Oktoberfest 2013

Portsea Island Dubs on way to Oktoberfest

 In October 2013 a colourful convoy of 6 VW buses headed from Portsmouth to the River Dart Country Park in Ashburton, Devon for Oktoberfest 2013, There was us in "Arnie", My dad & Jen in their hearing aid beige westfalia, John & Tracey in there red & white Dormobile, Kev & Karen in there blue Dormobile, Dave & Tina in the other hearing aid beige westie and Steve, Sharon & Gus in there orange Westie.

This was the first year I took Grace and she loved it, its a great little family show that sells out very quickly every year. She enjoyed looking around all the buses and beetles and making new friends in the park, she even got joint 1st place in the Halloween fancy dress competition dressed as a scary clown lol, she was really chuffed :)

As usual there were some lovely VW Campers on display all being used for what they were made for, Camping!! Thankfully the weather stayed nice this year, last year was terrible rain, typical English weather lol.

I would recommend visiting both the Oktoberfest show and also the lovely River Dart Country Park itself, it has great facility's and a tree top adventure trail for the older kids and adults.

If your there this October keep an eye out for me and Grace in the green machine :)

Dads Westie

Base Camp

Walking the plank

The green machine

Kevs Bus

Arnie and Steve & Sharon's Westie

Me and mini me

Grace got joint 1st in the fancy dress comp!

Dave & Tina's Westie

Kev & Karen's Dormobile and Dads Westie

Stu Mac's Bus

Portsmouth City Museum - Secret Egypt

Today we took a trip to Portsmouth City Museum, it was the last day of the "Secret Egypt" event and I wanted to show Grace the mummy they had on display there. its the first time I've been there for 20 odd years and its a great museum.

Grace seemed actually quite interested in the displays showing all the artefacts and the photos of how it all looks now. Then we came to the mummy, she was just staring after I read out to her that it was a real mummy of a 40 year old man, I think it freaked her out a bit but it was really interesting to see.

After the Egypt display we walked up to the next level to see how Portsmouth has changed over the years, they have displays of how people used to live and how there houses were. Its also got old signs, games and bikes and lots of photos of how it all used to look, its like walking back in time, then we walk around the corner and see a huge poster with Graces nanny Sue on it lol, Grace was really excited and I was quite surprised to see her on there.

It has a new main display every few months but also has permanent ones all year round which include:

A Study in Sherlock: Uncovering the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection
This exhibition showcases the largest collection pertaining to Doyle and his creation Sherlock Holmes in the world.  The gallery explores Doyle’s early life as a doctor in Portsmouth, his sporting activity and later interest in spiritualism as well as Sherlock Holmes as depicted in film, theatre, advertising and elsewhere.  It includes a Sherlock Holmes mystery and a narration by Stephen Fry, patron of the collection.

The Dickens Quilts
Members of the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles in the Portsmouth area have made twelve individual quilts to celebrate the birth of Charles Dickens. They are based on the theme “What Dickens Means to You” and very different in style. The quilts will be on display until end of October 2013 and can be found at the City Museum on all three floors in the stairwell leading to the Fine and Decorative Art Gallery.

No Place like Pompey  
What makes Portsmouth unique? Is it one particular place, the city’s geography, its past or its people?  This exhibition looks at some of the things that make "Pompey” special. This is the UK’s only island city, the city is ringed by forts both on land and in the sea and its history has been shaped by its relationship with the Royal Navy and Dockyard.

Its defiantly worth a visit, its free to get in and it takes a couple of hours to look around. The museum building is also an amazing sight!

Check there website to see what's on here http://www.portsmouthcitymuseums.co.uk/city/ 

The Mummy!!

The freaky Jolly Sailor

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Grace's Nanny Sue in the middle of photo

Portsmouth Football Club History

Bear Bodyworks - My Business

Check out my new business website please - http://www.bear-bodyworks.co.uk/

Between my time with my amazing daughter Grace this is where I am trying to earn money for her future and working on Classic VWs :)

Day after the St Valentine storm

The day after the Valentine day storm and the weather is lovely! Not a gasp of wind around!
We took Arnie out down to Southsea and met up with my dad in his camper to have a look at the destruction along the seafront, the road was closed off as it was littered with debris the the sea had thrown up.
There were trees and bits of the smashed up South Parade Pier washed up, The bandstand, the common and the car parks were all under water. Its pretty amazing the power of water!
We got away lightly in Portsmouth though, seeing all those floods around the country makes us lucky!

Hopefully that will be the end of it now and everyone can try and get back to normal.

Here are a few photos of our day

Shouldn't the water be outside the boat??

Clarence Pier

Grace watching the hoover craft coming in

Flooded Band Stand

Underwater car park!

Passenger door finally painted (At last!!!)

I finally got around to spraying my new passenger door for Arnie this week, I've only been meaning to do it for a year and a half! I'm just waiting for a nice day to pull him out the lock up and fit it now.

After that I still have a few more body repairs to do on it like fitting a new step on the passenger side and cutting out the rust that's appearing on the lower rear corners where the battery trays are. Its not bad considering I've owned him 6 years now and only fitted a new door and wheel arch on the drivers side in that time.

I've also started doing a bit more on my 1965 split screen bus between jobs, I've owned it since November 2010 and have a Blog of its progress here: Project Sixty Five Blog. Now I've got a bit more spare money to spend on it the progress should be quicker now! (hopefully)

My 1965 bus named "Jessie" by Grace