but it soon cleared and after a mammoth breakfast of bacon, black pudding & mushroom wraps with optional fried egg we packed away dry. The children sat and read books and before long it was goodbye time.







We trundled into the town and parked up for a quick walk round and a coffee before the slow cruise back. It was another successful weekend under canvas/tintop. The adults got to relax (a bit) and the kids all played nicely, there were no broken bones (just!) and now the planning begins for the next one!



Steve.

Berkshire Motor Show

With it being the first Sunday of the month, we'd already planned a trip to the steam trains at Prospect Park. But an advert on FB showed there was a car show there all day as well. Kim set off on a 8.5 mile walk and after making a picnic Lily and I set off in the Beetle. We were too late in the day to join LTV on the field as they wanted cars in at 8:30am and not moving until the end. I'm quite glad we didn't in the end! Parking in general we met up with Kim and walked around. There were a few big rigs.







The car show itself was weirdly split from an area in the middle, some odd bits at the side, two clubs by the trees and a couple of lines at the end. From looking at photos from previous years I was expecting some nice classics.....there were a few, but it mainly seemed to be some rather dodgy moderns. I'm not one to be snobby, but the Hyundai Coupe Club stand did nothing for me at all. Anyway, we had a look round some of the cars.











Lily had a go on hook a duck and was pleased with her sweetie haul, which she munched until we got to the reptile tent. Then the lure of hold a big snake was too much. The man did offer something smaller, but she was insistent on getting to grips with the 10kg Boa Constrictor.





A few more cars and we made it to the LTV stand. Some slightly cheesed off members had the same thought as us about the content of the show and were planning to leave ealry.













With our picnic under the trees over we clambered aboard the Beetle for the short drive down the the trains. For 50p a ride we hurtled round the two tracks and had  drink before heading home.







We'll be back for more trains in the future. The same can't be said for the car show sadly.

Steve.