The NEC

I made it to the Motorhome Show at the NEC for a few hours the week before last. It was vast and I just had a quick look round and chatted to a couple of exhibitors that caught my eye. One was Jofli Bear a journal for recording travels in a backpack carried by a good looking little bear. A great educational tool for children and it appealed to me as I am so smug and pleased with myself that I have made the effort to keep a journal for all our travels. It makes an interesting read all these years down the line to see what my thoughts, feelings and reactions were to the places we visited. So I encourage others to do the same. There's a picture below of the Jofli stand with his creator Suzi O'Neill. 

Two structures caught my eye, the Lego caravan in the entrance hall, goodness knows how many zillions of bricks were used up for that. I was told but have forgotten. There were even sandwiches made out of Lego inside the Lego fridge. 

As you can see the vehicle on the left isn't a Lego caravan. It's an all terrain van conversion. It looked impressive and would be great for going on some marvellous off road adventures.

I also had a chat with David Walker of Wifi on board. Looks like a fantastic option if you've got pots of money but the prices are coming down slowly and if you wanted to full-time in a motorhome and couldn't do without constant Wi-Fi, I guess if your business couldn't do without it, then it is an option. 

I spent some time with the lovely Steve who has set up Britstops, the guidebook for motorhomes in the UK. I really admire him for seeing it through and continuing to publish this excellent resource. The locations in his book take you to places that you would probably never discover without a motorhome, nor without his book. I left him as he was waiting to be interviewed for the consumer programme, 'You and Yours' aired on BBC Radio 4.

​Below is a picture of Steve on his stand at the NEC.

The only real problem was trying to leave the NEC complex. I didn't get involved in the road incident that held a lot of people up but it took me 40 minutes to find the car. The sign posts were dreadful, had me wandering round in circles. Then while on the phone to Mike, having a good moan about it, I trod on a funny shaped stone on the path and fell over! Some very nice people came over to make sure I was OK, which I was, so my only souvenir from the show is my grazed knee.

Next week I'll have compiled some more news from my roving reporter down on the Algarve, he's been taking nice photos and has got information on a top notch location at the marina in Portimao. 
Have a great week everyone.