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.

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!!

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!