My NEC Weekend
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 11 5:48 pm
First let me say Thank You for being given the opportunity to show my car at the NEC.
We set off at 6.45am Thursday, met up with a buddy at 7am then had planned to meet up with 2 other buddies at 7.30am, traffic was so bad that we didn't get to them until around 9.15am even though they were only 12 miles away, by the time we got onto the M25 it was 10am, we got to the NEC ariund 12.15, by then the hall was starting to fill up, but just managed to to squeeze through and get park up on our stand.
We were staying with one of my brother-in-laws at his house in Oldbury which is only about 20miles away from the NEC, so phoned him and arranged for him to pick us up around 4pm.
Friday morning we loaned my sister-in-laws car to take us back to the NEC, we had a good walk around and took lots of pics, I never knew the NEC was such a big place, we maned the club stand for a bit so Ivor and Martin could go walk about (we needed the rest really), left there around 5pm.
Saturday afternoon I went in with my brother-in-law for a couple of hours, mainly so he could have a look around and give Martin a break for a while, as Ivor had the day off.
Sunday we didn't get to the NEC until about 1pm, didn't want to go in to early as the weekend was also a chance to catch up with some of the family.
It was a great to meet new and old friends and put a few faces to names.
Well done to Martin for staying the whole weekend on the club stand, he deserves a medal, and of course to Ivor for all his hard work.
Now for the bad bit, about 2 hours before leaving to go home , I got the rumble tums, in and out of the toilets like never before, I took some tablets and all seemed fine but it wasn't, after leaving the NEC I needed the toilet again, lucky for me the services was not far and I needed petrol anyway, just got there in time.
A couple of miles out of the services I heard a noise and could see lots of steam from under the hood, so pulled on to the hard shoulder, by this time it was around 7-45pm, we had a quick look and from what I could see a core plug had blown, I told my buddy Lee who was in his Mustang to carry on home as there was nothing he could do so after a while he left, I phoned the AA and was told some one would be out to us within the hour, after about 15 mins the old tum started again so I had to scramble up the banking and through the bramble hedge, you can guess the rest. This happened again after about another 30 mins, a little while later the breakdown truck arrived and the driver said "you need a flatbed truck to take you home", he then said"I'm just going up the banking to have a Bananarama! then I'll ring them to arrange it", poor sod must have got his feet dirty.
The driver of the breakdown truck got us off the motorway and into the sevices just in time as the tum had started again, while he unhooked the Charger I ran for the toilets.
The flatbed arrived and the driver loaded the Charger onto the back, Liz sat up front with the driver and I curled up in the corner of the crewcab and fell asleep, I awoke with bad pains in the tum and saw a sign that said Services 1 mile and i got the driver to pull in there, this time I made it by the skin of my teeth, I hate to think what might have happened if I had woke up 5 mins later.
We got home around 1am, I had a shower and went straight to bed, didn't get to sleep until 5am as i was in and out of the toilet all night, I stayed in bed until 6pm sleeping on and off all the time, I only got up then as Liz said there was sparks coming out of the bottom of the washing machine, this has happened before and it was the brushes need replacing.
I went out in the garage today expecting to have to take off the drivers side header and fit a new core plug, but it turned out to be the back header bolt had come out, so at least it was an easy fix, especially as I still feel so damm weak.
All in all an eventful few days.
.
We set off at 6.45am Thursday, met up with a buddy at 7am then had planned to meet up with 2 other buddies at 7.30am, traffic was so bad that we didn't get to them until around 9.15am even though they were only 12 miles away, by the time we got onto the M25 it was 10am, we got to the NEC ariund 12.15, by then the hall was starting to fill up, but just managed to to squeeze through and get park up on our stand.
We were staying with one of my brother-in-laws at his house in Oldbury which is only about 20miles away from the NEC, so phoned him and arranged for him to pick us up around 4pm.
Friday morning we loaned my sister-in-laws car to take us back to the NEC, we had a good walk around and took lots of pics, I never knew the NEC was such a big place, we maned the club stand for a bit so Ivor and Martin could go walk about (we needed the rest really), left there around 5pm.
Saturday afternoon I went in with my brother-in-law for a couple of hours, mainly so he could have a look around and give Martin a break for a while, as Ivor had the day off.
Sunday we didn't get to the NEC until about 1pm, didn't want to go in to early as the weekend was also a chance to catch up with some of the family.
It was a great to meet new and old friends and put a few faces to names.
Well done to Martin for staying the whole weekend on the club stand, he deserves a medal, and of course to Ivor for all his hard work.
Now for the bad bit, about 2 hours before leaving to go home , I got the rumble tums, in and out of the toilets like never before, I took some tablets and all seemed fine but it wasn't, after leaving the NEC I needed the toilet again, lucky for me the services was not far and I needed petrol anyway, just got there in time.
A couple of miles out of the services I heard a noise and could see lots of steam from under the hood, so pulled on to the hard shoulder, by this time it was around 7-45pm, we had a quick look and from what I could see a core plug had blown, I told my buddy Lee who was in his Mustang to carry on home as there was nothing he could do so after a while he left, I phoned the AA and was told some one would be out to us within the hour, after about 15 mins the old tum started again so I had to scramble up the banking and through the bramble hedge, you can guess the rest. This happened again after about another 30 mins, a little while later the breakdown truck arrived and the driver said "you need a flatbed truck to take you home", he then said"I'm just going up the banking to have a Bananarama! then I'll ring them to arrange it", poor sod must have got his feet dirty.
The driver of the breakdown truck got us off the motorway and into the sevices just in time as the tum had started again, while he unhooked the Charger I ran for the toilets.
The flatbed arrived and the driver loaded the Charger onto the back, Liz sat up front with the driver and I curled up in the corner of the crewcab and fell asleep, I awoke with bad pains in the tum and saw a sign that said Services 1 mile and i got the driver to pull in there, this time I made it by the skin of my teeth, I hate to think what might have happened if I had woke up 5 mins later.
We got home around 1am, I had a shower and went straight to bed, didn't get to sleep until 5am as i was in and out of the toilet all night, I stayed in bed until 6pm sleeping on and off all the time, I only got up then as Liz said there was sparks coming out of the bottom of the washing machine, this has happened before and it was the brushes need replacing.
I went out in the garage today expecting to have to take off the drivers side header and fit a new core plug, but it turned out to be the back header bolt had come out, so at least it was an easy fix, especially as I still feel so damm weak.
All in all an eventful few days.
.
Got to be about time you luck changes mate. 
