CLEETHORPES
16th-18th JULY
Because of my son Davids 21st birthday party myself and Dawn were only going to Cleethorpes for the Friday night and were driving back around 1am but we took a sleeping bag with us just in case. We set of after work at around 3:30pm just in time to hit the traffic ques on the M1 but once we cleared the M1 it was plain sailing and we arrived in Cleethorpes just after 5:30 pm. As we drove in we passed the Bootleggers pub and saw quite a few familiar faces, but myself & Dawn wanted to get something to eat first so we parked up and went for a meal.
After we had eaten we strolled over to the Bootleggers to say our hellos to the familiar faces in there including most of the Mansfield Monsters SC, Steve Foster, Johnny Bolland and a few other of my fellow VFM crew, and Tony `1' Shirt and Mrs `1' shirt, Caz. We stopped for one drink before setting off again to meet up with OAJJ, Davey & Shh from the ii who were staying in a caravan just to the south of town. Whilst we were enjoying a coffee with our hosts, Davey received a text informing him that fellow ii Dean, Ann & the kids had surprisingly arrived were setting up their tent on the camp site. We left shortly after to go back into town and called by the camp site but they wanted to charge us to go in so we left without getting to see Dean & Ann, but we bumped into Dunny and his brother Billy and Billys other half Caroline whom we gave a lift into town.
As it was now 9:30 myself & Dawn decided to go straight into the do at the Winter Gardens, But on entering we discovered that except for the staff we were about the only ones in there. If ever a place was falsely named then the winter gardens must be it. This place gets like a sauna and just about everybody in there usually is dripping with sweat, but tonight it didn't seem so bad, properbly because there wasn't many people in there. I was disappointed that there was to be no band playing at all over the weekend but i dont know wether this was a deliberate ploy by the organisers or wether they booked a band who then let them down. The Venue slowly filled up and we eventually settled down at a table with Paula from Nottingham, Hayden from Carlton Blues and our fellow Brewers Richard, Kerry, Nick, Ruth and Andy Delee who had arrived. Also `seated' with us was Father Slacker who was blind drunk already and spent most of the time he was with us asleep across either the table or a few chairs. After a while myself & Dawn wandered around to see who was here and Dawn found Donna (aka Numb-bum) and Bob so Dawn had a dance with Donna whilst i chatted to Bob. We also bumped into Rick from Modrapheniacs, Wreckless Souls Mark & Jane and Jock and we also found Andy Bayes from Ronnie Biggs SC. He seemed as pleased to see us as we were to see him. Alas Andy was not with his wife Nicky as she is suffering from a long term illness and wasn't well enough to come so we asked him to give our best wishes to her.
Before we knew it it was 12:30 and myself and Dawn left to go home, although i think Dawn was a bit reluctant as she was enjoying herself dancing with Donna and also Jenny (aka Hippychick) who had also turned up, but we had a busy day ahead of us with Davids party, so after dropping Johnny Bolland off at his B&B we set off back down the M180. The journey home took us just under 1 and half hours as the roads were empty, although we very nearly ran out of petrol because i didnt want to pay motorway prices but just as the car was stuttering we find a garage just off the A38.
So our short but sweet visit to Cleethorpes was over for another year and big thanks go to the Mansfield Monsters SC and the Birmingham Olympics SC for putting on the weekend. Next up for myself & Dawn is the Droop as we're not going to Holiday in Holland, in fact we seem to be about the only ones not going, so if you are have a great time and we'll see you on 6th August at the Brewers Droop. Were off to celebrate Davids 21st. if you want to read how that went see my blog page on this site. Cheers
SAFE SCOOTERING
ANDY
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