MX5 - Around Britain

We set off this morning, and covered 246 miles today. There was a mixture of weather and roads today...the weather ranged from hailstones to 30 degree heat, and the roads ranged from twisty A roads to boring dual carriageways, but overall today has been very enjoyable.

Within 5 minutes, an apple eating female Volvo driver swerved violently in front of Bart to check whether the grill had been fitted yet...needless to say, when she got within a matter of feet she realised that it hadn't and swerved out of the way!

Eileen decided that it was more difficult to read a map inthe southerly direction rather than the northerly direction, and decided that map reading wasn't for her today.....apparently she's never heard of turning the map upside down!! Anyone would think she was afraid of going back 'down south' and home, now that she's become an honorary north easterner.

John peeled off just outside Peterhead, allegedly for a fuel stop...but the story on the grapevine is that he needed to unload the chicken madras he had last night at the great little Indian restaurant in Banff...and when he caught us up at the gas station in Aberdeen, he produced from his passenger seat a naan bread wrapped in a foil bag which he promptly placed on the manifold to warm through!! Talk about a mid morning snack!!

It was at this stop that the convoy had to share unisex toilets...or should I say toilet!! And just as Christine opened the door to the toilet, Gary, being the gentleman he is, pushed her violently to one side muttering something about puddles!! And who was Chris to get in the way of nature!!

It was after this stop, just when John's day was picking up, we reached the Tay bridge. John, who had been relegated to the rear of the convoy for safety reasons (whilst still eating a warmed up Naan on the move) eventually reached the toll booth, and as is typical of all human beings, tried to get the queue which will deplete quickest. In his attempt to hurry the assistant he methodically sorted out all of his loose change to meet the toll demand of 80 pence. Unfortunately for John, the biggest denomination coin he had was a 10 pence piece...and when he placed them all in size order between his thumb and first finger, the pressure was just too much and the coins exploded in all directions...all over the floor of the car and the ground!! Unlucky!! So he had to use his last £20 Scottish pound note instead! Everyone say aaahhhhh!

And there is a new nickname in the group ........(drum roll!)........yes, the Around Britain Team are proud to present........fresh from a recent tour of the British Isles...............ladies and gentlemen.....please put your hands together for..........TEAM LEMONHEADS!!!!! Also known in the business as the marvellous Watkins'.....or Steve and Liz to their friends. The reason for this title is that it has come to out attention over the past few days, particularly today in St Cyrus, that whenever the convoy seems to split, the Watkins' can always be seen, shining brightly in their yellow caps!

The most interesting thing en route was a VW Polo that has designs on integration with the convoy. They joined mid convoy, and were highly impressed by the number of flashes and waves that they got from the drivers and their passengers! What they didn't realise was that there was a pair of shoes adorning their roof! As the shoes remained stuck solidly to the roof for miles, the convoy speculated wildly about whether the shoes were covering a hole and had been glued on, or whether they were golf shoes and were spiked on!! However when negotiating a particularly severe roundabout and one parted company with the roof, we suddenly realised that it was only The Force that was keeping them in contact with the roof!! Eventually the VW owners realised, and returned to recover their lost shoe!! Boy, did we laugh!

Gary saw a rather attractive looking blonde walking at the side of the road, and so tried to impress her with the size of his exhaust...but unfortunately for Gary, Simon drove past immediately after and impressed her with his double one !! Oh er missus!! Story of Gary's life!

We passed through St. Andrews, the home of golf...(you know that odd game where they hit a little ball again and again around a very large field), which was very pretty, and then Crail, the birthplace of Christine's dad....but by the time we'd realised we'd missed it! (Sorry Dad!)

Just before lunch, we picked up a local...Graeme Babbs...who showed us the delights of Leven.....a spectacular power station!! But the chip butties were just what the doctor ordered, and lunch was eaten sat on the sea wall, with the weather reminiscent of the Riviera! However, the seagulls were a bit too friendly for our liking, performing some very low flying acrobatics....and there was always the threat of aerial bombardment....although some would say that they were only checking Bart's front end and lack of shiny metal grille!! Not me, of course, but some others!!

Today has been National Lolly Pop Person day (because there were blokes too!)....they all waved frantically as the convoy passed, and raised the spirits of the day enormously. So a big shout goes out to them all! And there were even several villages where the bunting had been put out for us! FANTASTIC!!

After lunch we literally almost ran into Rod and Jill Hodgson in their Bronze Mk2, who had been tracking us for most of the day with a cunning Fox!! Yes, the man that has been beaten by a Mk2 grille and still has the audacity to talk to us, joined us too, complete with a video camera in his passenger seat so he could capture the unmistakable beauty of a convoy of not-so-gleaming MX5's!! (Not-so-gleaming because of the seagulls last night that seemed to be playing target practice with the cars!)

Gary was asked if he had hit the rev limiter at one stage by Simon. He said no but promplty demonstrated just what it would sound like, by trying to do a Donutz.....sorry, donut, but only on a private road, of course!!

Graeme led us from lunch to our destination, via a detour to the Royal Yacht Britannia which is moored at the docks in Leith (why!?)...but after a short photoshoot with all of the cars in front of the boat we were once again on our way, with the home stretch in view.

The trip into North Berwick was very picturesque, and very sunny! And the hotel has a very well equipped bar that the team hit only minutes after arriving! There's not even been a shower or bath yet! Phew!! And Chris, Andy and John haven't even found a room yet...although apparently the Mermaid Massage Parlour at Leith docks is looking good! (Sorry, Eve!)