Author: admin

June’s usual monthly meeting was a little bit different to our usual potter out and cuppa.
We were part of the Festival of Motoring! Eddie facilitated our involvement with the organisers and we were set.

Unfortunately Murielle and Titinne were awol in the UK at the national meet but brought exciting news back of the possibility of the meet coming over to little ole’ Jersey in 2018. How wonderful that would be!
So back to Sunday. …. A select few pitched up at El Tico ready for the drive to our debut in the Jersey automotive world.
Eddie, his friend and Noddy, Sean and Camille, Chris, his boys and the elusive Little Mule (she does exist after all!), a newcomer (sorry didn’t catch you or your car’s name!) And the highly polished, Helen, Debbie and Scarlet and Jo, Mark and an equally shiny Celeste.Helen and Jo had been comparing valeting results all week!
Hang on……who’s this? It’s only Peter (our Chairman) more or less on time and actually in a Citroën!😜
Off we went up the hill and across to descend into the valley, briefly loosing our new red friend as he went the wrong way but a quick reverse and he was back on track. Down into the valley and along the inner road ready to line up to go into the show ring for our cavalcade.
Slight confusion as to what was going on with various mixed messages regarding turning round and going the other way then turning back again from a bloke on a bike with a high viz and a walkie talkie (must be important) and then we were ready to do our laps.  There were some very loud cars flying round the circuit like complete lunatics before us and Jo heard a little boy asking his dad if the 2cv were racing next. RACING?! How very dare he?
Well Eddie decided we should put our pedals to the metal and we reached the top speeds on the ‘straights’.  I feel out of all the cars racing on Sunday we were probably the only ones that reached full speed!

After a few laps of the ‘race’ circuit with commentary we entered the park to settle and rest our pistons in the sun shine.
Our beautiful tin snails had a lot of admirers during the afternoon. Someone even asked if Jo would be interested in selling Celeste!  No price can be put on the happiness she brings so NO she is not for sale!
After all the excitement picnics were in order.  It was lovely to see we all had picnic rugs to match our cars!!!
What a wonderful day and brilliant to be part of such a great island event. Here’s to next year.

Author: Jo Thorpe

Apologies for the late summary of the club run but life got in the way and it took me the whole week before being able to get to the laptop and type it, so apologies for the briefness as the memory is starting to be a bit hazy….

The start

The day started well with sunshine out to play with us, a total of 9 cars came to the party. Camille was there first and Sean had brought a friend with him and the lovely Jack (friend of the 4 legged kind). Titinne came second, with Murielle and Murielle’s parents who were on holiday and came along for the ride. The rest of the pack arrived shortly after, Celeste with Jo & Mark, Noddy & Eddie, Cassis with Annie & Gary, The grey Charleston with Lynne, Steven & grandson , Emmy with Peter (the lovely Lynne was otherwise engaged) and last but not lease a white & green Dolly with Clive and his granddaughter.  All congregated in the car park outside St Clement Parish hall, and, as there was no watering hole open nearby, we managed to set off on time at 10:15.

The ride

We all snaked along the coast road, past the beaches and up Month Bingham, following our day’s leader Sean. Sean kindly stopped outside the fishermen’s hut of the old harbour to make sure everyone was there by doing a quick count of cars. Reassured that his flock was following he headed towards the West once more and led us through the avenue, though St Aubin at a snail pace and through to the Poplars tea room via Red Houses. We seemed to pick up our Chairman in the way in an old Fiat (odd one out in the picture) by the hamburger bar at Bel Royal….  Need to set up your alarm clock Peter 🙂 !!!!

The arrival

We quickly parked our vehicles and started to sit down in the lovely garden of the Poplars, unfortunately, they have a no dog allowed in the garden and Sean & his friends had to leave, I will ensure to check such policies in future as a few of our members have 4 legged companions. This put a bit of the dampener on the atmosphere but we soon settled down in front of coffees, yummy cakes and pastries or bacon sandwiches before heading in all directions for another month.

Next month

It’s the festival of motoring so please contact Eddie who is taking charge of our unruly bunch of miscreants for the June gathering ….

A grey start of the day

The day didn’t look too promising as the sky was very very grey that morning, and it had been raining around 9am. The meeting point was the car park of the aviator cafe by the Aeroclub. The first ones to report on the car park and sample the teas of the cafe were Phil Rondel and his grandson James with their gleaming white 2cv.

A bit of cleaning

Titinne and Murielle were a close second, soon to be joined by a newcomer to the runs, John who had brought his Mehari out in the cold(ish) weather; number 4 was Sean driving Camille. Emmy carrying Peter and Lynne, Jo & Mark with their grey Charleston Celeste, Anne and Gary with Cassis. The wooden spoon of arrival went to Scarlett, driven by Helen.

In her defense, Helen had taken Scarlet out from her cosy garage on Friday and taken her with her whilst enjoying the delight of the Corbiere Radio station so she could attend the meeting. We were all please to see them but couldn’t help giving them a bit of ribbing as Scarlett had been a dirty stop out, Helen quickly got a duster out to give her a quick dust around whilst moaning about the seagull poop that been dotted on the roof….

Spring is in the air.

The theme of the run was spring time and participants had been ask to decorate their vehicles, only Titinne and Celeste had made the effort to put on their finery. After a cold wait for any potential stragglers, Murielle picked Emmy as the convoy lead to take the group to the east of the Island where a table had been booked at Ransom Garden Centre for refreshments.

Peter did take us through some roads I didn’t know existed, we had a lovely drive through the green lanes, pushing 15 mph. going up and down the daffodils speckled green fields, very pleasant indeed !  I think I spotted a grey Heron in St Peter’s Valley too. Our little cortege of fine cars drew lots of admiring glances from the cows looking for a distraction from their grazing, oh and from the few humans we encountered too.

The arrival line

We passed trinity and quickly found ourselves careening thought St Martin at a speedy 25 mph to finally reach the car park of the garden centre, unfortunately, not enough spaces to park together so Titinne & Celeste decided to have a private chat about their new outfits and left the riff raff park together opposite them.

All drivers and passengers quickly piled in the cafe to find the big table reserved for them and ordered hot drinks, and breakfast. A lot of stories being exchange, and good natured banter could be heard. Not too sure what the staff was making of us lot though.

It was nice to see Gary and Annie again now that Cassis is back on the road, we were very glad that Phil had been able to join us as well as he was unwell last month. Of course our missing members were mentioned, and we hope to see them on the 1st May for our next outing.

A run not for the faint hearted….

Well what can I say? With a weather warning in place for the islands and winds battering our coasts, we dared go ahead with our monthly club run.

Our meeting place was the car park at Le Braye, I arrived in Titinne, blown in by the rain and gales and narrowly missing a couple of runners who had decided to stop bang in the middle of the road… Strange place if you ask me! Quickly spotted Penny and Stuart in their green peril, and Celeste who had been abandoned there by Jo and Mark who were treating themselves to a bit of breakkie in the cafe.

I was shortly followed by Phil Rondel who came with his grand children, Eddie in Noddy who appeared to be relatively frozen and in serious need of a wet suit… whilst they grabbed themselves a hot drink to take away, I took a walk to the slipway for  and got my face sandblasted to take a sneaky shot at the Rocco tower then returned tothe car park and waited for stragglers. Said hello to a new green and white dolly owned by Polly and Paul, who unfortunately couldn’t join in the convoy today but wanted to meet some club members. And, just as everyone was getting ready to go, Scarlett arrived, carrying Helen and Ben, who kindly agreed to lead the convoy.

So off we went, as we were slowly but surely climbing up the hill to reach St Peter, who do see going downhill? a beautiful black and burgundy Charleston, but hang on, this is our chairman’s car. Peter, dashing to reach the meeting place (late) to participate in our antics.  After a quick U-turn and race up the hill, he managed to catch up with us. We then meandered through the country lanes of St Peter, St Mary, St John, Trinity and St Martin, clogging the narrow roads with our tin snails. Helen took us through a lovely trail and I discovered places i’d never been before. Pushed by the wind, I think we reached a top speed of may be 30mph downhill!

Final destination – Cafe firefly

We arrived at destination and parked safely in a huddle, Titinne and Scarlet next to each other so they could discuss having their picture sent to the 2cvGB magazine…  As the showers had passed, it gave us an opportunity to congregate around the cars for a quick chat.

Peter seemed to disappear in the boot of the green 2cv at one stage and that gave me the giggles… well enough of standing around and getting cold feet, we finally queued in the cafe for our hot beverages for what seemed like ages, we congregated to the end area where we could all stand and chat together; arrange the next run and discuss who is going to the national and who is not.

And finally …

A few of our members coudn’t join in today for a lot of different reasons (away, weather, car in the workshop or in bits) but I was tickled to find an email from Chris in my inbox when I came back, assuring me that yes he did have a car but was still waiting for some parts to arrive… See you on the road at the next run then Chris 🙂