I want to tell you a story
Sunday evening
Helloooooooooo. Wow, nearly the end of the weekend already, I’m wacked! I had a craft fair on Friday afternoon/teatime and came home to pack for one night in Dudley and the following day at the museum. Well, we got ready and arrived at midnight to stay at the Copthorne Hotel for the first time. I got a cracking internet deal, cos I wasn’t about to stay in the Travelodge again after the grotty room we had last summer (that’s yet another story). We arrived bright and early at the museum at 9:45 (well I’m very honest when I say I’m rubbish at early mornings, and we did get waylaid by a huge tray of food for breakfast delivered by room service) and helped Amanda finish setting out the display. The day zoomed by, it was such a lovely atmosphere, with lots of interested people eager to discuss beads and glass, and several locals who had popped in to see what it was all about, only to be overwhelmed by the beauty of the lampworked beads on display and for sale.
Our demonstrations were well received, I had a whale of a time making a raked star, a penguin, a fish and a slightly wonky red dotty bead and of course I had that very silly grin on my face when I finished. We were also joined by Kate Drew Wilkinson for the day who’d been teaching at Plowden and Thompsons the previous week.
After we’d all packed up and finished chatting in the car park we went our separate ways, us on a mission to find a campsite for the glass festival later on this year. 4 campsites later and a choice of 2 we quite liked we stopped to check out the showers and loos on the last one and noticed water dripping rather quickly from the radiator. OOOPS. It was 7pm by now, and I was just ravenous.
I have to say that the AA didn’t perform as well as normal, they managed to send out a local garage to help us, who couldn’t find us because they thought we were in the Lake District like they were, even though I gave the first operator the postcode of where we were – how the heck did they stuff up? The upside was that after we booked the call we found a pub right next door to the campsite and had a lovely roast dinner while we waited for the first van.
OK, so dinner eaten, now 9pm, stuck in the Black Country (fantastic view), and back to the bottom of the queue for brakedown recovery, not amused (although relieved that we’re at a pub and not on the motorway with a hungry cranky 7 year old and traffic shooting past). I should also say fantastic service from the pub, who sit us near the door so we can see the breakdown guy when he arrives, who offer us coffee and spend ages on the phone trying to find us a hotel if we need it and offereing to drive us there also if we need it! (Plough Inn, Far Forest)
9:40pm and the cavalry (or is that carvery or recovery) arrive, a man from Dagenham, named Dave, you couldn’t make this up. He was very helpful too, giving us directions and leading us to a garage to get some more Radweld. We eventually left Kidderminster, stopping at several services to check the leak situation, and got to bed at 3am.
Maybe that’s why I’m pooped, not really what I planned for yesterday!
