ESMOC

This year, Boab, Keith and Alex, again headed down to London for this event organized by the LSMOC.

This time, however we decided to make the trip down in one go, and also decided against the fiasco that is camping at Crystal Palace park, and opted instead for a nice hotel, or so we thought...

7:00am Friday morning Keith got a lift through to Edinburgh at 7:00am, and was collected by Alex, before heading to Boab’s for just after 9:00am.

With both Cars packed it was off down the A70 to the M74, then the M6. Everything was going well, the weather was OK, Boab succeded in fulfilling weekend challenge No1 – “can it be done???“ was the question – to find out what – ask him!

Just south of Preston, we hit a monsoon-like raincloud, and poor old Rab spluttered to a halt. Thankfully, it was nothing more than an electrical plug vibrating off, and Boab was soon underway again. Alex’s windscreen however was doing its best Niagra-falls impression.

Then under a mile from our planned fuel and food stop, Alex’s car took offence at him saying it never appeared to stop when it got wet; suddenly loosing all power, misfiring, running on 2 or 3 and generally causing concern, especially as we were in the middle of another monsoon. It was feared that lack of petrol was the cause, until a HUGE backfire confirmed it was just the wet. Struggling up the slip-road, both minis decided to quit at the junction at the top, it taking a few minutes to persuade them back into life and do the final 200yds to the services.

After a trip through the golden-arches for lunch, both cars started and ran perfectly again, so we fuelled up and headed south again, round the M6 Toll and onto the M40, then in the M4 and onto the A4 into London. At this point Boab, who was in the lead suddenly turned left into Chiswick, following his Satnav (Crystal palace was the opposite direction). After about 15 minutes of sitting in even more traffic Jams, Boabs Sat-nav was sacked and Alex’s took over, taking us past Earls Court, then across the Thames and onto the south circular. We arrived at the hotel about 7:15, to be met by a large group of people milling about, getting fobbed off by the reception about booking in, some apparently having been there for over 2 hours. Armed with a beer from the bar, Alex, refused to be fobbed off, and got our 3 rooms within 15 minutes – apparently the booking system had crashed, and there was no backup plan.

Quickly dumping our stuff in the rooms, we headed up the road to the train-station, bought our tickets, avoided the monsters on the platform

and caught a train into London for a wander around and also to get something to eat (it was after 9pm by this time). We ended up in a small place just off Leicester Square, where we sat and watched the world go by for a few drinks before heading back on the train to our hotel.

Saturday we got up (well Alex and Keith did) and went for breakfast in a coffee-bar along the road, before going back to the hotel, finding Boab and heading off to Crystal Palace park Meeting Andy and Stevie there.

We then caught the Routemaster bus into London, this being part of the L2B event, and something we enjoyed last year. It dropped us at the end of Oxford Street, and we spent a number of hours wandering round Central London.

The bus dutifully returned for us on time, but there was a problem, the bus was full!!! How were we to get back????

The conductor explained that EVERYONE would be getting off the bus, and forming and orderly queue behind us – it had been explained at Crystal Palace that there may not be room for everyone on the return (but this appeared not to have sunk in). The French contingent feigned incomprehention, the gobby English contingent said “if they aint getting off, neither are we” – World war 3 was about to erupt.

The Driver Calmly got out and explained if nobody got off, then the bus was going nowhere, so they eventually all got off – but clustered round the door, not getting in the queue. Eventually the bus left, leaving a few of the French people behind.

We then wandered round the park, which was filling up nicely now, then took our cars back to the hotel and went out looking for the recommended Curry-house (an ex-pat Scot living in CP recommended 2 to us), and settled on the “Yak and Yeti” for a very nice meal. We then returned to our hotel where chaos was about to unfold...

Then disaster...

The hotel had given Keiths room out to someone else!!!

We returned back to reception, where Alex pointed this out to the Manager. Lots of excuses appeared, then another room was allocated to Keith, so we set of back down to find it – To find it already occupied by a young lady!! So off back up to reception again (getting a wee bit annoyed by now). Another room was offered, but Alex stood his ground and insisted that someone from the Staff went and checked the room wasn’t occupied as by now a number of other people were at reception with exactly the same issue. The Security guard was despatched, and he couldn’t find the room, so the manager (still proffering excuses) took us to find the room and Keith was finally OK

Sunday, we got up and headed straight from the Hotel towards Brighton – deciding to pick up out run-packs there. Apparently this year, the camping and registration was much better, the cars being allowed to line-up on the Saturday evening, and also the registration was quick and efficient and was all done in under an hour.

Arriving in Brighton we avoided the signposted route in, and nipped along the ring-road, then came into central Brighton a different way, avoiding much of the traffic.

Parking up, we got a reasonably decent spot just at the bottom of the ramp, put up the flag and headed off along Marine Drive, looking for breakfast. A nice little café just up from the front, supplied us with a large cooked breakfast, although we are still waiting for Keiths Mushrooms!!!

Walking back along marine drive, we looked at the traders and the cars in the show and shine. There were definitely less traders than in past years, but those that were there, had just about everything you could want (except an extra long Mk1 choke-cable!).

We finally left Brighton at about 3:45pm and headed off up the motorway back to the M25, then retraced our route back up the M40, stopping at Oxford Services for fuel and a quick bite to eat. Our overnight stay was just south of Stoke, and was a Travelodge to remember – it looking almost brand-new inside. After a meal in the carvery, and a few beers at the bar, we returned to our rooms ready for the last bit of the journey home.

Leaving at 9:15 to try and avoid the traffic, we made good time up the M6/M74, dropping Keith off at his flat (where he got out taking Alex’s coat, with his house-keys and phone and wallet). On arriving home, Alex found he had no keys, phone, or money to refuel the car to head back over to Keiths to collect his Jacket.