It never rains but it pours–Crick show aftermath

To quote my hero and role model: ” Doh!”

After a somewhat muddy and moist weekend at the Crick show it would have been nice to go off and enjoy my two day RYA course arranged by CRT for volunteer  boat movers, but alas it was not to be – course postponed because of “trainer issues” whatever they are.  Now I have to wait until July. However, the day was not wasted because we got a call from our Peter in Cambridge saying he had fallen over walking through the Science Park and sprained his wrist and ankle and fractured his elbow.  We decided he was best brought home to endure our tender care as he was unable to do much for himself domestically in that condition.  How inconsiderate of him to do it on Tuesday. Had he done it a day earlier, we could have collected him on our way home from Crick. Instead we had a 180 mile round trip to collect him.

Crick show was good in parts. We picked up several bargains on essentials such as mooring rope, boat polish, stern tube grease etc. at good discounts, and avoided spending £140k on a new boat. Instead we spent it on beer and cider (alright, not quite £140k) from the rather splendid selection on offer.  Adam and Adrian came for tea and cake, as did the Halfies and Sunday was fine and warm.  The rain over previous days had done serious harm to the grass car parks and when Kath had to drive out to collect Grace from her mum, our nice clean car (it had its annual wash only days earlier) changed from green to brown in seconds.  On the main site, the aluminium track walkways did a good job of keeping people out of the mud and the stalls and down on the quay side the show boats were doing a strong trade. 

Monday was a very different story.  The rain was persistent and the visitor numbers were, I imagine, well down except on stalls selling wellies.

Never mind, I went in to the seminar with Richard Parry, chief exec of CRT, more of which in my next post.  While I was in there Adam and Adrian were doing a sterling job taking Grace on funfair rides.  Adam had the easy bit – the dodgems, but Adrian drew the short straw and foolishly agreed to take Grace on the waltzer.  It was a pity I wasn’t there to see it as I’m told his face looked pretty green when they finished.  Rather him than me. I feel ill just looking at a waltzer ride.

Toyah Wilcox turned out to be far more of a draw than I had imagined.  The entertainment marquee was absolutely packed when she made her appearance.  Not really my kind of music but she did it well and the band was very tight.  As to the Wilburys tribute band the next night, they were a bit like the whole show weekend – good in parts.  The guy taking the part of Roy Orbison nearly brought it off from time to time although I think it was asking the impossible to sing like the big O.  They were a pretty good band and went down well, but not like the real thing.