The Next Few Days...

...I'm back off on holiday again (just until the end of the week), baby sitting Thomas today, then tomorrow off to see Tommo (hurrah!) and the weekend, assuming the weather improves, we have Bug Jam 24 to look forward to! No camper van this year though (hope you are somewhere having fun Colin!), so we are going to stay in the local travelodge to Santa Pod... ;)

Just fyi - posting may be sporadic...

Brighton Breeze 2007

A few scenes from yesterday, an overcast, but still fairly muggy day spent whizzing down (part of the way) from London to Brighton with the VW crowd -

- I think we passed two other campers on the way (but we did set off super early, *and* Colin the Camper can break the speed limit if he needs to, although on this occasion we sat just on it all the way down) getting to Brighton in record time -

- to find a nice spot (without paying the £32 to park right on the very front) just behind the drive (up a load of stairs, but it's good for your health!) -

- the strip was pretty empty at this stage -

- but most of the stalls were getting set up, so a bit of shopping (got a new RF aerial, some clothes and a little "paint it yourself" beetle money box -



- then just walked the front, admiring all the wonderful bugs and buses -






- including some insanely original work -



- some beautifully original work -


- and some just rather, well, interesting(!) work ;) -




- and some (more) that just made me laugh out loud -


- then we took a little walk along the pier (rude not to) -


- and shared a portion of chips sat on the beach -

- what a lovely day... ;) Oh, the strip at the end of the day (packed!) we literally filled the drive from the pier all the way to the marina end of the (appropriately named) Volks railway - looking first to the right-

- and then to the left -

- amazing!

Bug Jam 21 - 2007 - Pictures and Video

So just a smattering of the sights and sounds (although not the smells) of Bug/Bog/Mud Jam 21, we set off in a torrential downpour (at about half five in the morning...zzz...), stopped very briefly at Toddington services, then completed the journey to Podington, or more specifically the "Santa Pod Raceway")...where "Motor Sport can be Dangerous" -

- because we got there so early (way before 0900hrs) the queue was tiny -

- but the conditions were already really, really bad...we bagged an excellent parking spot (about 2 seconds from the Mars Lorry), so about 90 seconds walk from the end of the strip where the proper toilets and food stalls/bar lurk...right next to the road way (two steps onto solid tarmac)...

...we spent much of Friday, after setting up, just sat in the camper or gazebo, hiding from the rain, but when things cheered up (slightly) we decided to take a little walk around site...spotted this guy in a wetsuit on his BMX taking a little ride up the strip (about the only action of the day) -



- then sloshed around the shops -

- up to the pit lane -







- and spent a damp few minutes watching the Friday night bands -

Next morning we got up about 0830 (to more rain), nabbed as many free Mars drinks as possible (several outfit changes by Flyingpops worked wonders) ;) I think we came away with about 20 bottles -

- then we took a seriously muddy slog up to the bank by the strip -

- to watch the only action so far -

- in the "Live action arena" - Click here for some video action of Terry Grant in his broken stunt car - he also got up to some tricks in his TVR -

- and his unmodified Honda (wow) but he couldn't do any VW tricks as Volkswagen wouldn't lend him a vehicle (boo, but at least there was some official merchandise in evidence this year in the hilarious VW bus bus) -

- then, it was on to the Monster Trucks -

- click here for some video of Podzilla crushing some Vauxhalls in impressive fashion -

- then it hammered down with rain again, but we finally got a tiny bit of track action on Saturday afternoon (very brief), so we took a little walk back down to the entrance (to do a bit of shooting) -

- saw a number of interesting characters ;) -


- watched Killa Kella on the main stage (awesome) but then the rain drove us back to DVDs and snackies in the cosy bus -

- bleugh -

- Woke up on Sunday to blazing sunshine (Hurrah!) -

- click here for some video of dodgy track burnout -

- then took a (much more pleasant) walk around the stalls, although still flooded out in places -




- then past the Jet Bike -

- and on to the (increasingly badly named) "Show and Shine" -






- and we then spent the remainder of the day enjoying the action on the strip (despite some tragically bad planning stopping all play as the Ambulances were stuck on the wrong side of the Live Action arena for over an hour, during which some totally inconsiderate idiots lit up two disposable BBQs on the top of the strip, on which they proceeded to burn everything they tried to cook, much to the dismay of the patient 200 people downwind of them), anyway, thanks to all the rain over the rest of the weekend we got lots of jet car action -


- and then some awesome normal track action -







- before we chugged out (easily) through the mud (thank goodness for having the engine in the back!)...much like this chap (but without the helpful elves)...

Wish it hadn't been so wet, but everyone still had a great time I think... ;)