The BMF at Peterborough this year was not the major event it has been in the past for the club, due to circumstances beyond our control, but believe you me, you didn't miss much. It can be summed up in two words: COLD and WET.
Helen, Elizabeth and myself were given trader's passes due to the fact that Helen's brother had his stand up there flogging T-shirts and we thought, well, why not, let's go. It should have been an omen for us as to what we were in for, when on Friday morning I was loading the car up in the peeing hard rain and it didn't stop all the way to the showground. We met up with Ayd and pitched in to help him put his stand up, after which it was time for the tents. The rain had eased off by now and the wind had died down to gale force so conditions were quite comfortable. Anyway after a few beers in Ayd's stand it was getting on, so time to head off for some food and a bit of entertainment, which sounded pretty good. However the heavens opened up again so there was no chance of getting into any marquee as they were just wall to wall with bodies, so off we went to the section of the food marquee marked "Marshalls Only" and played our joker, explaining that we had two small children who were tired and hungry and theirs was the only place with some space. They let us in so things worked out OK in the end.
Back to the tents and a good night's sleep for Elizabeth and myself anyway - the rain kept on all night and we stayed dry, but Helen didn't, so morale as you can imagine was at an all-time low come Saturday morning.
The day was spent milling around trying to dodge rainstorms and necking back beers at a nice steady pace. Whilst having a look round the BMF stand we bumped into Barry and Janneane and it was good to see some Bexley faces. Saturday night was much the same as Friday except this time it wasn't raining quite so hard, but by now everything underfoot was turning to mud and once again the bands sounded quite good but entry into the entertainment marquee was impossible.
A pleasant surprise Sunday morning: sunshine and a dry Helen. After breakfast we did another lap of the site picking up a couple of bargains and quite a few freebies. Helen went back to Ayd's stand and I set off for the auto jumble. I noticed this dodgy looking character and on closer examination, lo and behold it was my friend and yours, Phil Loom. Phil said he had a good ride up, dry as well.
I went back to the stand where Phil joined us later, clouds by this time were beginning to look a bit serious so Phil made the decision to head home and within an hour or so down it came again and this time it didn't stop. By the time we had packed up we were all wet through so we had one nice, wet 100 mile drive home.
It was a good weekend believe it or not with everyone being in the same boat and making the best of it - the good old British stiff upper lip I guess. I'm sure that if a big heap of us go next year the weather will be hot and this year will be just a distant memory I hope.