Been Busy

 

Yes I know I've been absent for a while. Truth is the Stylus has barely left the garage since it's return from Wales & it's now SORNed, so that's it until spring 2024.

Part of the reason for the lack of blog action is that there's now a lady in my life & that tends to alter one's perspective on what's important, but predictably (for me) she's not your "normal" woman & is every bit as interested in cars & planes as I am, so I've been visiting museums with her, which has been brilliant.

Last weekend for instance we went to the Bubble Car & Micro Car museum somewhere near East Kirkby Airfield (where we went a few weeks back to see their Lancaster & Mosquito taxiing). It's only a small museum - but then it only needs to be as the exhibits are tiny.

There are a few odd things about the cars - OK, there's lots of odd things - but one of the things I find odd is the tiny tiny wheels, especially when the styling is - shall we say "compromised" anyway, tiny tiny wheels aren't helping the look.

The Messerschmitts & Heinkels get away with it as they're not trying to look like cars as such, but some of the others would've benefitted from having 12s, this Bond for example.

Some of the car's backs didn't match the front, like this one ......

Utilitarian front......

Swoopy back.

Having said that, some were really quite nice, I liked this, though the name "Meadows Frisky Family Three" might put some off.

This NSU was probably the best styled car there (in my opinion)

I could live with that shape - not sure I could live with the performance though

But it does knock most modern cars into a cocked hat styling wise.

So all in all an interesting afternoon, interesting to see what happens when you design a car from a completely different point of view.

The museum also has cabinets full of what I suppose must now be called "Historical artefacts" or to put it another way "Stuff my parents had". ordinary things, hair driers, cameras, curtains, if you're my age it all looked horribly familiar.

RogueRunners Wales '23 - Day 3

 

Day three again saw us heading off to breakfast, but a few of us took a little longer & I ended up leading the second group. I noticed the first lot head out in a different direction, so thought nothing of it when my SatNav took me the same way. Except no breakfast came in sight! The twit (me) had loaded the wrong route - the one without the breakfast stop. Eventually I pulled over & we re-organised ourselves, deciding to to go on to the very pleasant Dyffryn café where the décor was nicer, the breakfast was cheaper & the staff were better looking (or so I was told - can't say I noticed myself).

By now the weather was on the turn, the hoods were up & the cars were getting muddy. We were now in two distinct groups about an hour apart as we wove through the centre of Wales where the scourge of the new speed limits had been more reasonably applied. Elan valley was as ever very nice, as was the cake in the Two Hoots café at Devil's Bridge. I'm not sure the same could be said for the entertainment or the wasp infestation though.

By & by we reached our destination, the Roast Ox, where the welcome was warm & we settled in to wait for our compatriots. Occasional raspy engine notes sent me to the window, camera in hand, but there must've been a local rally on as interesting old cars appeared & disappeared from & to seemingly random directions, no two cars arrived & left by the same roads, so who knows what was going on. Certainly not the drivers.

Eventually our brethren arrived through the rain as I was starting to feel the effects of what would turn out to be Covid. But not knowing this at the time I sat with everyone & had a very very nice tea - I am deeply sorry to those I unknowingly infected.

Where Was I? RRW '23 Day 2

 Oh yes - Wales.

It's all got a little hazy because I bought a souvenir back with me - Covid.

I probably picked it up in the Premier Inn in Cardiff, at least I knew of no-one who was poorly before I went to Wales & at least four of us had it when we came back. But on with the story, we got up bright & early on the Saturday & drove off to the breakfast venue through the countryside on 20mph roads (long story), having eaten we headed out on a pleasant run through the Welsh lanes & at some point we called in for our usual coffee & cake stop at the Ffestiniog railway but the café was closed for an event. We weren't feeling any love coming from Wales by now.

We carried on around Snowdonia (or whatever it's called this week), the trip was notable for a couple of things, there were a few car clubs about, we saw a bunch of Celicas parked up near Betws-Y-Coed & a bunch of supercars - more of which later. Also Neil saw Harlech Castle, which he managed to miss altogether last year. Big Grey thing it was - the size of a large building. We carried on down the coast as far as Barmouth before turning inland, once again I stopped & took a few pictures of my travelling companions going past & eventually we arrived at the very pleasant Conwy Falls Café for more refreshments.

After that we headed back to Mold & back to the hotel, but on the way we found a nice spot & Neil launched his drone, which made a few nice scenic passes & then we drove off under it, which looked really good in the footage. After that we wended our way along some spectacular roads which hadn't been festooned with signage & cameras (yet) & arrived back at the hotel with a little more time to prepare before tea than we had yesterday.

Tomorrow we'd be heading south To the very nice Roast Ox.