Team shedtune - fundraising link click here
Spanish Bombs-not sure if
the Clash meant this sort of bomb
"You can
take the boy out of boonie land but not the boonie out of the boy"
So here I am stuck in Spain completely outnumbered by
Females and small children, not a shed in sight and trying to learn how to
“relax”
The cultural centre of the villa complex is the “cave bar”
an underground establishment which appears to be full of the Eastenders cast
appropriately coloured and wrinkled after 15 years on a sun lounger, but it’s a
good place to catch up with the cricket score.
Days have slipped into a lazy routine of late breakfast, pool, lunch, afternoon
snoozing, late afternoon pre dinner swims then the adults trying to resist 20
Marlboro Red , 3 bottles of Rioca before bed and doing it all over again the
next day.
We are a week in and reinforcements have arrived in the form
of “Uncle Bazza” this has made an immediate impact on my “Mr Shark duties”
chasing our kids in the pool but increased the load placed upon my liver.
In the background I’ve been worrying about how much there is
to do on my return to ready the Scimitar
GTE for its fund raising drive across
Europe –the plan being a 2,000 mile 4
day round trip with an overnight halt in Nice (post Med dip)
-I’ve only owned the car since May, it was discovered
locally in a shed untouched, unmoved and a bit unloved for the last 18 years. It’s
taken a lot of commitment cost and late nights in the shed to get it through
its MOT which it passed with a day to spare before we left for our excursion from
“Boonie Shedland” to “Spainland” as the 6 year old calls it
Of course with any old car put back into service after such
a long layup it takes a while to iron out running faults these will have to be
done en-route - as I did last time in 2011 with a Triumph Spitfire that I rescued from a 13 year lay up in a shed prior to taking it on Club Triumphs 10
countries Run –so I’m getting quite good at second guessing what might fail a
few hundred miles in and have replaced or refurbished as many of those critical
parts time and resource have allowed - some before and after shots below
In fact its history repeating itself all the way back to
2003-back then a group of Triumph owners (about 15 cars and crew) met in North
London and drove none stop to Nice –looping back through as many countries and
twisty bits as possible to “pick up” 10 countries – the early conversations and
ideas focused mainly on covering 2,000 European miles in a weekend, the ten
countries idea developed on the back of that ,back then I owned my 2500 TC- a
bit tweaked and running triple Weber’s it developed a “knock” 10 days or so
before our planned start date for the first “10 CR Proving Run”
Engine was stripped
and re-built – new crank pistons etc – anyway it was all a bit touching cloth,
the 2003 run was made interesting from the off as I had to drive a 600 mile
round trip to pick up “Homer” (Ben my lifelong mate and co-driver in such
events) before getting to the pre-planned start with only half an hour to
spare, that half hour was spent swapping spark plugs -no3 bore had taken a
liking to fouling its spark plug –it would end up being swapped 12 times in the
next 2,000 miles! The water pump also had to be replaced in the Nice hotel car
park which looked like a service area from the Monte Carlo rallies of old once
we turned up, great fun and great memories it went on to become a successful
event run every two years under the Club Triumph banner
I was intending to take part in this year’s 2013 event and
for old times’ sake even tried to purchase the now very sorry 2500tc I did the
2003 event in and restore it ,that deal fell through for reasons I still don’t
really understand .
It was always my intention to overnight in Nice on the 2013
event –unfortunately the organisation wouldn’t allow for this or even my offer
not to take part in the “official event” and help out as a travelling
marshal/spares-car/spanner man ,but as there’s
only so many times you can take being ignored and after discussion with Homer
we withdrew our entry and decided to
head to Nice for a” Pint” (hence “Nice Pint 2013”) in my old Rover P6 which had
been repatriated to boonie land after 15 years “up north” hiding from my wife
in a mates garage-then the Scimitar GTE turned up! –it made sense to ready this
one as no time consuming welding was needed.
There’s no going back now, hotels and ferries booked,
Triumph parts pinched off the other car and sold to raise funds for the trip –
the GTE has a 20 gallon tank and does 20 mpg!
It’s now our plan to do a similar European drive every two years
(and encourage others from all walks of shed life to join in) raising funds for
Cancer Research - we have both lost close family and friends to the disease and
thought it would give all those long nights in the shed some purpose -apart
from the obvious that we are all grumpy middle aged petrol heads.
What I would love is to be writing this blog in ten years
time on the eve on another trip where twenty, thirty forty (or as many as
possible grumpy shed dwellers that have
dared break cover from the mundane grind of Bastard Ballet Runs, Cubs, school
pickups, play dates ,damp camping trips and other broken dreams) grouped together over the previous months via
the new fangled interwebby “antisocial media sites” -rescued some sort of interesting
automotive “lost cause” or forgotten impractical gem –something
that doesn’t have multiple gadgets bolted onto a hateful little whizz
box that couldn’t pull the skin off a sloppy
Spanish omelette-in my mind at the moment is the rubbish Peugeot 208
hire car sitting outside the villa, it does its bit for the environment by
putting people off driving anywhere –I feel sorry for “young” people who have
this as their first taste of automotive freedom –anyway back to the dewy eyed
“shed brethren” preparing their offerings from some long lost manufacturer, filling its
tanks with the soon to be outlawed “Petrol” the air tinged with body odour EP80/90 and illegally home
produced alcohol based octane booster,
driving into the night to board ferries on route to a pre-ordained rendezvous
point- chosen for the size of car park and its closeness’ to a burger van
rather than the “simply delightful vistas and wonderful local produce, oh I do hope the area isn’t overdeveloped blah
blah ” or some other suitably up its own arse “west London” speak
–bollocks to that I
say, let’s hope the EU funding stays so they can afford to build a stonking 40
hairpin climb up that lovely vista and put a burger van at the top with a fully
serviced pit lane.
I can but dream, but in a couple of weeks time I will be on
that dream that’s taken two years to come round, on my return after 4 brief
days of “freedom utopia” I shall slip back into the mundane grown up world,
sneaking off into the shed to polish rust and plot some more freedom, feeling
very lucky to be alive.
TEAM SHED 2003
......
I have a
Virgin giving page set up ,and plan to sell
“Shedtune” T-Shirts on a small scale all year round
the profits going to Cancer Research –get in
touch if you fancy one or a bespoke design , etc
So now it’s off to the “Cave Bar” to take advantage of the
free Wi-Fi to upload this blog – I may even have a few “Spanish bombs” to ease
the worry of what might or might not break on the GTE or what bits and widgets
I have forgotten to pack – I will send an email to homer telling him to order
some bits to make me feel better
