Sunday, September 04, 2011

Too tired to knit

Would you believe I was away all last (bank holiday) weekend and I didn't do a single stitch of knitting! I know, I was amazed myself, but I was SO tired.

I may have mentioned before that DH is deputy editor of a Model Aircraft magazine (BIL is editor) so we had a working weekend.


The British National Model Flying Championships

We were at Barkston Heath RAF base near Grantham, Lincs where literally thousands of model flyers of every discipline attend to compete, watch, camp, socialise, and shop.
(That is only a small part of the traders village in the photo above, and some lovely clouds!). Now the menfolk need to network, photograph and cover the events so this is where DD and I were all weekend
Our 'shop'


It was more of a publicity tent than shop really, though we were selling current and back issues of the magazine and subscriptions plus a few accessories - each day we had to unpack the van and set up the stand, then pack it all away again at the end of the day, then drive off to the Premier Inn nearby where we were staying for a decent shower and a meal- I've camped at the Nats before, twice, and believe me that was two times too many. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, for miles to stop the wind, in fact this year only one tent was blown down, but last year there were several!

DD in the corner at the till


We had a prize draw which was very popular and planes made from the free plans in the magazine on display too

We met some lovely people and had some very nice chats, we met some weird people - like the man who had bought a plan for a model plane 20 years ago from the previous company and insisted on showing us every line on it that was even a milimetre out! and we met some strange people too - like the lady who wanted to know why we hadn't bought any Cross Stitch magazines to sell ....um a) this is a model flying event with 95% of the attendees being male, b) we were there for the specific model magazine not the publishing company and c) rather more importantly, the company don't publish one - not that she would believe us!

All in all it was a very enjoyable, though very tiring, weekend.
However the only downside was the facilities - think a handful of portaloos, a warm weekend and thousands of men, some of whom had absolutely no idea of hygiene or aim and must live in a pigsty and you will realise why DD and I decided that it wasn't only the model helicopters that needed to hover!

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