berni

thanks enigma it is always handy to know what the rest of the world does in case i decide to join the rest of the world cheers Berni

this question is aimed at Armydriver & others who are non uk residents. I may be stupid but what kind of shows do you go to ? we have a couple of Military shows a year but mainly we go to country fetes & steam rallys. is it the same the world over? :oops: cheers Berni

welcome aboard bodge cheers berni

Gloucester docks road run. this is our annual pilgrimage to gloucester docks. either meet at the docks 11am or at the gossington layby on the A38 at 9.45 ready to leave for 10am. park up outside the Soldiers of Gloucester museum , have tea/coffee & biscuits then spend the day in the docks looking round the museum or antiques centre or even pop into town Cheers Berni

the suspension isn't fantastic in a Schwimm so if you have any wobbly bits they need to be well upholstered. :lol: berni

we watched Saints & Soldiers which is about 4 US soldiers who managed to escape the Malmedy massacre in the Ardennes & is about the relationship between them with a bit of fighting included. A low budget film but we thought it was really good. It is also based on true stories Berni

welcome jim ta Berni

hi tim, welcome aboard & happy posting ta berni

hi storesgirl, i know the feeling. why do we fall for the 'but you are so much more organised than us men' line. I am also a secretary, for the Gloucestershire area MVT. Do you also write the windscreen reports, welcome aboard cheers berni

great cheers

Hi Matt , Sounds intresting anychance of a pic ? was it for sale ? what weapon do you think it would have . Thanks Russ

excellant sue, just how weekends should be spent. My girls are to old to send away (15/17) so i find it easier to take myself away. mind you thats getting harder as they want to come with me knowing i have more fun than them. There isn't many events Russ goes to on his own, only about 3 in the past 7 years. so we normally go together. I do spend most of my time talking & playing games like 'the most unpractible shoe competition' and 'most ridiculous outfit'. Probably a bit mean but sometimes the public can be so dense,white kitten heel mules & 12 inches of brown frothy mud, classic ta berni

there has been a mix up with the printing of dates in the MVT calendar & it has got the date for malvern as this weekend 5th march. this is incorrect as it should read 26th march. please inform as many folk as you know so as to avoid any one making a wasted journey thanks Berni

what do the wives/partners/girlfriends do while the men are away & how many are involved in the hobby as well. I have seen more women involved in the past couple of years but wondered how many are on the forum . ta berni

I can dress for many occasions depending on how I feel & what the weather is like. I can do the posh going out dress,fur & hat. day wear dress & cardy, hair pinned back working pinny/dress,hand knitted top, hair in head scarf & shopping basket. ATS coveralls with leather jerkin ( driver) I would class myself as portraying british housewife but last year at Beltring walking round with Russ dressed in his Afrika corps field Gendarmerie I had people saying how good it was to see a House frau. cheers Berni

Im also looking for one , oneday maybe

hi seabee, welcome aboard, I recognise your name from the reenacting forum. You'll have to get your other half to log on as well to boost the female side of the hobby. I too portray ATS & have done a few events over the years although not to many lately as i find it easier to dress as a plain housewife. hope you can find some useful info here cheers berni

hello again cara, I wont tell anyone about the donuts & tea you serve out of the clubmobile at shows, you may find yourself the most popular display . see you at beltring berni

i think our holidays are different down here as ours were off last week & have gone back to school today. unfortunatly she has her gcse's soon so she will have to catch up on what she has missed. there is only so much i can have sent home. she is an extreme sports fan but i don't think stair flying will catch on somehow. we are going to do Arnham next year but the museums don't open till April so we will go a bit later in the year. i have already started trawling the internet for suitable accomodation. we do prefer self catering as you get more room to mooch about in but will hotel it if needs must. the guys only go every other year to the BMVT road run so it is exciting every time. They do seem to drive slightly erratic on the continent :shock: glad you had a good time. I don't think you would get the same atmosphere if you went in the summer but it was cold at times. cheers berni

this should have been done yesterday but my 15 year old decided to get the week off school the hard way. she fell down a flight of stairs missing each & everyone & landing on her chin & ribs on a wood floor at the bottom she had her chin glued back together & is suffering from whiplash & bruised poss cracked ribs. breathing is difficult & laughing is a nightmare but she is on co codamol & is now like a space cadet on fairy dust. any way i should have the photos by friday but here is a medium sized report. friday 10th feb 1.00am left home to meet the gang at Membury services on the M4 at 1.45 am. it was so cold & windy we were thankful we were in a normal car. The tunnel was uneventful & arrived in france ( country 2) hungry & tired. It was a long drive down to the Ardennes ( belgium country 3) & when we arrived we had to wait till 16.30 to get in the apartments. We stayed at la Roche which is where the BMVt used to stay but they had decided to find a different hotel for this year. Our hotel was like a fairy tale princess castle & the backdrop of the snowy hills made for a stunningly jawdropping introduction to the holiday. we had a 1 bedrom apartment which included 2 bathrooms 1 wc 1 huge bedroom with about an 8ft wide bed ,a front room with a leather 3 piece suite a kitchinette & a door opening out onto a patio area which overlooked the meandering river. we spent the first night unpacking & sat in the bar playing pool & air hocky etc. sat 11th feb up really early to leave by 8am to drive to the main hotel for the start of the BMVT road run.we took a few photos & walked round the vehicles as they were waiting to go, we chatted to a few guys from England that we knew then we watched all the vehicles start to leave at 9.30 am. we tagged on the end of the convoy at 10.30 & followed to the main destination for the day. This was in luxemburg ( country 4) & I have to say the museum we visited was fantastic, to us it outshone any museum we had seen before. the dioramas were superb & when the phots come through i'll show you what i mean. we stayed here for a couple of hours & met Tim ( whistling wolf), hi Tim, the second part of the day we made our way to Bastogne going over a couple of Bailey bridges on the way, we did feel a bit exited about driving over the bridges which is probably a bit sad actually. when we got to Bastogne we popped into another museum & had a look round the town. before making the journey back to the apartments we stopped off at the US 5 pointed star memorial in Bastogne, this was worth stopping to see even though the attached museum was closed. for those who haven't seen it it has the names of all the states round the top & down the side pillars are listed the units involved in the campaign & sadly it was to dark to see anything else. a welcome shower & food & it was back to the BMVT hotel for the disco. we got there about 9.30 just as the entertainment started. There were 3 young ladies mining & dancing to 'bugle boy from co c' type of thing which was really popular with the men in the room. A disco followed this & a few of us danced the night away. we may not have understood most of the songs & didn't understand some of the dances but we had a good time. I'd never heard 'roll out the barrel' in french before!!!! 2 of the Belgians dressed up as rather undainty females but their long wigs & long dresses gave us all a giggle. we got back 'home'around 1.15 ish after our lead car almost ran over an enormous wild boar which decided to run across the road in front of the only 2 cars for miles around. sunday 12th feb in the morning we went to the museum in the town of La roche which was over 3 floors & had some really good displays & local photos of the area during the war. Amazingly the ownly thing standing in the square was the 1st world war cenotaph, everything else had been demolished in the bombings we spent the rest of the day driving round the belgiun country side stopping & looking at memorials . we drove to Malmedy & St Vith which were big battle sites but sadly we didn't see much history left. as we were so close to germany we decided to pop over the border making it our 5th country. we stopped at the first small town all got out had a walk round got back in & drove back to Belgium. we had a massive snowball fight in a supermarket carpark which made about 5 that day. all were great fun. we spent the evening back in the hotel bar playing pool etc again relaxing before our long drive back to calais the next day. monday 13th feb we took it easy as we didn't need to check out till 12 noon & took the short walk in to town to the pattiserie. yummy cakes. the drive back to Calais was going really smooth & all was going to plan when our last car in the convoy span off the motorway, by the time we had notified our lead car & all stopped itwas a good mile walk back up the motorway to see what was going on. all were ok even though there was a lot of damage to the 3 cars involved. A mlady in a megane had a blow out & veered in to their car causing them to spin & they then hit a sharan causing that to skid off the road as well. It was a bit airy scary for a while knowing what we'd seen in the mirrors but not knowing for definate what had occured. all our convoy cars then had to come off the motorway get back on in the other direction , get back off just past the accident , get back on the motorway & then pull off at the accident site which just happened to be between the entrance & exit to a service station. once the other 2 cars had been recovered off the motorway & some running repairs had been made with some rope & duct tape we were all back on the road. we stopped off at Dunkirk & spent a couple of hours exploring the Bunkers & dunes, It would have been better to go a few miles further up the beaches but darkness was upon us pretty quick & the mist was getting thicker so we made our way to calais & the hotel. after a meal we sat in the bar area & with everyones photos uploaded on to a laptop we had a film show of the past few days. tuesday 14th feb home today. we spent a couple of hours in citie europe doing a touch of shopping before our 16.06 tunnel back to the UK. we hit a fair bit of traffic on the M25 so stopped at clacket lane for an hour. back on the road & hunger set in so we stopped at the harvester at Bracknall for a meal & by the time we finished it was 20.00 & all the traffic had gone. we got home at 21.45 . We had a brill time & would definatly recommend the Battle of the Bulge as an area to visit . our apartments were superb & helped make it the great break it was. photos will follow friday if i get them in time cheers berni

Russ has got HBT coveralls, rough out boots,gaiters & a HBT cap. that is it, nothing fancy just exactly what it says on the tin. oh & I didn't mention the s***arm on purpose as i thought it may just be forgotton if we all ignore it :wink: cheers berni

i will sit down & do a report on sunday when i will have a touch of spare time i'm sure i can manage a bit more than we went we saw we had fun :lol: see you sunday berni

poor jack is going to be more confused than ever :? you're better off buying HBT's to start with which are very comfy for driving & don't chafe to much ( eating cloth isn't a pleasant pastime). It is very difficult knowing what to badge up as & what markings to put on the truck so bounce a few ideas round & I'm 100% positive that you will get the yeh or neh from the chaps. All I can say is books,books & more books & internet. Research is the only answer. Don't forget that what you wear & badge up as should go with the Jimmy if you intend driving her while uniformed up otherwise the Military world will know all the mistakes you have made. Veterans will also spot mistakes so get it right first time & save yourself a lot of wasted money getting it wrong. we all have our own preferences but that may not be yours ultimatley it is your choice & i presume by asking for help in the first place you want to get it right. in many instances the bridge between Mv owners & re-enactors is closing as more Mv owners who have the vehicles get the history correct & many re-enactors get the vehicles to go with their history. research,research & more research on what unit you want to portray & then the uniform etc will be the easier (not always easy) bit cheers berni

I doubt we will be at the same shows geographicaly but enjoy the hobby & welcome . enjoy surfing the site cheers berni

welcome aboard Sue, love the landys. My first Mv was a series 3 & i loved him to bits I'm sure you'll find everyone on here helpful if you need advice & I'm sure they'll be receptive of any advice you can offer back. enjoy yourself cheers berni