Eire Raiders

The Citroën 2CV Club of UK (2cvGB, for short) is organised into Local Groups rather than being run as one big club (although there is a Central Committee and an official National body) and it is at local group level that all the camps, rallies and events take place, with each local group advertising their events in the club mag so that people from any other local group can come and take part. When I lived in Kent I was main-man for the East Kent group, who are called the Kentish Hoppers. We ran camps in a member's Mum's farm at the village of Preston, near Canterbury and these were regularly mentioned in blog posts of old.

But it is the Bath local group, the Bath Tub Club who are the subject of this post. The group, run by John Mellor and Carol M who visited us here a while back organise driving tour holidays which in 2cvGB tend to be called 'Raids'. This one, being a tour of the west side of Ireland, got called Eire Raid or, less seriously Hair Aid. We offered to become a port of call on this Raid, as well as a port in a storm, possible free camp site, under cover car repair facility etc if it all went a bit pear shaped.

Well, they have all had a whale of a time and some lovely weather. They have toured all the scenic bits, had some lovely meals and sampled some excellent Guinness and John has kept us all up to date with his blog and reports on Facebook under the heading Hair Aid News. They decided to call in here this afternoon, so we went a bit mad yesterday mowing, tidying the garden and blitzing the house and Liz went into full-on Domestic Goddess mode baking scones, three kinds of cake, lemon biscuits, bacon cheese and chilli biscuits and those chocolate covered Rice Krispies things. We had an army of mugs lined up for teas and coffees, jam, butter and whipped cream for the scones, dogs were walked and banished to upstairs (briefly!) and we were ready.

There were 11 of them in the end - we knew John and Carol and we knew Sue Chalcraft from club AGMs (she was 'Keeper of the Archive') and Jan the Membership Sec but I am rubbish at names so the rest of you, if you read this, I'm sorry but names pass through my brain without really touching down, so I will have to learn them and get to know you better through Face Book. They were all lovely people and it was fantastic to have them here. They loved the place and the geese and goslings, chooks, mini-horses, rabbits, dogs (yes, we quickly let them out of their room once we'd explained about not letting them dash out of a door and get at the goslings) and cats. They descended upon the food like a plague of locusts and we chatted and talked, showed them the place and all the work we have done to renovate it.

All in all it was an excellent 'event'. I think this is their last night of 'Raid'ing so as we said our good byes, some of them were also saying their own good byes to each other as they went their separate ways back to ferries to the UK over tonight and tomorrow. That sad 'end of holidays' feeling we all know so well. Well guys, if you are ever by this way again, do look us up. We love doing this and Liz, particularly loves all the baking and Domestic Goddess-ery. There is something Irish about being hospitable and feeding guests, and Liz has definitely got this gene.

Brilliant.

One More Box Ticked

The screening of the new "Red Sails" barge film at the cinema in Faversham is a huge success attracting a full house (450) with an overflow of 200 more 'bums' for a second screening at 3pm. Faversham people definitely appreciate all things barge. Dad gets into a group of Volunteers who all arrive by coincidence in the lower seats at the left hand side. The group is later joined by a 'celeb' from the Society of Sailing Barge Research called Tricia Gurnett. The film is brilliant (again!) and Mike Maloney (Producer) receives a rousing round of applause. Dad and his group plus Tricia adjourn to the Cambria for a cup of tea below decks.

He then gets a phone call from 2CV Llew who is struggling to source mudguards for the trailer he is building for Dad, and asks Dad to drop in to Trident Trailers right round near our old house. They have one of the desired type and size but can get another brought over from their other shop in Maidstone.

Back at Diamond's, Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce, is recommending "Kir Normande" as a cold cure. It's a 50/50 mix of Creme de Cassis and Calvados which Haggis would argue is a waste of Calva but Dad thinks is not too bad as a medicine, so Diamond and Dad partake of a few in the afternoon while putting the world to rights. 2CV Llew is doing the driving tonight to the 2CV club do, so he can get away with it.

The national 2CV club (2CVGB) is organised as a collection of local groups all meeting in pubs roughly monthly and covering the 2CV demand in their county or part county. Dad's local group. the Kentish Hoppers, meet in a pub called the Haywain in the village of Bramling just east of Canterbury. As the supply of road worthy 2CVs fades (the Government websites have the number down to about 2500 in UK now) these groups are also fading and merging; the Hoppers now are the result of a coalescence of several Kent groups and can still only put up about ten souls on a good day.

Last night they were meeting to eat the Haywain's pub-grub and to bid farewell to Dad, who's been the 'main contact' for the group for ten years or so. They don't do 'chairman' and 'committee' posts; it's not that kind of a meeting. It's usually just a gang of like-minded souls coming together for a beer and chat which is only sometimes about olde cars and 2CVs. Dad was worried that tonight the food would be the Haywain's Christmas menu, so was looking enviously at Mum and Diamond starting to prepare a genuine pasta carbonara. He needn't have worried. The group had swerved the Christmas menu in favour of ordering off the normal menus, so Dad had their delicious game suet-pudding with peas and mash followed by a choc sponge pudding with black cherry sauce and ice cream. Also a pint of Gadd's and a pint of Bombardier. Excellent. Another box ticked in the 'farewell to social groups' agenda. The last one for Dad. There remains only the Mum's work set and landlady Diamond herself.

Deefs