I
couldn't get the weekend off work or the weekend away from the wife so I had to
be happy with Sat night and Sunday at Billing. I did Billing with my mate Bakey
two years ago and loved it. The last time before that was around 1978, it has
always been one place I enjoyed going to as it is a fantastic Camp site and the billing
Run usually attracts great cars
and has a friendly atmosphere. I asked my good mate Pudzz if he fancied a trip
down, and the afore mentioned Bakey said he would wait until Saturday to go
aswell so we could travel down together which always makes it more fun.
I managed to get off work again early and by 2pm we was off on a jolly jape to Billing. It was such glorious weather anyone would of thought it was Summer or something and ya know we didn't see another Rod the whole journey down though we did meet a guy on one of the services who lived in Los Angeles and owned a 27T who we had a great crack with, he was made up when he saw our Cool Cars Buddy! Oh and Mr. Bean passed us on the M6 in his McLaren F1 we gave him the finger but he didn't respond ??
My 34 and Bakey's Anglia just soaked up the miles and had no mishaps, man that is so great a feeling to open the hood and see no oil leaks the trans fluid is cool and the Fuel gauge hardly moves, it is all so much more enjoyable now. Loads of People passed us smiling and giving us the thumbs up. Then we hit the big Brother Zone camera's everywhere. I was driving along without a care in the world enjoying the weather and the way the car was driving, far to much into the whole experience to bother about silly camera's that never have any film in. Then my mate Pudzz said "them camera back there flashed us you know!!!" "Nah.... did they?" I said I was only dong about 50 anyway because of heavy traffic..... then I saw the signs Bloody 40flaming MPH 40 friggin MPH on the Motorway ???? what's that all about?. My Mate Bake's phones me and says them camera's are working and record you, your in trouble Dude Grrrrrrrrrrrrr Fancy leaving my front number plate on after the Mot Grrrrrrrrrr when I had finally calmed down and got back into it, we were attacked by another batch of camera's did the same again Terrrrrrr once is a shame twice is just damn stoopid........ so I have some saving up to do to pay the fines eh and I have not had a speeding fine in over 20yrs Damn Bloody Big Brother though or what. The country is being taken over by Scum Bags!
We arrived at Billing after a 4 hour journey, and got lost in the complex, them damned speed humps where everywhere and everyone scrapped my exhaust and more worryingly the new trans and we couldn't see a Rod anywhere lots of modern stuff though!!????.............. We finally came across Steve Hudson's gorgeous T and he was sat outside a Bar/Cafe? in the Billing Aquadrome complex and asked him where all the Rods were camped?. He told us we were miles off course. Apparently we forked off left when we should of forked off right oh Fork we thought.... and had to back track over all them sodding speed bumps again!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.. We finally found the rod camp site and we were quite amazed at how many stockers there were there, looked more like ASDA car park in places.
I had had an e-mail a week or two previous inviting me to the Acme camp Party and Langy had said it was ok to camp with him/them so the search was on. Once round the camp site didn't find us a Langy! I ended up rocking on one particular high speed hump I was stuck solid until my passenger Pudzz got out and lightened the load, so we could edge slowly forward and then disaster!!!!! Bakey's Anglia stops???? "Wazzup Bake's" "I think it has overheated"....... "oh Sh*t..... did it seize?" I asked ....."it made some real strange sounds and juddered then stopped dead" said a worried Bake's........... "Oh Man it sounds serious Dude!".......... Pudzz helps push him off the Camp site road to a safe spot to see what we could do.. Pudzz said "where's d'ya recon ya mate Langy's parked then?"...... " I don't know Pudzz........"There is a track to the left we didn't go down we could try that? I said.... "pity you haven't got his phone number" Pudzz said "errrrr I have :>)"......... "Then why don't ya phone him ya Numpty!!" That would be to easy eh!........ I phone Pudzz takes a look at Bakey's Anglia "Bakes ya petrol pumps buzzing away you have run out of petrol Ya Numpty Ha Ha" Catastrophe averted Bakes fills up with a spare can of fuel he carries while I phoned Langy and found out where he was camped. I told Bakes I still had half a tank of fuel and also added I wouldn't have one of those gas guzzling Rover V8 and a nicely tuned 302ci Ford was far more economical Ha Ha.......... well almost :>)
Seeing as we had no wife's with us we parked up and had a Beer
before we even thought about getting the tents out and set up....... Toad (Mark
Pointing) had shouted us as we came passed his camp and said he would stick some
food on the Barby for us which was very thoughtful and good of him so while we
set up camp and got acquainted to the guys camped there, Toad cooked our Tea's
just like bringing the wife eh!. It turned
out those camped by Langy where members of the ukhotrods e-mail group we had a
bit of a crack as we set the tents up, this was the first mass uk-hotrods
camp...... Cool!
We then Toddled over to Toads and ate his food got to meet a few more from the e-mail group. We had a real Laugh generally taking da Pee out of each other looking at the Rods that came passed... shouting a few comments and those cars that earned such comments :>) It was a real laid back and carnival type atmosphere or so it seemed to me with Rods burbling passed, people stopping and talking, Tot Rods, Bikes, people, people walking Dogs, all sorts passed by where Toad was camped there was something going on all the time.
There were some very cool looking Rides driving by and the weather was still Hot which was just aswell really because I got the phone call from home...... "your going to have fun....... what have you forgotten??" ......" I don't know darling what have I forgotten"....... "not your Beer is it".. she said... "No not my Beer" was my reply :>) ....... "in your rush to get going and get your Beer in your Car you have left the bag with your change of clothes, wash gear, soap, towel, contact lens stuff, your shaver, gel, hair brush, tooth brush etc etc and your work shirt for when it gets cold .... you are an Idiot" was the end of the sentence as a sort of full stop like.......... "Oh Baggar"... I said.... "nowt I can do now Darling best I can do is go to bed with no supper eh!" Phone goes dead whoops!!!......
Luckily I managed to sort out something to put my lenses in for the night the rest who cares eh!
One bright spot on the evenings entertainment was Keith Harman's (feature writer for Custom Car) trick cycling display. He starts to ride off into the sunset on his daughters BMX after he had showed us his battle scars from taking a tumble the day before...... as Toad Shouts "WHEELIE!!" so Keith obliges and as he gets the front wheel in the air he turns it?? which makes him get a speed wobble on and yeah you guessed it he fly's headlong over the bike as it nose dived into the dusty track *ouch* and he gets up shouts a bit then blames it on Toad for telling him to do a wheelie.. Terrrrrrrrrrrr
Soon it was time to go over and see what was happening at the Show field and Beer tent / Marquee. We showed our membership cards to the burley security guys but they said we had to get an arm band from the NSRA tent and seen as it was 10pm how could we as it was shut?? But try as we might the Big Guys would not let us in :>( Mind you it looked like everyone was outside anyway. The show field was a mass of people with a few Cool Rods parked and a couple a Kustoms aswell. With Lynne Stafford lighting the sky up with her cool flame thrower exhausts......
We found Pete Whiteside from Preston sat outside with his wife Sandra, "how's the 36 Pete where is it?" we asked eagerly. Pete looked glum he had set off Thursday filled it with Gas and there was some water being chucked from his Rad while at the garage and a really unhealthy rattle/knock Tap Tap??? He doesn't know what it is he really and doesn't much care at this Moment either.... They were so looking forward to driving down in their just finished Cool looking 36, this was to be its first Rod Run. They couldn't do Drayton the month because of things Pete had to sort at work, so this was to be its first enjoyable Run....... Man was he p*ssed off, hope all goes well Pete! We had a good crack with them and then our beer ran out and seen as we couldn't go in the beer tent we went back to our camp and to find the Acme Party we had been invited to. I tell ya what though I don't know if its just me being a Dirty old Man or just p*ssed but there were some stunning looking women about made me think of maybe a new Page on the web site Rod runs top ten Totty I could show suitable entrants my uk-hotrods press card get them to pose and post the top ten Hot Chicks of each run instead of the cars eh what ya reckon......... :>) Or you could just send me suitable applicants for me to dribble whoops sorry judge and put in the top ten totty awards............... purely in the name or Rodding you understand *wink* yes that says wink!
Where was I?
We went back to our camp and picked up our Beer Stash and headed to the Acme Camp..... all seemed quite quiet I said lets just go back to our camp they look like they are just chilling out and the last thing they want is some thick pissed Northerners disturbing their peace..... Pudzz said "Na lets go and have the crack with em"..... So he just boulder'ed up and said "is Langy here?" ............... they just turned round looked at him like he had just landed from Mars and someone said "no!??"... I could see they were quite bemused by the three Fat gits with funny accents peering at them through the darkness so we Fugged off back to our camp and just took the wazz out of each other instead... Till we thought Toady he will be up... they will be having some crack over there so we went and disturbed his peace instead.
Man! he is as much a London Lad as we are Cumbrian but we hit it off and just had a good laugh over some Cold Beers on a warm barmy night We called it a night a 2.25am after some great Crack ... Had a great first day and looked forward to the Sunday Show Day.... "Night Bakey"... "Night Pudzz".... "Night Holmsey"........ "Night John Boy"............ "Night Grandma"........................ *Snore*...... Bloody Snore..... Bakes Hell what was he powering it was like he had started up a generator or something Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Seeya Sunday!
