First thing on Friday morning I again donned my shirt and dicky bow and after collecting a passenger, headed to Bridport in the Challenger. I had been asked if I would be able to go along to “promote” a charity shop in the morning. The charity is SCOPE which is a charity for disability. Here is the “quote” I have taken from their website;
“Scope is a charity that exists to make this country a place where disabled people have the same opportunities as everyone else. Until then, we’ll be here.”
They had a promotional day to encourage people to not only visit the shops to buy but more emphasis on the donation side of things. I was quite surprised at the interest that the Challenger created, but was really happy that it had. It gave me a reason to take her out for drive, it was just a shame that the weather was so piss poor, (or should that be pour?) I stopped for an hour or so before heading off home again as we had a previously arranged fete to attend in the afternoon.
An hour and a half is all it should take to get to Tedworth House, granted, the weather was shite but hopefully it won’t delay us too much. Ok, plan; Leave home and go to Tesco to get money and fuel. Go and let the dogs out at the Mother in Laws house and then get on to the A303 and make our way to Tedworth House. Due to some resurfacing work that was happening in Chard it took us an hour to do the couple of things that we had to and get to the A303. Something told me that this was not going to be a hassle free journey. The long and short of it was that it took us just over three hours during which much of the time we were stationary. We arrived a couple of hours after the summer fete had started at Tedworth House. The rain was still falling but there were plenty of tents and shelters up to get out of the weather and there were also things going on inside the house. The fete had been organised for the Band of Brothers and Band of Sisters, it would be a chance for people to meet up with others that they may not have seen for quite a while and for new friendships to be forged, above all though it was for everyone to have a day of fun and relaxation.
We had been in the house for a little over five minutes when a face I had not seen for a long while appeared. He dropped the things he was carrying and came straight over to me and seeing this guy was worth the drive to Tedworth House alone. Outside and we met with another face I have not seen since I was in hospital three and a half years ago which was great. We sat together, my family and his and had our pizza and hog roast and listened the live music acts while chatting and catching up. Some other familiar faces that I had not seen for a while were also there and I was able to have a couple of chats with those whom I had not seen for a while. There were a couple of faces that I had hoped to see there but had not come. Some had left which was simple but I do worry as to why a couple of others were not there purely because of the ailment they were and would still be suffering from.
We left for home at around half past eight and due to missing out a good chunk of the A303, we made reasonable time on the way home only meeting traffic at a couple of the choke points. The traffic on the opposite side of the road though had clearly not eased throughout the time that we had been at Tedworth House and was still solid and stationary. Upon listening to the traffic reports on the radio, they spoke of traffic queuing from Exeter all the way to Cribbs Causeway and so with that in mind, we had actually had a pretty lucky journey! It is now the school holidays and the roads will be busy so I would ask you, each of you, is it necessary to force your way through traffic? Please just drive in a relaxed manor so that you arrive at your destination safely.
Good evening all.