Southern Hospitality

It was a bit blustery so we changed our minds about the hovercraft;

we’ll go back and have a proper holiday on the Isle of Wight at some time, maybe we’ll leave the boat with someone for a week and have a cycling holiday. What we did do was have a couple of very happy days in Portsmouth. Ann-Marie used to live there when she was in college and made some very firm friends through the local 2CV club. So, on Saturday we turned up outside Fran & Sean’s house. We all went for a meal on Hayling Island, then on Sunday Sean took Dave to the Hollycombe steam collection; a fascinating mixture of everything steam driven from fairground rides to threshing machines.

It’s all run by volunteers and Sean has been involved with it for thirty years or so.
Fran, Ann-Marie and the adorable Phoebe had a girly day in the park, singing and dancing in the rain. Thank you both for everything, it was great to see you and be made to feel so welcome.
On Monday we parked up at one end of Portsmouth sea front

and went for a windswept walk along to the other end before driving back up the A3 to see Elaine and Steve. They’ve recently bought a 30 year old folding caravan. It’s in amazing condition and they love it to bits. It was great to see them; we can't stress enough how lucky we feel to have such a wonderfully welcoming bunch of mates.
After tea we set off for Winchester and pulled up on Coops & Carol’s drive amongst a throng of 2CVs, Dyanes and H Vans. This is the advance party for the 32nd 2CVGB National Meeting, this year held in the grounds of Sparsholt College with a Roman theme. We’re helping with the setup; tomorrow morning we all arrive on the site and start putting up fire and water points, marking out roadways and filling goody bags. The weather forecast for the Bank holiday is fairly good but we may have to dodge the showers beforehand.