I had been told to get to Numptie Mike and Stella's for 7:30 am on the Friday morning and surprised both myself and them by being on time for once!
There were a few of us making the journey from this part of the world, but only us three were setting off on the early ferry to Lymington where we were meeting up with Pip, the famous mad-cocktail maker.Even thought it's only a short ferry crossing I still managed two rounds of the compulsory "rally toast".....ever mindful not to get that dreaded anorexia thingy!
After collecting Pip we set off on the scooters and the rain started, keeping pace with us on and off for most of the journey,not too heavy, but enough to make the roads a bit slippy.The journey through the New Forest was as good as ever, but I still can't get used to riding a scooter over cattle grids...we don't get too many of them where I used to live.
At the first service station we met up with Steve (Chilli, from Modrapheniacs, Ton's husband) and Shaun and I was reasonably quick (for me) at re-fuelling the scoot, despite the confusing "spider" bungee thingy I had the luggage strapped down with.
Last year's journey took an incredible seven hours, thanks mostly to going the wrong way,heat seizures and punctures, but this time we arrived in Exmouth around mid-day without any hassle.As we passed the campsite on the outskirts of town we could see it was already filling up nicely.We headed on to the BnB I stayed at last year, but this time we had completely filled it up with our crowd, which included Ton and Chris....Ton travelled by car as she was not feeling too good due to a neuralgia condition which left her a bit too wobbly to trust riding her scoot.
The landlady, Anne, a wonderful, genuinely friendly Irish lady, was delighted to see us all again and let us park the scoots out of sight round the back of the house where they were safe and secure all weekend.We've already booked this BnB up again for next year and filled it full.
After dropping off the gear, a quick freshen-up and a mini cocktail from Pip (monster sized vodka and a hint of Lucozade) we headed off to the seafront to meet up with other friends as planned.First shock of the weekend was the Deer Leap is no longer the Deer Leap...it's been aken over by the Hungry Horse pub chain and is now called the Bath House.No real problem with this, the food menu still looked good, reasonable prices and they were still welcoming scooterists (and our money)....but the next shock was a bit worse.
At last year's rally here, the famous Woo Woo was discovered on the cocktail menu, and the Modrapheniac Girls must have had buckets full of the stuff.They were planning a Woo Woo Reunion Party, but to their horror there was no Cocktail Menu anymore! The kid behind the bar was informed of the likely riot that would take place when the rest of the Woo Woo Gang hit town, abd to be fair to him he offered to make one up from the various ingredients (Vodka, Archers and Cranberry juice) but explained it would be a bit expensive to buy as they didn't have a promotional cocktail list.
Mike bought Stella a Woo Woo just for the hell of it, and I nearly had to pick him up off the floor when he was told it cost nearly EIGHT QUID !! Later that evening, the girls all bought their famous drink, but as expected it was limited to just one each and the Woo Woo Party was put on hold.No doubt Pip at some stage in the future will serve up a deadly version to make up for their disappointment.....(for those not familiar with Pip's cocktails, here's an example for you...at Wooly last year she didn't have a proper mixing punch bowl, or maybe that should be "cauldron", so she improvised with a cleaned out Kentucky Bargain Bucket...which melted after only two servings of a lethal concoction...and nearly burn a hole in the table)
The pub was filling up all afternoon and by early evening I'd met up with lots of familiar faces from the south coast scooter scene. Andy H and Fiona had joined us at this point and I later discovered he'd had a bit of fun with my camera when I made the classic error of going to the bar and leaving it on the table.When I got my photos developed I saw about 6 or 7 pics of him and various other culprits who'd been there at the time......no worries,mate, revenge will be mine.....just wait til I send the pics to Dunny's mate Russ who's an expert with his PhotoShop thingy...your head will be appearing on all manner of assorted strange things in a few weeks time heh heh.
We headed off to the Friday night do , meeting up with plenty more friends including Rob from the Modrapheniacs who was being encouraged to strip naked and stroll round the venue. When we left him he was up to an offer of 6 pints and a kebab which he was seriously considering.
After a great selection of classic rally tunes, the band for the night took to the stage.A Clash tribute band called London Calling, I was really looking forward to seeing this lot. Being an old git I'm from an era where I'm proud to say I've seen The Clash several times, even have my White Riot tour badge somewhere, and this band were very good.However, after they'd been on stage for what seemed like 3 days, I was not the only one who got a bit bored and the hall soon emptied out to the bar, leaving the dancefloor to only a handful of dedicated "wreckers, po goers and assorted nutters".At the bar I met a familiar face, Pimp from the Renegades SC and he seemed particularly unhappy the un-opened talc in his back pocket would not be getting used for his beloved Northern Soul that night.
We decided on an early-ish night, plus a search for food, and wandered into town.The Exmouth cat-bab shops were doing a roaring trade and the late night seagulls were being well fed too.I tried feeding a few with one of Numptie's chilli thingies from his cat-bab, but even the seagulls didn't want it.Looking at the size of them, maybe their usual diet consists of lost children or Exmouth Chavs, so a feeble chilli didn't impress.
I was convinced I'd been asleep for 5 minutes when the delicious smell of bacon woke me up, but no, it really was morning. I thought for a second it might be an elaborate OAJJ April Fool trick, then I staggered leisurely downstairs to be joined by the rest of our lot, looking as bad as me, sore heads all round.Chris, who had gone to the rally without husband Simon, was nominated as my "surrogate wife", supposedly to look after my breakfast requirements such as topping up my orange juice etc but I was soon reduced to the "yes dear" status as she explained who was the boss.I even got told to hurry up as she wanted to go to the custom show immediately...."yes, dear"......
The assorted stalls and custom show were visited before we all headed off in different directions, Mike,Stella,Pip and me deciding we needed more alcohol so we spent a leisurely afternoon back at the Bath House, drinking and playing pool.
Hungry again we went into town and decided on the menu in the Steam Monkey where I was entertained by the genuinely mad accents of the local wurzel farmers as I tucked into my pasta.After a power nap back at the BnB we were ready for Saturday night's entertainment.
More classic rally tunes, and then tonights band were a local mod-ish group called Evanfly. They did a decent set of covers, from Oasis to Buzzcocks as well as some of their own stuff and were again a decent enough band but just seemed to be on stage way too long. By this point we were bored and began making our own entertainment, pretending to "hero worship" the band, trying to touch their feet etc etc. I don't think they knew what to make of us at first, if we were taking the P or not, but eventually they joined in the fun of it all and by the end of the night they'd won us round, particularly the guitarist who we named Benny coz of his wooly hat.
At last years rally I wished I'd had one of MrBean's famous "Northern" T shirts, just for the fun of it....well this year I did ! Maybe coz it's new to the southerners and they haven't seen too many of them before but the T shirt was the star of the show!
I had reactions from people wanting to shake my hand, to total "outrage" that I could wear something "so insulting" and actually took money from at least 2 people wanting to buy one for themselves before I though I'd better check with MrBean first to see if that would be ok.Seriously, young man, you should set up a stall down here sometime, you'd make a fortune.
After another late night snack and failed attempt to feed the seagulls more chilli we headed off to the BnB.This time the breakfast entertainment came from the landlady herself.....in the process of trying to get more toast and coffee for us, Anne somehow locked herself out of the kitchen whe nthe handle jammed.No worries, she simply went round the side of the house, in through the side door and passed the coffee and toast in to us through the open window.....classic!!
The sun shone all the way home, we went the right way, and before long I was getting off the ferry again.Had a brilliant time, the only thing that would make it better would be if more ii family made the journey to Exmouth, it always seems to be one you never go to, and it's a triffic rally.
Maybe next year?
Until then, hope to see some of you in 5 weeks time for a small event happening just down the road from us.............
Tara
xx ii xx