having arranged an unofficial day off, i phoned the ferry company to see if i could get a earlier crossing than 6:30pm from Liverpool. we were successful , but had to go to Heysham for a 2:15am crossing, bloody 2:15 in the morning, what sort of time was that. I still couldn't get my scooter on though, "all scooter spaces for the weekend are fully booked", so car packed up with all our gear as well as other peoples gear myself and Dawn set of about 9:30pm.
As we neared Morecambe our hunger pains were becoming hard to ignore but as it was past 12:00 we could not find anywhere open, but i then remembered, from the vfm rally in Morecambe 5 weeks earlier, that there was a late pizza place in Morecambe.having purchased our pizza we arrived at the docks in Heysham to find only about a dozen scooters waiting to board. They could off got loads more scooters on the ferry, still to bloody late to go back and fetch mine.
We arrived in Douglas harbour at 6:00am and drove off to follow the many signposts to the campsite. all i can say is that someone must off nicked most of the signs because there was only a few and having drove around for about half an hour we stumbled on to the campsite. Again there was no sign to tell us where to go so we asked the ' security guard' where we had to go. This half wit must of been in his own little world cos the information he gave us turned out to be completely wrong. By this time Dawn decided it was time the other Brewers, who had arrived the day before, should be up and cooking breakfast. Needless to say she was not the most welcome person on the island as she woke them all up. The burger van was now opening up so we went to get a cuppa and bumped into i-spy who despite it being only 7:00 was on top form.
Tent up, Dawn set about cooking breakfast, the idea being she would but the cooked food on a plate and everyone helped them selves to cobs to put the stuff in, but just as filled up Terry decided it was his plate and ran off with all the cooked food. Breakfast finally eaten we wondered up to where the scooters were gathering for the ride out. there was very few trade stalls here this weekend but we went and said hello anyway. Nick from Ital scooters was busy mending a stream of scooters as well as babysitting savages top banana scooter. we managed to eventually find savage and angel and proceeded to do our ii greetings and was pleasantly surprised to bump into a decent crowd from Derby, most of whom i have known for 20 odd years. Now as you will remember Dawn and myself had come in the car, so we busied ourselves trying to scrounge a lift for the ride-out. Dawn had no problems but for some reason no-one would give my slim self a lift. I-spy offered but then remembered he was on a lammy and quickly retracted the offer, so off they all went leaving me on me own crying into my tea. i decided it was best to catch up on the previous nights lost sleep and retired to my tent for some kip.
I was rudely awoken by the Brewers returning and jabbering on about the rideout so i sat and sulked, drinking corpious amounts of alcohol to block out the pain of being left behind.
Around 8:30pm, all showered and changed, we set of for the 'short' walk to the Venue for the nights entertainment (we seemed to walk half the length of the island). As you all are aware the 'starr' for the night was to be Edwin Starr but he sadly passed away a few weeks earlier so Edwins brother (no..it was not freddie) and Edwins backing band were doing a tribute night to him, and i can honestly say it was a cracking gig. The dance floor was packed as they belted out some great soul numbers. this lot were better than most of the bands we have to listen to and could make a living doing a tribute night to Edwin. Several dozen units of alcohol later, Dawn and myself stumbled outside and flagged down a taxi back to the campsite.
As we awoke next morning we lay in the tent listening to the rain pouring down outside desperately needing the toilet put not wanting to get soaked. the rain eventually stopped long enough for us all to get up and get brekkie cooked, but returned as we set off for the town to get some alcohol and dinner.
We arrived at the cornerhouse pub and settled in for the afternoon, where we had generous portions of sunday dinner due to the pub staff making a cock-up with the order, and then watched Arsenal hand the league title to man u
The unfortunate thing about the day time was that unless you wer prepared to travel across the island there was nothing laid on to do except sit in the pub and get drunk, (well it was pouring with rain and we needed to keep dry). This was also the case on Monday, and is something that needs to be addressed if we return next year.
The evening entertainment was the Lambretta Club of Great Britain handing out trophies for just about everything, infact we won best turnout tent on the campsite and Dawn won best towel design used in the showers. For those that didn't know, Savage won a trophy for best chop (although they didn't say if it was pork or lamb) to go with the very prominent black eye he was now sporting. Eventually VFM Tim from Wigan set the cds going and it was back to the serious business of getting drunk
Monday was a real drag. All the gear was packed away for 11:00 am, but as our ferry was not untill 10:00pm, we had the whole day to kill. We went to the Jubilee cafe on the prom for breakfast and 2 hours later we were kicked out to let others use the cafe, so strolled round the town for a while before setting of on a route march cos terry wanted Mcdonalds, but we eventually gave up and returned to town. I should add that Terry spend most of his time on the campsite at the burger van, in fact the owner was seen crying as we left monday morning, as Terry had been his best ever customer. ( LCGB should have given him a trophy for being best burger van customer)
At about 3:00 we gave up and decided to crash down in the waiting room at the port, where most of the Brewers fell asleep. Dean decided to retune the information tv's to normal telly so he could watch corrie later and i wandered around talking to a few other scooterist including Father Slack. I-spy later turned up with the rest of his troop and settled down with us to wait for our time to board.
We eventually got on board and embarked on a roller coaster ferry trip back to Liverpool. I could now see why there was sick bags placed on all the tables as the ferry rocked all over the place, but we were all big boys and the sick bags were not needed
We arrived in Liverpool at about 1:15 am and set of for home. This is when your glad to be in a car, as we put pedal to metal and flew down the M62 and M6 arriving home just after 3:00am
I'm glad i did this rally as it was a different venue and because of LCGB celebrating 50 years, but on the whole the weekend was very amateurish and if this is to became a annual event then Kev Walsh and the rest of LCGB need to learn from their mistakes. I personnally would have to think very hard about going again, but you never know, next time if i go i'll take me scoot and go b&b
SAFE SCOOTERING
............II............
ANDY (BBSC)
