BMW Car Magazine Forum Lake District Winter Challenge - January 2003
Stage 3: Sober to Drunk to Asleep to Breakfast
We arrived, weary and desperate for alcohol to celebrate Gromit's birthday. Bloody hell he's old. Sorry, sidetracked again! I had been assured by the hotel that there was plenty of secure parking. In reality, there was limited parking, and it was secure in as much as everyone blocked each other in, and you were asked to leave your keys at reception in case your car needed moving. Gromit and I decided that this just wasn't happening, and so sent Robin in to diplomatically remind them that we drive BMWs and so could they arrange a garage for us.
While he was gone, an E46 330d saloon came hurtling up the road and skidded to a halt behind me. The window wound down, a head emerged, glanced at the back of Gromit's car, then at mine. I wound down my window. "Neil?" said a voice I immediately recognised to be Paul's, and suddenly it all made sense.
"Yes" I said.
"Where the bloody hell are we supposed to park?" said Paul. Immortal words! At this stage Robin emerged and said "all sorted, follow me". We followed him to three garages where we parked our cars. I kid you not, here's the proof (picture taken the following morning in the light):
Above, from left to right, Kilo's E36 328i, Gromit's E36 325i, Paul's E46 330d.
We had a meal with Paul's wife and son, and then Ben Luker arrived in a quite incredible amount of time (I won't go into details for fear of incriminating the poor chap but let's just say I was impressed). At this stage, we were trying to decide where to go when I received a text message from Jeff Spangle which said "Jeff Spangle is in McGinty's Irish Bar". Great, I thought, I'm knackered and half cut, and now I getting cryptic text messages from a loony. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to check my attendees sheet and noticed that there was a Jeff Spangle on the list, and the mobile number tallied too!
So we moved into said bar, at which point we realised we had no means of identifying Mr Spangle. Discussing the comedy of the situation I said "well I'll give the guy a call and we'll see whose phone rings". To this Paul loudly replied "Good idea, I'm damned if I'm going to stand here and shout 'Spangle'". Before he had really finished saying this, the gentleman sat directly behind him said "oh hello, I'm Jeff Spangle"! Maybe you had to be there, but it caused a fair few chuckles!
The remainder of the evening was spent familiarising ourselves, and so the camera wasn't used, except for this charming picture of Paul and his son who despite looking as though he only has one arm, he actually has two. Perhaps I should also point out that while it looks like Paul has two stomachs, it is in fact one big one.
