X-Mas Natter - Sun 7th December 2008 - Dog House

[Red Devil]

[quote="Emma Jackman"]Geoff & Ann + the Saturday night party
Adrian & Dawn
Marion & Kasper Veghel, Netherlands
Nacho & Patricia Madrid, Spain
Andrew Regens Melbourne, Aus
Simon & Ann
Ian & Liz
KeithW
Neil & Barbara
Steve & Ali + the Saturday night party
Chris T
Dave & Trish
Dave & Carole
Rich & Kate
Col
James & Chrissie
Nigel H
Stewart & Kathryn
Sean & Claire
Dave & Eve
Soo & Andy
Alistair & Carol + Saturday night party
Emma & Andrew P (with the modelling balloons!)
Pete & Caroline
Paula & Bruce
Andie and possibly David (not sure yet!)
Simon and Julie
Michelle & David
Paul
Ian and John (3C MG) run and meal

[Bigfootmgf]

Geoff & Ann + the Saturday night party
Adrian & Dawn
Marion & Kasper Veghel, Netherlands
Nacho & Patricia Madrid, Spain
Andrew Regens Melbourne, Aus
Simon & Ann
Ian & Liz
KeithW
Neil & Barbara
Steve & Ali + the Saturday night party
Chris T
Dave & Trish
Dave & Carole
Rich & Kate
Col
James & Chrissie
Nigel H
Stewart & Kathryn
Sean & Claire
Dave & Eve
Soo & Andy
Alistair & Carol + Saturday night party
Emma & Andrew P (with the modelling balloons!)
Pete & Caroline
Paula & Bruce
Andie and possibly David (not sure yet!)
Simon and Julie
Michelle & David
Paul
Ian and John (3C MG) run and meal
Paul

[Steve White]

Geoff & Ann + the Saturday night party
Adrian & Dawn
Marion & Kasper Veghel, Netherlands
Nacho & Patricia Madrid, Spain
Andrew Regens Melbourne, Aus
Simon & Ann
Ian & Liz
KeithW
Neil & Barbara
Steve & Ali
Chris T
Dave & Trish
Dave & Carole
Rich & Kate
Col
James & Chrissie
Nigel H
Stewart & Kathryn
Sean & Claire
Dave & Eve
Soo & Andy
Alistair & Carol + Saturday night party
Emma & Andrew P (with the modelling balloons!)
Pete & Caroline
Paula & Bruce
Andie and possibly David (not sure yet!)
Simon and Julie
Michelle & David
Paul
Ian and John (3C MG) run and meal
Paul

Looks like I will now have to drop out as I now have attend one of the other 3 events I have been invited to on Sunday

[Keith Williams]

You should not be so popular Steve and then you would then not have to make a choice of what event to attend and miss out on a F event

[colintf]

See you tomorrow - I can't stay long though!

[DavidT6DCM]

Appologies i couldn't make it today. i have very badly swollen knee at mo i twisted it very badly a week or so getting out from under the F and heard a very loud crack, it's swolled badly and not got much better so off to Docs in morning and i suspect it's an Xray job, hope you all had a great time today,been in bed resting it most of today to try get swelling go down,sorry to Adrian i could get there to pick up splitter for Scott,i managed to go to SWMGF Xmas dinner on Friday with it tightly strapped up but it still hurt like a B**8* ha ha, see you all at Stoneligh Feb i hope, Dave

[David A]

Sorry to hear about your mishap RL - you were missed today! Hope you're fixed up soon

As usual it was great to see so many friends old and new today. What a fine bunch of people the F Register is! A happy Christmas to each and every one of you!

David & Michelle

[Paula]

Sorry we didnt make it either Bruce has been ill since Friday and i woke up feeling rough this morning so we decided it would be for the best not risk going. Adrian i am going to post you my stereo manaul for you to read/copy x x

[Seantf]

Another cracking christmas do, nice to see everybody again and join in the recognition that the award winning members deserved.

A BIG BIG thankyou to two knights in shining armour, or a shiny silver TF(we think) who came to our assistance on the way home.Probably only 10-15 minutes after we set off from the Dog House we suddenly realised our ride was getting bumpier and noisier as we had somehow managed to get a big gash on the inner wall of one of our rear tyres. Thanks to Apollo & Red devil for stopping and helping,cheers guys, we owe you both a beer or two

Sean & Claire

[Neil Rushton]

Yep another good do with good food!!

Sean, I wondered why you was just pulling out from the side of the road when we past (in the Skoda so you wouldn't have seen us) especially as you set off a good while before us.

[Keith Williams]

What an end to a good day you had there Sean.

Thought the 1 in 10 rule had been used up early in the day with Andys Scarlett blowing its head. Lucky you realised what was happening though before you got on the motor way and started travelling at speed. Could have been much worse than just changing a wheel in the cold & dark.

[Chris Tideswell]

It was great to catch up with everyone and put some more faces to names and a great food and venue.

I just wish the Doghouse isn't such a horrible place to get to made worse today by the conditions and the **** in a MX5 with no front headlights on the unlit M40 not sure how he managed to not hit me when I pulled out in front of them .

[Red Devil]

Another cracking christmas do, nice to see everybody again and join in the recognition that the award winning members deserved.

A BIG BIG thankyou to two knights in shining armour, or a shiny silver TF(we think) who came to our assistance on the way home.Probably only 10-15 minutes after we set off from the Dog House we suddenly realised our ride was getting bumpier and noisier as we had somehow managed to get a big gash on the inner wall of one of our rear tyres. Thanks to Apollo & Red devil for stopping and helping,cheers guys, we owe you both a beer or two

Sean & Claire

Glad we could help and good to see you made it home on your space saver.

[Apollo]

Another cracking christmas do, nice to see everybody again and join in the recognition that the award winning members deserved.

A BIG BIG thankyou to two knights in shining armour, or a shiny silver TF(we think) who came to our assistance on the way home.Probably only 10-15 minutes after we set off from the Dog House we suddenly realised our ride was getting bumpier and noisier as we had somehow managed to get a big gash on the inner wall of one of our rear tyres. Thanks to Apollo & Red devil for stopping and helping,cheers guys, we owe you both a beer or two

Sean & Claire

Me & John are the fifth Emergency service seriously glad you made it home safe. Sean just remember Claire is always right

[TimM]

Really good to see everyone yesterday on a cold and frosty morning. Lots of hardtops in place but still a hardy few on the run with the tops down .

Fantastic demonstration of balloon animal making by Scarlet Fever - I'm still not so sure about that pink one though !

Congrats to our award winners particularly our 2008 member of the year - Keith Williams -richly deserved.

Well done for tackling another tricky Xmas quiz and for finding out that Steve Cox did it in the Elephant House with a set of jump leads ! (You had to be there)

The 10% rule took effect yet again - one HGF, one car that refused to start , one gashed tyre - which is around 10% !

Full list of award winners will be on the website shortly.

[Nigel H]

Another great natter witha great bunch of people - my thanks to everyone. I got home eventually after a 90 minute crawl for three miles due to an accident and roadworks on the M5. Which explains why I am posting this morning instead of last night.

[UK Kiwis]

Yes, pretty good meeting....

great to catch up with Kasper and Marion again, feels more like a family now when ever the F register meets up. Long may it continue.....

[alistair]

Had a great time, but why does the TF always go wrong on the way home!! Yesterday the driver's wiper packed up - I suspect a broken linkage (again!! last time it went was on the way back from an F Register event) Good thing the car knew the way, as I couldn't see a bl**dy thing through the muck being thrown up by other vehicles.

Good to see so many friends after a year of being unable to get to events. It was a pity that there weren't more staying on Saturday night, but we had a super meal in the company of Geoff and Anne.

Hope to see you all more often over the next year.

Think we need a new 'Scarlet fever' smilie - with balloons

Thanks to everyone whose efforts make the register the special organisation it is.

[Emma Jackman]

Slightly weird start and end to the day, but the bit in the middle was great Thanks to everyone who organised the event, had a great time and as usual the Dog House food was lurvely!

Andy doesn't appear to be around to tell the rest of the story so I'll carry on...

The run in to the DH was tiring for me, mainly because of the morning's events and having to drive for nearly 2 hours. The SatNav decided to be vague (told it to take us to Frilford Heath but we didn't end up where we were expecting). We decided to head back towards Abingdon and find our own way to the DH. En route we came across a number of F/TF's in convoy including the Kiwis and assuming they were coming to the end of their run, soon to arrive at the DH, we followed them. After about 8 miles we realised that we were getting further away from Frilford Heath, and with me being knackered, turned around and headed back to Abingdon, seeing a surprised-looking Adrian heading in the opposite direction!

The evening turned out to be very drawn out, I had a feeling it was going to be a long one. Andy drove back, negociating the ice on the lanes and we arrived at my house around 7pm. We were told by the recovery company that there would be 1-1.5 hour wait, Andy not being a lone female stuck on a roadside, but instead having a nice cosy house to wait in put him at the bottom of the priority list! Eventually the recovery guy ('interesting' personality) arrived with low loader and we watched cringing as SF was loaded (nearly lost that splitter!) I followed Andy and the low loader in Envy heading for Southend and Steve Tyler's garage (British Legends). Steve kindly met us there so that SF could be put in his workshop and we left there around 10. By this stage the roads were freezing, and by the time we arrived at Andy's at 11pm there was sheet ice on the roads so that was another issue to deal with. Fortunately we arrived in one piece and Envy bagged a nice cosy garage for her trouble (around 300 miles in one day!)

My House (Kent) -> Dog House (Oxford) -> My House -> Steve's (Southend, Essex) -> Andy's (Stansted, Essex) -> My House

[colintf]

Emma, as I said to Andy yesterday - good job you took Green with Envy to Zug, and not SF else that would of happened during our 2700 mile European tour back in August!

Good to see everyone there, especially Kasper & Marion (Holland), and Nacho & Patricia (Spain).

Great looking TF you have there Adrian!