Midweek at Fen Farm
East Mersea

September 2008

A Holiday rally with a difference:

Directly after a hot sunny rally with Steve, Mel, Nick and Carole, we travelled to Fen Farm, East Mersea. The weather was threatening to turn wet and windy but we were well prepared and as this formed part of our "summer holiday" we were ready for all eventualities.

A few ralliers had asked about arriving on Sunday, so we spoke to the site owners and they very kindly allowed them to arrive early, even though our rally didn't start until Monday morning.

Up went the sun canopies, the signs and the Suffolk Centre banner. All in readiness for the start of a few relaxing days by the sea. The venue was clean, tidy and very spacious. We had the entire rally field to ourselves and made the most of the hook-up points that were all round the field.

"Honest Joe" noticed that a camper that was leaving, had disposed of some crab nets near the bins. He politely went over to ask if he would mind if he could have them for his grandchildren. By the time he had walked over to the man, the nets had disappeared. We had a feeling that Mick had crept up behind Joe and helped himself to them, carefully hiding them under his van. We all fell about laughing as Joe had been a gentleman and it had cost him all the crab nets. After a significant amount of teasing, Mick owned up and they shared the nets, taking a few each.

More fun was had when Nick found a shower cap next to Sue's van. He tried it on for size. We can only guess that the wind had swept it up through the skylight and out of Sue's van. Unfortunately Sue was reluctant to be a model but Nick was only too keen !

The following days were made up of walking, cycling and generally relaxing. At flagpole on Wednesday, Sheila brought home made cakes and we had hot and cold refreshments. Everyone from the 20 vans attended the flagpole and we also had a couple of retired Centre members attend. We had a spare rally plaque that we offered them as we were please to see them back on our rally as visitors.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the rally. We met some new and well known faces and some of the ralliers were going to follow-on to Weeley on Thursday. We left Nick and Carole to see vans off the field on Thursday, as we went ahead at the crack of dawn to prepare for the arrival of vans at Weeley from noon.

We would like to say thanks for the cards and phone messages, it was really appreciated.

Rally Marshals Trev & Sue, Joe and Sheila.
 

Pictures courtesy of Sheila Holmes

The "Weeley" Cheesey Rally
Homestead Lake Park
(follow-on)

September 2008
 

Another "Weeley" Cheesey Rally....

The weekend of the 4^th to 7^th September 2008 saw many caravanners go to Homestead Lake Park at Weeley. Somewhat of a damp weekend was on the cards as forecast by the weathermen. Caravanners being what they are all still attended  to brave what was in store. The rally field grass had been cut even all over and looked like a bowling green with a slight bias to the right. An excellent weekend was in store. A large TV was installed in the awning of the Marshals and all were invited to watch the last showing of  the Big Brother Final ( if you like that sort of thing ).

Saturday saw The Friendly Fishing Challenge between 10am and 4pm. Many intrepid fishermen braved the rain and wind to position themselves around the lake. Bryce Punchard  filled his keep net to take the junior cup and Steve Oliver took the big boys cup. Steve Garrard went for a duck and was duly presented with a duck. Newboy on the block was Colin Segger with his wife Mandy. Colin was in fine form with his newly acquired motorhome which was aptly named The Mystery Machine, if you looked inside you could see why, as it resembled a night club .Colin put all his skills to the fishing challenge but only ended up with a little one. Someone suggested that it was still the bait that he had put on in the first place.

7pm saw a windy chilly flagpole take place with lots of announcements made by our Chairman Dave Totman assisted by Tracy. Cheese and wine followed provided that you had your tickets which were checked by Sheila Holmes.

Sunday saw rain and sun and following another visit to the shop to purchase the last minute bits and pieces to claim the 10% discount the rally came to an end.

Many thanks to the Marshals for another super rally.

Weeley Happy Rallier

Pictures courtesy of Sheila and Joe Holmes