Slow Tribes
Up to Worcester this weekend to see Mum. Interesting trip up, with lightening storms over the 40, flashes illuminating clouds that looked mustard yellow or hazy orange. Real 'end of days' weather.
Also noticed on the way up a more than usual number of VW camper-vans, one with a 'custom' paint job. While the usual paint-job for the classic VW camper is orange and one wing primer, the owner of this one had been busy with spray can an airbrush. The result was his van covered with a 'Matrix' theme - Lawrence Fishburn glowering out of a side panel, the sort of thing I would have thought was beyond cool when I was a teenager…well, actually the sort of thing I would of still thought was cool into my early thirties.
The reason for all this VWness became apparent in Worcester. Vanfest was being held in Malvern and apparently there were 5,000 of these things parked up on the three counties showgrounds, although there were a hell of a lot of them driving along the highways and byways of Worcester too!
I love 'enthusiasts'. It is a particular feature of Englishness, a show of eccentricity and affection for a 'classic' (i.e. old) design. If something is rusting and leaking, it's not to be discarded, it's to be restored, hopefully with a lottery grant (well, otherwise it only goes to kosovans). There must be a gene dictating this sort of behaviour, it's like autism, but with a can of DW40 attached.
Still, I imagine it's tremendous fun, talking to your own people. Every garage had a couple of vans filling up and on Sunday night, heading home, whenever one saw a van pulled up on a hard shoulder (occasionally with smoke pouring from the engine, sometimes not) there would be a couple of other vans pulled up too. You don't get Vectra owners doing that, do you?
I wonder if the AA and RAC knew about the fest and had shedloads of VW gasket heads and so on laid on specially. Mind you, if your VW camper is going to break down, then Vanfest was the place for it to happen - turn your back for a minute and a group of enthusiasts have probably fixed your engine, re-sprayed your bodywork, refitted the interior and put in a jaccuzzi, a patio and a dance floor. Cool!
Also noticed on the way up a more than usual number of VW camper-vans, one with a 'custom' paint job. While the usual paint-job for the classic VW camper is orange and one wing primer, the owner of this one had been busy with spray can an airbrush. The result was his van covered with a 'Matrix' theme - Lawrence Fishburn glowering out of a side panel, the sort of thing I would have thought was beyond cool when I was a teenager…well, actually the sort of thing I would of still thought was cool into my early thirties.
The reason for all this VWness became apparent in Worcester. Vanfest was being held in Malvern and apparently there were 5,000 of these things parked up on the three counties showgrounds, although there were a hell of a lot of them driving along the highways and byways of Worcester too!
I love 'enthusiasts'. It is a particular feature of Englishness, a show of eccentricity and affection for a 'classic' (i.e. old) design. If something is rusting and leaking, it's not to be discarded, it's to be restored, hopefully with a lottery grant (well, otherwise it only goes to kosovans). There must be a gene dictating this sort of behaviour, it's like autism, but with a can of DW40 attached.
Still, I imagine it's tremendous fun, talking to your own people. Every garage had a couple of vans filling up and on Sunday night, heading home, whenever one saw a van pulled up on a hard shoulder (occasionally with smoke pouring from the engine, sometimes not) there would be a couple of other vans pulled up too. You don't get Vectra owners doing that, do you?
I wonder if the AA and RAC knew about the fest and had shedloads of VW gasket heads and so on laid on specially. Mind you, if your VW camper is going to break down, then Vanfest was the place for it to happen - turn your back for a minute and a group of enthusiasts have probably fixed your engine, re-sprayed your bodywork, refitted the interior and put in a jaccuzzi, a patio and a dance floor. Cool!
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