Portsmouth International Kite Festival

We had a great time down Southsea common on Saturday and Monday at the Portsmouth International Kite Festival.

There were some huge kites on display which had graces eyes popping out her head with excitement, there were cat kites, dog kites, crocodile kites, whale kites, everything you could think of really! Graces favourite was a cherub as every time she saw it she laughed her head off saying "you can see his willy!", quite embarrassing when your surrounded by people and she's pretty loud :)

We walked around the show and watched the stunt kite display which was pretty cool then Grace noticed the kite and flag stalls then she was off like a shot deciding what kite she wanted. Lucky for me out of all the ones there she chose one for £2, happy days :) 

After watching her on the bouncy castle for half hour we took a look through the craft fair and ended up buying the most expensive bag of fudge I've ever had in my life, £4 for 5 small chunks of plain fudge! I nearly bloody fainted when she told me but Graces big puppy dog eyes made me hand over the money, then we headed back towards Arnie so she could show me her kite flying skills, which she was actually pretty good at! she had her bargain kite up in the sky for ages which is more than can be said of my attempts.

We strongly recommend you take a look down there next year as its free (except the car parks) and its just a good day out (as long as you don't get fleeced by the fudge woman), there's also a travelling fair on the common on these weekends so there's something for the older kids to do as well.

My one photo from Saturday

Grace showing the professionals how its done

Bank holiday weekend plans

Woohoo the bank holiday weekend has started!

Hopefully the weather is nice tomorrow as I'm taking Grace down Southsea common for the Portsmouth International Kite Festival

Its one of the Premier kite festivals in the U.K. and runs from Saturday 25th until Monday 27th August. check out their website to see some of the photos of the huge kites they have flying, some of them are really good.  I took grace a couple of years back when she was 2, so hopefully this time she will enjoy it more but it will also cost me more as no doubt she will want a kite like everyone else. i will post my photos up from the show some time over the weekend.

Sunday we are going to a place called INTECH science centre and planetarium near Winchester, hampshire. Its a hands on interactive science and technology centre, it features around 100 interactive exhibits, which demonstrates technology from the world around us. I've heard good things about this place and I think Grace will love it, at least this time she can touch things without being told off!

Bank holiday Monday I will be taking Grace back home to her mum then depending on my funds I may be making my way over to Gosport to my good friends Deana and Chris (Colin as he's know to the Air Cooled Monkeys crew) in their pub The Junction Tavern for their real ale and cider festival. Its a cracking little friendly pub and well worth a visit if your in the area, especially if you like your real ales as they usually have 3 ales on tap which change regularly.
You can check here to see what ales they have on at the moment.

Rubber update :)

Right I pulled the rubbish door rubber off today and binned it, I got one for less than half the price of the rubbish one from GSF and it's so much better, it's slightly thinner and a hell of a lot softer. The door shuts a treat now so if anyone is after new rubbers I recommend the £13 ones from GSF.

After work today I went down to pick Grace up in Arnie as I have her to sleep every Wednesday :)
we stopped of at McDonalds on the way back to mine and pigged out on crap lol, little G had her first bite of a burger, I hope she don't like them too much. Then she spent the next 10 mins playing with what she called "the best McDonalds toy ever", a London 2012 archery man.

Bad few days :(

The last few days have been a right pain in the arse for me, the other day my golf decided to keep pumping its oil all over the road, I finally got that problem sorted today. Then I moved Arnie at work to get the golf past and as I jump out I push the door shut, this being the new door that I only fitted a couple of months back, and due to the crap new door rubbers it kept bouncing back and not catching, so on the third time I gave it a proper wallop and the bloody thing dented right in the middle of the door!

I'm so fed up of the poor quality parts being sold for the buses at the moment, this door rubber cost me around £30 and the thing still didn't shut properly.

I will be pulling this rubbish excuse for a door rubber off shortly, Can anyone recommend good door rubbers?

Luckily I work at V Dub Shack so should be able to get the dent out soon, still annoying though.

Portsmouth v Bournemouth

Yesterday I took a drive down to Fratton Park with my dad to watch my beloved Portsmouth football club take on AFC Bournemouth in our first game of the season down in league one.

After all the crap the club have had over the last couple of years and being in administration with points being deducted and having to sell all of our players i didn't think we had much of a chance of getting any points on the table as the team we fielded have only just been thrown together from our youth team and last minute loan deals. To my surprise we was all over Bournemouth in the first half, we took the lead through a goal from McLeod that found its way between the goalkeepers legs, it was an awesome feeling again celebrating a goal at the park :)

Unfortunately Bournemouth pulled a goal back in the second half as we started to fade and it finished 1-1. It's still a great result from our bunch of lads, Play up Pompey!!

If your local get down to Fratton Park and give Portsmouth FC your support, I will be taking Grace for the first time this season, trying to give her the Pompey bug :)

Two show Sunday, Dubbin' and Buggin'

So I woke up Sunday morning with a stiff neck from the star watching the night before, I should have thought of that before sitting with my head facing upwards for an hour or so! Grace actually slept in her new hammock all night, its the best thing I have brought for Arnie so far, no more nights of sharing my 3/4 width bed with a little monster that kicks and punches in her sleep :)

After some breakfast cooked for us by Mr and Mrs Moosehead we headed over to the Sunday show and shine then had another look around the stalls, Grace brought a couple of canvas drawings of camper vans from the Camper Van Radio stall so she could pant when she got home, I'm sure you will see the results on here sometime.

We got camp Arnie packed up by around 12.30pm then headed home to Portsmouth. We arrived at the Beach Buggin' show on Southsea common a couple of hours later, it was a red hot day as usual for this show and crammed full of beach buggy's, beetles and buses. we had a look around and saw that two camper vans that I sprayed at Bear Bodyworks were in the show and shine and found out that one of them won an award :) well happy :)

After getting a sun burnt head again we jumped back in Arnie for the short trip home.

I would give Summer Dubbin' a 4 out of 5, it was a lovely little chilled out show but needed a bit more going on in the evening, hopefully next year will be a 5* from me ;)


Beach Buggin' always gets a 5 out of 5 from me, the location on the seafront and the scorching hot weather the show has had over the last few year makes it a great one day show, it has a great variety of stalls for gifts and parts and always a great line up of classic VW's to feast your eyes on.

Chris and Deana's camo van

Mr and Mrs Moosehead's westie

Me and Grace

Shiny beach buggy

Funky Bug

 Beach Buggin' photos

Summer Dubbin' Saturday

Has an early start today as we drove from Portsmouth to Hickstead show ground for Summer Dubbin' VW festival. We met up with a few other Air Cooled Monkeys then started our journey up there.
We got to the show around 1pm and set up camp Arnie before pulling Grace around in her mini green machine wagon.
I got to see my old GT Beetle that I sold 5 years ago, I was well chuffed to see it on the road again. We had a look around the show and shine and grace went to the pet stall to hold a rabbit and stroke a tortoise (strange thing to stroke i know) before heading back to Arnie to cook grace some super noodles :)

After watching the live band and having Grace running around like a loon I pulled her back in the wagon for her to crash out on the hammock :) I stayed outside with my mate Chris and watched the meteor shower and saw 11 before I hit the sack after a long day.

The Air Cooled Monkeys have arrived

Pit stop in Billingshurst

Camp Arnie

Camper van radio bus

Sweet Porsche

My old GT Beetle

Hammock fitted

Today I got my hammock fitted in the cab of Arnie, with help from Wrights Auto Trimmers, who adjusted it so it fits around my Porsche 944 seats. Now the big test tomorrow is to see if Grace will actually sleep in it!

Take a look at Wrights Auto Trimmers website, he does some great work and very reasonable prices, he's also the one that made my sun canopy a few weeks back :)

Going to start loading up Arnie for the show tomorrow, if your going to Summer Dubbin' keep an eye out for us :)

Almost Summer Dubbin time!

The Summer Dubbin' show at the Hickstead Showground in West Sussex on the 11th and 12th August is the first VW show this year that me and Grace will be going to due to the rubbish weather we have had. Its a shame it fall on the same weekend as Beach Buggin' in our home town of Portsmouth but we fancied a change this year.

There's live bands, the camper cook off, show and shine, auto jumble and loads of other stuff over the 2 day show. So today I will start sorting Arnie out ready for the short journey on Saturday morning.

So remember to pop along to Summer Dubbin' if your around that area, its only £6 per person for the day and 16 and unders are free :)

Bacon butty's by the sea

Today was pretty uneventful due to the rubbish weather returning, still me and Grace jumped in Arnie and headed down to the Hayling ferry by Eastney for a bacon butty each this morning.
Just as I was waiting for our butty's to be served at the burger van the heavens opened to much to Graces delight and I got soaked through to the skin carrying them back to the bus. We stayed down there for an hour watching all the little boats coming and going from Langston harbour, sod going out to sea in a small boat with the weather like it is!

After that we just went and visited family and Grace got to see the 7'10" sunflower at her nans house! I didnt realise they grew that high! We are hoping for a better day tomorrow so we can get out more :)