Bridlington Trade & Custom Show, October 27th - 29th 2006

Photos are here

Friday dawned very early at Centerparcs in Suffolk.   I'd had a sporty week there with Sam but now it was time for a weekend of scooter-related debauchery so we hit the road at 7am and sped down the M11, battled with the M25 and then headed south home to Bognor.  After a quick turnaround, me and Lee then headed back up North.   The traffic was a nightmare and the M1 was nose-to-tail most of the way to the Midlands.   We took a detour to Nottingham, hoping to pick up the A1 but that was just as bad so we headed further east to Newark and headed up the A15 and over the Humber Bridge, which cost over double the price of the Dartford crossing which I'd been over just a few hours before, and is much more spectacular!  We finally arrived in Bridlington 8 hours after leaving home, but with plenty of the evening left.   We found the Pacemakers in the Greyhound, having been there since early afternoon, so Lee took it upon himself to catch up in the lager stakes as quickly as poss, downing pint after pint after pint in quick succession.    We went over to the do to see Basket Case, who as usual had made an effort to dress up and this time they were in scary Halloween garb.   They played their usual punky mix of covers which went down well with the crowd and then the DJ's took over.   The Killers and Fratellis went down a storm, as well as some older stuff.   But we were a bit lightweight and headed back to the B & B relatively early to catch up on some sleep....

Saturday dawned and Lee was feeling a bit worse for wear.   I ate my usual hearty breakfast and he sipped some orange juice and forced down some toast.   My car had been vandalised so Lee spent half an hour taking my wing mirror apart so that he could re-attach it.   We then headed for the custom show but the queue was a mile long so we took shelter in a nearby cafe where the rest of his club were.   Even when we came out the queue was still miles long so we went into town with Shane and Jo to Ladbrookes to put on an accumulator bet on the afternoon's football.   I'd win the princely sum of 56 quid if my teams all won - whereas Jo would get over a grand!!!   Back to the custom show and still the queue was long but this time we decided to wait in line with the other punters.   We were standing outside a bookshop so I thought I'd nip in for a browse.   I didn't realise it was a Christian shop until I was inside and every book had a religious theme.   I bought Lee some 'Jesus Loves You' stickers and made a hasty retreat, laden down with flyers from the owner who thought I looked like I had the potential to be converted....  I'd only been making conversation with him so that I didn't giggle too much!!

Once inside the custom show it was worth the wait.  There were loads of lovely scoots, many of which I hadn't seen before, but also some old ones including Sign Of The Snake which I haven't seen for about 20 years.  There were also tons of stalls too.  We spent the afternoon in the pub watching the football.  Shane wasn't happy because Birmingham beat West Brom in a lunchtime match, putting his accumulator down the pan before the rest of the matches kicked off.   Pompey did a good job of beating Reading and Coventry got a late goal to beat someone else, so me and Lee were both in a good mood for the evening, even though our bets didn't come off either.  

It was back down the Greyhound in the evening, followed by a pub crawl which ended up at a bar with a karaoke.   After a dreadful rendition of Tube Station me and Lee headed up to the do whilst the Pacemakers carried on in the pubs.   There was a glam band on, which was going down well with the crowd.   Once they'd finished we had a bit of a dance and then eventually headed back to the hotel.

The best thing about Brid is the extra hour in bed due to the clocks going back, so when we went down for breakfast everyone looked slightly healthier than they would have done about an hour previously.  Except Shane, who looked a bit rough but it turned out they'd all gone to a party at a hotel until about 2.30am!!   The drive home was thankfully non-eventful and we got back at about 3 o'clock.  It had been a great weekend and really nice for us to catch up with the Nuneaton lot.