Malcolm had ben asked to lend one of his cars to the local car club so they could show it on there stand at the NEC in Birmingham, which was nice. It meant we - me and Russ - had the opportunity to get a cheap bus ride and have a most enjoyable day out, which sounded splendid. It was agreed that we would catch the bus at Boston bus station at 08:00 on the Sunday morning, Russ very kindly picked me up from home so with lunch bag in hand we set off in good time and arrived some 15 minutes early. We decided that the best thing to do was to pay for the parking and sit in the car with a view of the whole of the bus station so we could see when the bus arrived. We waited about 20 minutes - no sign of the bus or of anybody waiting for a bus, which was odd. After about 10 more minutes of unsatisfied anticipation we came to the conclusion that shit had happened and started making phone calls. Sadly Malc most likely had his hearing aids switched off and we couldn't think of anybody else whose number we had that would have the faintest idea of what was going on. We concluded we had a choice - go home or drive the 100 odd miles, not much of a choice really, I paid the parking, Russ paid the fuel.
We got there at about half ten, parked the car in one of the massive car parks and got the bus to the main entrance, my God the place is huge, the show took up something like 8 of the immense halls. We had only just got through the door when we bumped in to some people we knew - Annie and Pete. Annie is a cake maker to the stars and has the Matthewsons of Bangers and Cash fame as just one of her celebrity clients, she had a trolley full of cakes for various people that were there. We didn't interrogate her fully as we wanted to get on with seeing what we could see, there was just so much of it that it was quite overwhelming.
We spent a few hours wandering, Russ is so wealthy that even after spending 32 and a half quid to get in he could still afford a very small breakfast wrap for 6 quid. Flash git. Must have a word with Malc, he's paying him too much, anyway, enough of that. We tried to find the Boston stand but didn't on the first sweep, the place really is so vast that it's hard to focus on anything. We satisfied ourselves by drooling over the trade stands and the auto jumble then made it our mission to find the stand again, we needed to find out what had gone wrong and more importantly, needed to know who to blame, I mean, it couldn't possibly have been our fault, we followed the instructions to the letter.
So, as it turned out, we had been within 20 yards of the Boston Classic car Club stand at least once but had somehow missed it but this time we found it and found Keith, the miscreant who had been right at the very heart of busgate. He seemed very surprised to see us and demanded to know why we had failed to turn up at the bus stop and made them 25 minutes late departing. He seemed quite cross actually, but then it became apparent what had happened. From our vantage point in the car park we could see the whole of the bus station but not the bus parked in the other car park, the other side of the large building between us and said bus!!! It seems they got there 2 minutes before us so we didn't see it arrive, we then left 2 minutes before it did but because it was behind this effing great non see through building we never saw it. I wanted to hold him down while Russ practiced taking penalties but Russ reminded me that his knees have been suffering from arthritis recently and that if there was to be any kicking done I would have to do it. if you ask me Keith got off pretty lightly, especially when he pointed out with great glee that 43 people had failed to make the same mistake as us and were now enjoying themselves somewhere around the show. We didn't care, we had a great time. Even when Keith near on peed himself when he found out that not only had we missed the 35 foot long bus but that we had also walked almost right past their stand at least once as well.
The show itself was simply beyond words, it was outstanding, the efforts that so many people had gone to making their cars immaculate and displaying them so well was nothing short of amazing, you will never see so many rare and desirable vehicles in any one place, the autojumble was outstanding too. my only criticism is that you couldn't really buy anything big at the jumble as you would have had to carry it miles to the bus, get it on the bus and then carry it a fair old distance from the bus to your car. we both bought a few little bits but would have probably bought a lot more if the logistics had been better. I will say I was surprised at how reasonable the jumble prices seemed to be given the enormous cost of standing there. I hope the traders did well.
One thing I thought was rather cool was a charity thing where people could make a donation and get a ride in one of about 60 different sports or classic cars, I didn't see all the detail, the stand was incredibly busy. I did see that they had a Lamborghini there that you could have a ride in for a minimum donation of 100 quid. I couldn't help wondering how much folk would be willing to pay for a go in Malc's Integrale, for example. He was only charging a tenner at the last charity do he did. Seeing the joy on the faces of the people that got to sample their dream cars really makes me hope that Malc will do some more charity stuff next year and that I get to help out with the driving, I would love to make somebody's day like that, I reckon it would be brilliant.
After many hours of walking around and a fair bit of drooling both Russ and me were well knackered so much so that 90 year old's were offering us their seats. We decided a strategic withdrawal was the best option and retreated to the air conditioned splendour of Russ's chariot. The journey home was pretty unremarkable, we didn't take a wrong turn, anybody that says we did is a liar - demand proof, there is none.
There was a very minor off route excursion because we wanted a look at one of the buildings down one of the streets that was the turning before our turning but that was deliberate, we wanted a closer look at the brickwork that had appeared to be a strange colour. It was merely a trick of the light though so we just did a u turn and got back on our way, I intend to write a strongly worded letter to the council for wasting our time like that.
To wrap up it was a brilliant day - outstanding really. It is a lot of money - 32.50 to get in and 19 quid to park the car, but then it is ten times as good and as much as your average village / town show where you would pay a fiver to get in so really it's not bad at all, I would go again in a shot. I would take a collapsible chair with me though, at my age and questionable health it's a hell of a big show and it ends up being a very tiring day.
Massive thanks to the organisers and exhibitors, to Russ for being Russ, to Keith for trying to get us on the bus and to Malc for the loan of the mini on Keith's behalf. By the way, Keith says, you have the key in your back pocket, thanks for that, the bloody thing is going to have to be pushed half a mile on Monday when it gets loaded up to be brought home. LOL. It's all gone rather well. Karma is what it is, next time perhaps you will be a bit more precise when communicating arrangements.
Add comment
Comments