Wandering Stars: 27th July 2015

22nd July.

I was supposed to be going to 'work' today but Lynda suggested we book into good old Thetford Forest C&CC site tonight and I spend the day on site getting Ruby ready for the weekend instead.

I am easily persuaded not to go to work of course so next thing you know I was pulling onto the site and getting things organised while Lynda was at work. We did a bit of socialising during the day and evening and mostly just relaxed in preparation for a busy weekend.

23rd July.

They say motorhomes are a bit like houses in some ways and things will sometimes go wrong with them. Ruby is two and a half years old now and still we are getting the occasional problem. I drove off the site first thing this morning (about 07.10) heading for Simpsons at Great Yarmouth to have a couple of faults attended to. We are not able to unlock the habitation door from the inside as we are supposed to although we can use the button on the drivers door to open the door, not ideal though. Also, we have a red wire dangling down underneath the van. Everything important seems to work so I didn't know what the wire was for.

Simpsons were pretty good actually, fixed the door lock - a rod had broken, and decided the wire should have been connected to the water tank heater. They are putting a claim into Swift to have this seen to so I didn't have to pay for anything thank goodness.

Soon leaving Great Yarmouth and heading for Norwich Showground and the Norfolk Motorhome Show where we will be staying for 4 nights. We have never been to one of these shows before but I have heard they are pretty good and as this one is more or less on our doorstep I thought we should attend and see what they are all about.

I met Lynda with the car near the entrance to the site and we drove in with several other vans. Soon we were at the section reserved for Motorhome Fun campers and being shown to our pitch by the friendly marshalls.

There are wall to wall motorhomes here with more arriving all the time, apparently at the larger shows they get thousands of motorhomes turning up! We were told by the marshalls that 'beer o'clock' was at 16.00 so we wandered over to join the other Funsters and say hello to a few people. We all sat round chatting, having a beer in the sunshine and sampling the nibbles provided. We would have appreciated the sunshine more maybe if we had know what was to come weather-wise for the rest of the weekend.

All of these shows have entertainment for campers in the evening so at about 19.30 we wandered over to the show venue. This is a really large building that can accommodate maybe up to 2000 people! We sat with our near neighbours on the site - Paul and Jeanette. These are a very friendly couple (I have to say that!) who we sat with every evening.

The show started at 20.15 with a nine piece soul / Motown band called Soul'd Out. These were great - brass section, drums, guitar plus a couple of singers belting out many old favourites. We were both a bit tired and Lynda has to get up early for work tomorrow so sadly we didn't stay to the end this time. Enjoyable evening though.

Didn't take the camera with us tonight alas so no photos of Soul'd Out. Lynda probably has some on her phone though, if they are any good I'll post them later.

Update: added some photos from Lynda's phone.

This photo shows just a small part of the audience, was a very large venue.

Thats what counts as the 'dance floor'. This was obviously early in the evening before the lights went down and the serious movers (i.e. likes of me!) appeared.

24th July.

The motorhome show itself started at 09.30 today so after Lynda had gone off to work I wandered over to see what was on show. I was impressed with the number or motorhome dealers and other vendors in attendance although apparently the other more established shows are several times larger than this.

Luckily, the sun was shining and there were quite a lot of people about so I hope the show goes well and they make it a regular on the show circuit.

We were planning to have a walk round when Lynda got back from work so I didn't linger all that long before heading back to the van. By 11.00 though the rain had started - and it didn't stop for the next 24 hours! Really bad news for the show organisers and exhibitors but there is nothing you can do about the English weather alas.

We were geared up to enjoy tonight's entertainment and were going to stay the end this time. Once again we sat with Paul and Jeanette, well, someone had to, and waited for the show to start. On offer tonight was Jennifer Wallace a Dione Warwick style solo singer who sang some great soul classics. Next up was a comedian by the name of Lee Lard. I had never heard of him either but he is a Peter Kay 'tribute' act and is very funny. Plenty of taking the mickey out of members of the audience which was very funny - so long as it wasn't me being picked on of course.

Once we had had a good laugh we were treated to an hour or so of soul classics sung by Funky Weekend, a very talented male singing trio. I have to admit that this got many people onto the dance floor including me!

Another very enjoyable evening was had by all.

Oops, forgot the camera tonight yet again!

Our spacious pitch, plenty of room for Ruby and the car. Chairs had got soaking wet by this point.

Sun shone for a while and there were some decent crowds.

London Routemaster bus converted to a fish and chip shop!

I took this pic of Jennifer Wallace with my phone camera hence the poor quality.

Lynda got this good photo of Funky Weekend after their performance.

25th July.

Lynda is off to work again today at about 11.00 and its still raining continually so we didn't bother walking up to look at the show. Consoled ourselves with a delicious bacon sandwich each though.

The rain did stop eventually though and I walked up to have a look round again, not like summer though as its cold and grey.

Lynda got home from work just in time to join us for the evening's entertainment which is billed at the 'campers VIP party'. We had to pay extra for this evening, only £5 each though. First up was Buzz D'Angelo who appeared first as Ray Charles then in Little Richard guise. He was very good but rock and roll is not really our kind of music.

Next up was one of the highlights of the weekend's entertainment - Dictionary of Soul with Roy Hemmings. No, I had never heard of them either but they were fantastic. Good live band, two girl singers then Roy Hemmings belting out one classic soul song after another. So professional, we had a great time.

More to come this evening though as the 'star turn' was Bobby Davro who some of you may have heard of. He was sometimes very funny although he did tell some of the same jokes that Lee Lard had told last night. He has a great singing voice too.

For the whole weekend we paid a total of about £45 - fantastic value for money.

Buzz D'Angelo in Little Richard mode, very talented but not our cup of tea.

Dictionary of Soul with Roy Hemmings, so professional.

A couple allegedly 'dancing'. Is that Lione Blair on the right?

Only photo I have of compere for the evening, don't even know his name.

Me, Lynda, Paul and Jeanette - another marvelous evening, a good time was had by all.

Bobby Davro, or is it Elvis, in action with a trio of 'volunteers'

26th July.

We were determined to have a good look round the showground today, whatever the weather. Soon as we were ready we went to look for bargains. Sky is totally grey again but there were quite a lot of people about. I spoke to one motorhome salesman who said they had sold several vans, expensive ones too. Quite a lot of the vans had 'sold' signs in their windscreens so hopefully it was worth the the dealers while attending and they will be here again next time.

We soon needed a hot drink so stopped for tea / coffee and sausage roll / Cornish pastie to keep us going. We sat in many motorhomes, some of them are very expensive costing about £100k. On one or two of the stands sales people actually tried to sell us a new van - I don't think so.

So, eventually back at the van for a rest with our last evening's entertainment to look forward to. Only two acts tonight. First up was Nigel 'Boy' Sayer, a local accordion playing comedian who was actually very good and gave us a bit of a laugh with some corny jokes.

I had spoken earlier in the weekend to another camper who told me him and his wife only come to these shows to see the last act - The Ivy League. Some of you youngsters will never have heard of this trio who had several hits back in the sixties. They are still belting out some great songs and they went down an absolute storm with the audience.

Talking of audiences, we noticed that probably the majority of the people there didn't join in at all - no clapping, no dancing, no singing along. Makes you wonder what bands have to do to get a reaction from these people. Many of us had a fantastic evening though.

Sadly, the show was soon over and after much shouting of 'more' The Ivy League sang us one more. They had cds for sale after the show and we wandered over to take a look. There were two cds available and before I could stop her Lynda had wrenched the £20 note out of my hand bought a copy of both!

We waited for The Ivy League to appear then got one of the cds autographed.

Lynda is now converted to Warner's motorhome shows and is very keen to attend the season finale at Lincoln Showground in September.

I have already booked our place.....