I always said that when I felt happy with DHR I'd take her to shows a bit further a field, so in the early morning on the 22nd of August we set off for Tatton Park, 'up't north'. Now when I say "we", I mean we! Joanne and Alex wanted to come as well. Joanne hasn't been camping since her days in the guides, (a very, very long time ago) and Alex was dying to go camping. As this was the last camping one I'll be doing this year it was now or never. Joanne waited until the Friday night weather forecast before committing herself as a yes. And yes it was! A steady 70 all the way saw us arrive in just short of three hours. Just before we got there I asked Joanne to ring Flod who was going to bring my ticket to the gate. She rang and when she hung up I said "what did he say". To which she answered "I don't know, I couldn't understand a word he said, all I caught was something about a gate"! She doesn't speak brummie you see! Anyway we were last there and they had 22 cars crammed on to the stand. Deon had kindly shared with the DSG who bought 6 cars.

We moved over to the camping area where, as always, Flod helps me put the tent up. I lay everything out and see that I'd forgotten the tent pegs, oops! The first show since Billing and I'm already on the chod list! Flod has a few spare and we pinch some from Massy's caravan next door, (they'll never know). With the tent up I look over to Joanne to see what she thinks. I now know what she thinks and decide to say nothing. Alex is jumping about like a twenty five stone man on a bungee rope with excitement. We go back over to the club stand and have a much needed cuppa then a walk around the jumble. I didn't want anything really...untill I get to the jumble then I want all sorts. This time though I'm on a very short leash as I have my sensible half holding my hand. All I bought, all weekend, was some glass cleaner and a bag for the sleeping bags. To be honest there was nothing Viva related I needed.

Next a smooch round the show ground and what a large show ground it was. We never made it to the individual entries until the Sunday. I was impressed with the Italian Replica Car Club. The cars were very well done and hard to tell that they weren't real. Our stand was completely full and the Anglia Club next door very kindly gave us some more room on the Sunday to fit everyone in.

On the Saturday evening we sat under the gazebo chatting, drinking a laughing. The highlight being when Jan sat on Jason knee only for Jason's chair to break and him end up on the floor. Alex found this really funny. Alex and Jason tried to out do each other with songs on their phones. I didn't know any of them!

It rained in the night but the tent didn't leak this time. At Billing it came in on the back edge. But the morning was dry and bright. We took Alex over to the park and had a walk around by the big house. Mainly because Joanne wanted to see the bride who's wedding was being held there. After another trip round the jumble and round the cars I was knackered.

We left at four and followed Flod to the M6 via a no entry road. Naughty! Flod turned off the M6 at junction 12 and we drove merrily on...until the roadwork's south of Birmingham. There it was a bit stop start. As the road opened up again DHR started miss firing. She was only running on three cylinders. Bugger! Any hill was a struggle so I dropped the speed down to 50 a sat in the slow lane. I nearly turned off at Coreley service station but told Joanne I'd wait until we hit the M1. As she was still running I went passed the first service station, Watford Gap, but said I would have to stop before home as I'd need petrol. Then a large sign loomed before saying queues after junction 16. Double bugger! If she stopped I didn't know if she would start again. I had no option I'd have to turn off at junction 16. Just off the junction there was a lay-by on a duel-carridgeway so we pulled in there. DHR wasn't happy and neither was I. There were fields all around and cars flashing passed. I checked there were no loose wires first then started with the plugs. I had a spare set so put them in...no difference. I checked the points which did look the worse for wear and adjusted them slightly...no difference. We decided to see if we could get her the 47.6 miles home, (sat nav), but after just a few seconds it was clear she wasn't going to make it up the hill let alone home. There was another lay-by on the opposite side of the road so I did a u-turn and pulled in there. I thought I try another set of points so took the old ones out, only to drop one of the screws down the front of the car and it fell straight into the box section at the front. Triple bugger! It was then that I noticed that the spare set of points had a bit missing anyway. I was beginning to loose the will to live when a car stopped in front of us.

This guy came over and asked if he could help. He said "I have two of these myself"! What! Another Viva man in the middle of nowhere! He said he couldn't bear to see a GT stuck so had turned round after seeing us and came back for us. After trying her without the ballast resistor we said she was going nowhere. We think it might be the condenser and I didn't have a spare one with me. Plenty in the garage but none with me. Now he said he worked in a garage and could get the use of a trailer and was willing to tow us home. How good was that! We were in the middle of nowhere, in a 42 year old car and the man that comes to the rescue is mad about Viva's and has the use of a trailer, but not only that he is willing to tow us 50 miles home at seven o'clock at night. I must be the luckiest person on the planet.

To cut a long story short Jason Lynch towed us home, had a cuppa and we discussed SHW in the garage for ages, then wanted to only accept the petrol money. What a nice person. I made him take more for his time as well. Anyway he is willing to help with advice on SHW as he specialises in bodywork, (BMW and Porsche). (Turns out he did Bedford Bill for the owners club years ago). He was in the Owners Club for many years and a lot of people will know of him. He made his own GT convertable. He knows Spot and plenty of others I spoke about.

What are the chances of that happening though? Can you believe how lucky I am? When I woke the next morning I had to ask Joanne if I'd dreamt it all. I'm now thinking of doing the lottery this week to see if my luck holds!

I blame Joanne and Jason Boddie for all this anyway. While we were at Tatton they were talking about me not joining the AA yet and that traveling long distances without cover was a foolish thing to do. They put the jinks on me.