Loitering within tent, and why a Porsche is useless for boaters

One thing you need when you get a boat (excluding live-aboards)  is a car with a big boot.  Although Herbie is fully equipped, domestically speaking, we always end up taking a ton of stuff with us every time we go out to her.  When we bought the boat and spent a fortune on saucepans, cutlery, crockery, duvets and all that stuff we naively thought that all we would need to do was throw some clean clothes in a bag and off we would go. It turns out you need clean clothes and bedding, rainwear (we're no fools), shoes, computer, cameras, food, booze, books, musical instruments etc etc plus there's always some new item or other we've bought for the boat. This time it's a directors chair.

Tomorrow is even worse because  en route to the boat, we're camping near Cambridge while we attend the Beer Festival.  So that means an air bed and pump, sleeping bags, a little cooker and gas bottle, a kettle, some crockery and cutlery, a tent of course, a ground sheet, and some food for breakfasts.

You won't get that lot in a Porsche, which of course is why I don't have one.

Years of camping have made me very good at packing cars.  I remember one year when we went camping in Dorset with 3 kids and a dog, ( albeit a small one - meet Treacle R.I.P.)

plus a large family tent and all the associated clothes, food, sleeping and cooking gear, in an Austin Metro.  People would walk past the tent, blink, and say "Did all of that (pointing at us and the tent) come out of that (pointing at the car)?"  My normal reply was to say yes but we had had to leave an oxo cube at home because we couldn't fit it in.

Speaking of meat products, Simon and Carrie will be pleased to know that despite yesterday's recipe, one thing we are really looking forward to at the Beer Festival is the veggie food stall.  Falafels, olives, chillies, peppers, hummous, tzatziki and pitta.  Yum Yum.

Whilst on the subject, please note Rick's amendment to yesterdays salad recipe to say that I had omitted the pate and that the tomato was optional.  I think if you have a strong urge for more vegetation that he might allow a pickled onion.