Wessex Quilters

Another day, another venue. This one is a little hut style church. However with a flexable group it's amazing what you can fit in. I was hoping that with this talk I would be able to do without helpers, so everyone can see the talk. To achieve that I needed to hang all three of the big quilts, so a small hall wasn't ideal. On the other hand, we did get away with it. By putting two stands along the walls and moving the chairs back a little it worked very well. The talk ran nicely and turned out to be just slightly over an hour. I am pretty pleased with that as there wasn't a clock in the hall so I had no idea how the timing was working out. From the feedback I've had the group liked it too. There were several people there who had seen me before and they seemed to feel they got a lot of new information and different quilt, which is exactly what I was aiming for.

They are a friendy, good natured bunch and big on hospitality. Even though they don't have refreshments themselves I was asked what they should bring for me! This made packing a lot of fun and not much work. I did have to make sure no one managed to put Pheonix in their pockets though :) Once loaded they sent me on my way with nice clear directions. Tuesday night I had taken the van out at night and the lights had been reluctant to come on, they did after a little jiggle and I had added it to my to do list. I was hoping they were going to hold out for anothe day. Sure enough as I left the hall I only got side lights but a short way down the road the headlights came on. Fine, until I stopped for petrol. When I started off again the lights really didn't want to play.

As I aproached the motorway I was considering my options. I didn't fancy unlit motorway on side lights, old side lights at that. I pulled into a layby to phone home and check my rear lights. The rear lights were on, and most people would see me from the back as I am very slow, so maybe it would work. Then suddenly the lights came on. Seemed like a good point to get a move on.

As I got to Fleet services it was decision time. It is the last stopping point on the way home and there is an hours drive after it. I was getting tired, hungry and I wanted the loo. Do I push on or take the chance on stopping? One yawn and blink too many, I stopped. It's nice service stop and I had a fully equiped van. Well fully equiped bar lights. When I came back to the van I couldn't get any lights to stay on. I had to wait for daylight. Of course daylight was also going to bring rush hour. Hmmm. Paying was very easy and it was quite quick to re stow my talk to clear the bed and the floor. Then I got to test, what I have heard several people call, contraceptive bedding. These are covers so heavy you can't move ;) I had added a furry bedspread in preparation for the drag racing and this was my chance to try it out. Well it's definately heavy and I was nicely warm. Not hot just comfortable. The thermometer says the temperature didn't drop (well not at any point I was awake) so maybe it was just a warm night, but I doubt it given how chilly it was when I got up.

I quite rate sleeping (or at least lounging in bed) through rush hour. Then a casual breakfast and heading home. I can see that it might not work for those who need silence to sleep but for me it was good, and cheap. If the car had done the same thing I would have had to use the hotel which I guess would have been 70 quid ish. The van even kept it's fault long enough for me to show it to the mechanic, which will hopefully mean he can fix it. That would be good as I am hoping to take the van out tonight. If not tomorrow morning will be just fine.