What A Week!

Firstly sorry for not posting this week, its been one of those weeks where I haven't had 5 mins to myself.


To say its been frantic would be an understatement!


So I will try and recap on what has happened to us this week, starting back last Sunday when "M" hurt her shoulder.


After a few pain killers the pain appeared to ease, but it soon came back, and came back badly!


So much so that by first thing Monday morning after speaking to the doctors surgery we were off to the minor injuries clinic to have it looked at.


Bad news for "M" she has torn the cuff of the shoulder joint, that's the bit that keeps the arm socket in place.


She had it x-rayed and they sent her off with it strapped up and some more pain killers. She was told to come back on Friday to have it reviewed. Well, by Friday "M" was climbing the walls with pain, so an appointment was made to see the doctor, who has now signed her off work for another two weeks and given her some serious pain killers to help things along. We are now awaiting an appointment to have it scanned to see what damage has been done.

Worst case scenario is an operation, so we will wait and see what happens.


So last Monday was spent travelling to the minor injuries clinic and alot of waiting around, when we finally got back to the caravan I received a call from my dad who wanted his hedge cutting, to him it needed doing now, to me it could of waited another few days, but as I knew the week was full, I thought if I didn't do it now it wouldn't get done. So a trip back to Gillingham to get it done, 30 mins to cut the hedge, 2 hrs of driving!


That was Monday totally written off, this then left three days to get everything done! The clock was ticking and it was ticking fast!


Tues, Weds and Thurs went by in a blur, working late to try and get everything done, which I managed to do, just!


Now, we had originally planned to go to Mosterton steam show, this is around 60 miles away, which meant two trips to get there and 2 trips to get back, so a total mileage of around 500 miles for the weekend. With fuel costing the price that it does, then it didn't take much convincing to go to a small and I do mean small, local rally at a little village 5 miles from here at Witchampton. 


We were lucky to enough to be invited to it, it was the first time that it had been run and it was a right laugh from start to finish - so thanks Paul, Dee, Jimmer, Mike, Keith, Donna and all the others that were there, we had a fantastic time!


We got there late afternoon on the Friday, set up and then received a call to say that my Dad was off into hospital with a suspected stroke!


He is on such a cocktail of medication that one pill seems to work against another producing all sorts of weird side effects.


They now think it wasn't a stroke, but his nerve endings are playing up, so he is very unsteady on his feet. If they could just get the medication right I think he would be alot better.


Back at the show, we were camped up in a field 5 minutes walk from where we were showing the engines, so we dropped them off, got them covered then went back up to have a few beers before heading down to the club.


Witchampton  doesn't have a pub, but it does have a members club, which we were invited into. A lovely old building dating back to 1580, a good selection of beers and ciders including Chedder valley cider, this was the stuff that knocked me out at Selwood steam show, but at £4.00 a pint I felt safe knowing I wasn't paying that for it. I did mention that I thought the price was a tad high for a little village boozer. What I didn't expect was that the next night we went in they had reduced the price to £3.50! I then felt obliged to drink it, which I did.


Woke up Saturday morning feeling woozy and to be honest rough as a badgers arse! I managed to stagger down to the club, as they were serving a breakfast for us exhibitors. "M" didn't make breakfast and turned up later on in the morning.


The weather all day was wonderful, and we got suitably sun burnt! We were all sat around by our engines when we heard this all mighty crash. An Audi A4 estate's handbrake had failed, running backwards down a hill to be stopped by a garage door and the car inside. Thankfully no one was injured, as only minutes before kids were running around directly behind the car!


One of the stationary engines had a bit of a mishap. It was running a water pump, the belt slipped off the water pump and wrapped itself around the engines flywheel, this isn't good as 10 foot of canvas belt thrashing around at speed can cause some serious damage to anyone who comes anywhere near it, stones were flying off the ground, but luckily they got in quickly to get the belt off and shut down the engine. Once again, no one hurt! Phew!


Saturday night my good friend Mr Gulliver and his young nipper Thomas came over for a few beers, a bite to eat, then we went down to the club, but Thomas being only 2ish soon got fed up so we decided to head back up to the camp site and carry on with a few more beers up there.
We left the rest of them back at the club doing karaoke. At around 0100hrs we heard the girls come back singing as they came down the lane, closely followed by the rest of the lads. We then sat around talking and having a couple more till 0200hrs where by I literally had to crawl to my bed as I had lost the use of my legs by this time.


Sunday morning, was another morning feeling rough, but it soon wore off and we enjoyed another day sat in the sun, eating and getting sun burnt.


All too soon it was time to pack up, a great weekend was had by all, but another incident then occurred, a guy driving his tractor up onto a flat bed lorry had managed to loose it and it rolled off the lorry! Thankfully he had managed to jump clear, spraining an ankle but he could of easily been crushed as the tractor rolled over completely.
It was in a bit of a state, it had only just been restored, this was only its third show since it was restored. But it all could of been alot worse.


We decided to stay Sunday night and again, we went down to the club and had a few beers with Paul and Dee, we walked back through the graveyard which was a bit scary but no ghosts were seen.


We like the club so much that on the Sunday evening we joined as we are only down the road and can see us popping over on a regular basis for a pint.


We decided that we wouldn't rush this morning as the weather is lovely and "M" is signed off. We were the only ones left in the field, Paul and Dee left there van here but they went home last night.


We left the site around 1200hrs and drove the 5 miles back to our site, where we set up to find that the bloody fridge isn't working! The power selector switch has failed. We have tried to get the front off, but as of yet we haven't found a way of doing this, so all our frozen stuff has gone up to the owners house! Later on today we will have another go of trying to sort it out. I'm hoping that its just the switch that has failed and we can get that replaced, if not a new/2nd had fridge is required!


So as you can see its been an eventful week! Ive got some photos which I will put up hopefully later this evening.


This week should be easier, not being away next weekend, as "M" is off with her daughter to London on Saturday night to see "Take That"


But the following weekend we are off to Portland Steam Show, not that its in Portland anymore but just outside of Weymouth. The coming Olympics have put paid to the show being in its usual place. Shame, as it was in a cracking place, we walked out to Portland Bill Lighthouse last year. But on the plus side, we wont be blown around so much!


And so ends our eventful week! Monday is done and dusted, and its now flat out for the rest of the week!


Ill add some pictures later.


Normal postings will now resume now that Ive a bit more time! Thanks for sticking with us!


Till later............