31.7.09

42. Topsy the wedding car

With the nice-ish weather we've had, Topsy has been out and about too quite a lot, with a couple of weekends away in Weardale trying out the awning with the kids and dog, and a few weekends up in Teesdale too. During that time Topsy passed her MOT and has had a bit of a service in preperation for the grand tour of scotchland, which will last as long as our megre amount of cash does!

The other rather exciting news for Topsy was when Leslie and John got married, and Topsy was a guest of honor charged with taking the groom

and the grooms Mum, and best man Stuart to the wedding venue! Twas a lovely day and Topsy looked spiffingly good in all her ribbons and balloons....and the bride looked fantastic too .... here's what the local rag, the Newton News had to say...
John Embleton and Lesley Ann Oxley were married on the 4th July 2009 at Bishop Auckland Registrar’s Office. The Reception was held at Newton Aycliffe Leisure Centre. the groom travelled to his wedding with Best Man Stewart Imeson in a camper van. In contrast his bride arrived in a white stretch limousine escorted by her son Christopher, and three Bridesmaids Ellie, Kyla and Ebony.
John is employed at Darchem Engineering and Lesley is a children’s nurse. They enjoyed their honeymoon in Rhodes after a few days in a cottage at Whitby. The happy couple thank John’s family and all their friends for making the wedding a day to remember.

20.5.09

41. topsy is warm

SO, after two winters of needing full Arctic gear to drive anywhere, I knuckled down at work doing every shift possible and eventually saved up enough cash to buy a lovely little propex heater... it was a bit of a hassle to fit, but is working perfectly now and t-shirt driving has become the norm! Cheers to Ray (northern classics and campers), excellent work, as usual!!

19.5.09

40. easter egg cruise for zoe's place

What a fantastic day this was - the north east vw club Easter egg cruise to Zoe's place! The challenge was to collect as many Easter eggs as possible, and then deliver them to Zoe’s Place, North Ormesby, who, during the Easter weekend, raffled off the Easter eggs in order to raise money in support of their incurred running costs. Such a day even meant Topsy got washed and polished, inside and out!

The club arranged two Police motorcycle outriders providing, us with an unchallenged police escort to our final destination !! Looking to help the club beat last year’s excellent efforts (16th May 2008 24 VW vehicles in convoy 141 Easter eggs) the Cobbler's Hall pub where i work nominated this as their Easter charity. we tirelessly sold raffle tickets, and badgered customers to bring in Easter eggs, and by the eve of the cruise we had collected a whopping 127 eggs, so big big thanks go to Collette, the staff and the many many customers who gave so generously....
...My mate Vicky joined me on the cruise, but we left olive-dog at home, fearing she would eat everybody's hard work! I only just got us to the start of the cruise on time, as a stop of for a maccy d's coffee was an absolute must at 9 am on a cool Saturday morning! All 127 eggs were unloaded from Topsy and the other vw's into a rather fine red and white splity
and then it was off, all 28 vw's of us, to Zoe's Place....
... being in half a mile of vw's, with police bikers directing you through red lights is a rather nice experience, and all for charity too, couldn't be any better...

it took a while for all the vans to pull into Zoe's place, where we we greeted by some of the kiddies and staff...who were delighted by the vehicles and , eggs ....

lots of eggs...
... lots and lots of eggs, 556 in fact, plus a cash donation and a hamper of baby items ...
a fantastic achievement worthy of a mention in a certain local newspaper. A proud vw club then headed off to the hills for a well earned spot of lunch and a photo call for the vehicles...

what a nice way to finish the day - except i had to rush back to get to work!

13.3.09

39. whitby weekend

finally had a weekend away, though we didn't sleep in the van - that would be far too ccolldd!! This time we got the kids and Olive-dog looked after (thanks Jason) and Rog and I were Whitby bound ...
... with a harbour view room booked at The Dolphin, and a fab view of Venus and a crescent moon...... The next day was full of excitement, we went on an adventurous seafaring voyage with extreme perils, such as a slight swell in the sea and a baby seal for 'Jolly Cap'n Roger' to avoid... ... the whole journey out of the port and back in lasted 5, maybe ten minutes, and it's well worth it for the comedy value, it was only £3 to catch the boat from near the pompous queue at the Magpie Cafe, and was probably the best money we spent on the weekend, until that is we saw Elizabeth the Steam Bus...... yes it is an actual steam powered bus (is this the future of camper vans!). Rog was very excited when for a couple of English pounds they let us board for the wonderous trip of a lifetime around Whitby, especially when flames came from the cab, but Elizabeth is slightly spoiled by the naff Thomas the Tank-esq face...




.... but I'm sure kids love it... then it was off in the van to Robin Hood's Bay to look for baby dolphins and fossils...




... though the only fossil I found was Roger, he found a blow fish in a window that he said bore an uncanny resemblance to me... ... I'm not convinced though!! That night, back at the Dolphin in the harbour view room we were treated to the spectacular sight of one side of Whitby bridge opening...

... amazing! The next morning it was kipper time, though the mere mention of kippers turned Rog a bit green so it was pot of tea then walk up to the Abbey without kipper timemaybe I'll get kippers next time....

All in all a great long awaited weekend break, now I'm back at work though so I'll just have to long await the next one!

22.1.09

38. topsy's troubles

Well, it's been a couple of months since any big adventures, mostly due to me working too much over Christmas and new year.... but Topsy has also had to have her starter motor repaired - thanks to Wayne for doing the job though, I struggled for an hour and a half to get the starter motor off the van, Wayne did the job in two and a half minutes!!! He also took the van away the next day and replaced the bushes, what a very nice man!
Unfortunately Topsy is still the target of the aycliffe vandals, all her tyres were let down the other morning, yet they aren't punctured - and the vandals replaced the dust caps - very very strange! rather annoying though as it takes ages to blow them up with the plug in pump thing!
Plans for this years adventures are going well though, we're looking into going whale watching up in bonny scotchland, and trying to organise a joint camping trip with the kids mates families.... ..... for now though we're just pleased Topsy is still running well and getting us and the dog out for a few local day trips....