Ardingly Vintage Vehicle Show 2010 - Pics

So time for just a few of the more interesting sights from Ardingly over the weekend (what on *earth* anyone would want with a Woolworths sign is anyone's guess) -


- or a water-colour greeting card featuring Gordon Ramsay (for that matter) -

- (delicious pies though are a no brainer) -

- it was so hot this year that sections of the tarmac were melting (this little squirt shot out when I ran that bit over with the pram tyre -

- and I managed to get a rather painful sunburned neck looking round -













- and yes, this woman did indeed have a live parrot in her rucksack/cage -





...shame it's probably the last one...the talk of the show was of the organisers charging people to come and show their precious things, which isn't really going to work (imho)...

Anyway, many, many more pictures here if you like this sort of thing... ;)

Oh NO!! Leaf!

So, the other day...(actually, lets just stop there a second - isn't it funny how many of my posts seem to start like that now, rather than "earlier today" or even "yesterday" - *guilty glance*)...anyway, the other day, running out of tea bags from my desk drawer (with a tut), I made a little trip during my lunch break to the slightly overpriced Tesco Metro store in Cabot Square (near the DLR), getting back to my desk just about on time (phew)...logging on with one hand and popping open the packet with the other I blindly reached inside to try and retrieve a tea bag (as I grasped my mouse) and suddenly let out an exclamation (specifically - "Oh No!" - a little too loudly) that made everyone on my bank of desks look over (with very concerned faces) to see what on earth was the matter...

All I could manage was to weakly point at the packet and say "Leaf..." in a sad voice...

*Everyone* laughed. A lot... Even they knew it was too much - through tears of mirth came more than one apology that it wasn't *that* funny, but the eye wiping and spontanious giggles kept on popping out for at least twenty minutes (as I sat there glaring at my empty mug)... >:(

It was with great ceremony, then, and with many a (Mr Bean-like) smug smile, that the next day I revealed from my bag my (Ardingly Tombola stall won) teaspoon-shaped tea infuser...

Ner ner ner ner ner! *Sound of Fink doing a Thomas-style short, sharp raspberry*

Ardingly Vintage Vehicle and Classic Car show 2008 - Auto jumble

We had a bit of fun over the weekend and snuck off to enjoy Ardingly show, it being the 20th anniversary (and lots of family being present in various display capacities)...so we took the camper van along and joined in the festivities (in an unoffical way)...it's always a great show to give the camera a workout (actually got my first low battery warning ever over the weekend!)...anyway, here are just some of the sights of the autojumble from the slightly overcast Saturday (more to come when I have sorted through all the pics)...

Ardingly - Vintage vehicle show 2006

Pretty quiet this year comparitively, but that's nice in a way... ;)

What am I missing here? FIVE QUID?? The tank had two wheels missing!!

The CAMRA beer tent, as impressive as ever, this year there were 50 beers on offer (strongest was 9%!!) and 15 ciders! Told you the beer festival at Laughton was a bit of a joke... ;)



Amazingly this was Flyingpops' old bus to work, and next door was a bus signposted "York Way", pretty freaky! The bloke let us onboard to look around (pics of all that and much more in the full Flickr stream here if you are interested in this sort of thing)...

(wish the owner had polished it!)

Lunch was a (shared) Stilton ploughmans with a pint of Fosters for me and an Aqua Libra for Flyingpops, the guy charged me just shy of £15, but it wasn't till I got to the table and moaned about the amount that it was decided that was a little too much...with either the pint or the Aqua Libra costing in the region of £5, turns out the guy charged me the wrong amount for the ploughmans (a quid too much) and also charged me for two cups of coffee that belonged to the guys in the queue behind me! I got a refund...stilton was nice though, very creamy, but not worth £11... ;)

*LOADS* of militaria...


*LOADS* of steam engines/traction engines...


A wooden sheep...quite convincing in the "flesh" actually...from a distance I was like "Wow, that's a well behaved animal"...

The baker brought his oven with him (in the craft tent for some reason)...

And the obligatory autojumble...

(Sign reads "If the Stall is crowded please leave dog or wife outside, with instructions not to wee on the outdoor stock")

So, next year I think we'll exhibit at Ardingly instead of Laughton...maybe see you there? ;)