Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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Ooooookay, this may turn into a bit of an essay......let's see!
Set off from home at 10am on Friday, met up with a few of the people from the club we had a stand with (Its A Fast World) near Manchester and headed onto the M62 towards the show......going nicely so far, apart from being a little behind schedule thanks to someone being late (this time, surprisingly, not me)...
Stopped off at Hartshead Moor services on the M62 for a bite to eat and a rest, and came back out to the cars to find the 106GTi destined to be on our stand sitting in a nice colourful pool of oil it had just pissed out. With an AA truck sitting across the parking bay just finished helping someone else, we thought it'd be a quick chat with him to organise a flat-bed and we'd be off again......but nope, the "nice helpful" AA guy told us to call the main number, and then drove off. We then noticed the 8 (yes, eight) AA trucks parked across the other side of the car-park, so expected it not to take long for a truck to "turn up". But, nope, we were given a half-hour estimated wait-time, because those trucks were "at a meeting". We set off, leaving the 106GTi and owner with the car to wait for the AA (driver's suggestion, not ours), and got a phone-call two hours later to say the AA had just turned up with a flatbed to tow him home (where he did, at least, get a free hire-car for the weekend, so he turned up later aswell).
Arrived at the hotel (Hotel Ibis, just off J1 of the M18) at about 4pm, now somewhat later than planned. Checked in, after a bit of confusion on the hotel's part as to how many rooms we'd booked, dumped the contents of the cars into the rooms, and headed down to the Racecourse to set the stand up. Got it all set up in the pissing-down rain on Friday evening, got lifts back to the hotel and headed over to the pub on the same business park as the hotel, where we'd booked a table for 20 (quite a few of us went).
Food arrived (mostly wrong), was eaten, and then the drinking started. A few people got a free minibus (provided through the hotel) down into town, the rest of us just headed back to the hotel to crack open the way-too-much alcohol we'd brought with us. An amusing night in the hotel, town was apparently crap (as told by the people who went), and then a bit of an early-ish (if you can call 1am early) night ready for the first day of the show...
Saturday came, woke up, had a nice free breakfast because there was no-one about to take our room numbers, and jumped in the free minibus which dropped us off inside the Racecourse (no-one checked our wrist-bands, so we could have got anyone inside - and we'd been told they'd massively upgraded security for this year after problems last year, how ironic is that!) at about 8am. Headed over to the stand to get the cars washed and polished before the main gates opened to the general public, and then had a quick blast around before it got too busy to get a few pics (and ideas as to where pics would be good, when it was quiet).
Got most of my pics on the Saturday (thanks to the crap weather today). Organised a few photo-shoots for the Saturday and Sunday (including the Ripspeed girls coming over to our stand to do a quick feature on a flip-painted Del Sol on the stand.
The end of Saturday came, a very tiring day running around sorting publicity for IAFW, so after securing the cars and packing everything up, we headed back to the hotel. Again, over to the same pub again, where the food this time was generally better than on the Friday night (very nice Chicken Steak & Rump Steak combo  ), then back over to the hotel for some drinks. One of the trade-stand owners with us headed down to the Carisma party (which next day he reported as being a complete waste of time), a few others headed into town (again, like the Friday, they said it wasn't worth going down there), and the rest of us, again, stayed in the hotel to have a few drinks, before stumbling off to bed at about 2am...
Woke up early Sunday (6:30am), packed everything up into the cars and checked out (after a more filling breakfast (than the hotel's offering of toast and jam, anyway) at the MacD's on the same business park), and then having not touched my car for two days, drove it down and parked up right near the gate-12 entrance where our stand was on the gravel-pit right nearby...
Headed onto the stand to clean the cars again, and it was after they were all clean that my only major mishap of the weekend happened......noticed my left pocket getting a bit warm, so put my hand into it to see what it was, only to lose most of the layers of skin on my fingers, thanks to a chemical-burn from the leaking battery in there. Dumped the contents onto the floor, into a nice puddle, so that's 6 batteries gone (at £10 for a pack of 4, they're not cheap batteries) since I can't see a mark on any of them (and so can't tell which leaked, and there's no way I'm risking re-charging them and having the leaking one explode). I now have a very impressive blister on one finger, about the size of a new 5p coin.
Anyway, not to be deterred, spent another day running around the show getting a few more pics and organising some more publicity-shoots (managed to get Sarah what's-her-name from inside to do a nice feature on one of our club-cars, along with Johnny (Redline photographer) being with us for the last hour or two of the day organising some more impromptu quick photo-shots).
As the day came to a close, we helped the WheelQuick/Toora stand (friends & sponsors for IAFW) clear up and pack away, and then headed for home. After a nice leisurely drive along the M62, here I am......home at last, after a knackering long weekend running around Donny Racecourse, but it was all worth it for another year!
See you at Donny 2005, the pics for this year will be online shortly! 
Summary for those that scrolled to the end after getting bored reading:
Went to Donny, took a few pics, organised a few features, got soaked, came home...
[Edited on 18/04/2004 by Dan B]
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Mattb
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Registered: 2nd Feb 03
Location: Under your sisters bed
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quote:
Originally posted by Dan B
See you at Donny 2004, the pics for this year will be online shortly!
it is 2004 mate
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Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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I just noticed as I was reading through, fixed! 
It's been a knackering weekend, my brain is still asleep in the hotel-room I think! 
[Edited on 18/04/2004 by Dan B]
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willay
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Organiser: South East, National Events
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Registered: 10th Nov 02
Location: Roydon, Essex
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Overall thoughts Dan b?
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Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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A very good weekend (although Donny usually is), albeit spoiled somewhat by the weather...
Although my finger still hurts, 16 hours later!
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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Fucking hell and people say I write essays 
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Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
Fucking hell and people say I write essays
I summarised at the end, though, for those that don't like essays!
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Paul_J
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: London
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quote:
Originally posted by Dan B
quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
Fucking hell and people say I write essays
I summarised at the end, though, for those that don't like essays!
but you don't get the whole story then 
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Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
quote:
Originally posted by Dan B
quote:
Originally posted by Paul_J
Fucking hell and people say I write essays
I summarised at the end, though, for those that don't like essays!
but you don't get the whole story then
Wouldn't you say getting a brief summary is better than not reading anything at all? For those that hate reading essays...
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stubs
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Registered: 30th Jun 02
Location: Bolton
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I wasn't gonna read all of that...
..but then i did 
Top stuff!.. can't wait to see the pics
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Dan B
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Registered: 25th Feb 01
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Will be sorting them sometime this afternoon, watch this space!
Not many of cars, though, thanks to leaving my 128Mb memory card at home, and having to work off a 32Mb card (so couldn't do the usual snap-happy photography that landed me with having to sort 520 pics from Max 2003)! 
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Tom
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Registered: 3rd Apr 02
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
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Sounds
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