The Brazilian Bay Sleepover 2015

Here we go again with our fourth Brazilian Bay Sleepover and you know what? I think that it might have been the best one yet!

The weekend didn’t get off to a good start, though. Friday started with rain at home in Lancashire but it was forecast to pass over so, after collecting the buns for our Hot Dog stall, we had time for a coffee and a chill for a while before setting off to drive to Anita’s Site in Mollington, near Banbury.

Anita’s, Mollington

We left around Noon and the SatNav gave us an arrival time of 2.30pm.Wrong!

The M6 was a nightmare, as was the M40 and, from what fellow travellers told me, the M25, M5 and M1 were no better. We arrived at 5pm having taken twice as long as we should have to get there.

The M6 Car Park

The first job was to empty the trailer and van and to get the event shelter up – a job made much slower by the need to catch up with our Brazilian Bay friends, many of whom we haven’t seen in the real world for 12 months.

Catching up with friends

Camp Absinthe, Friday Night

The weather had been terrible for those who’d arrived early on Friday, so at least our delayed journey meant that we missed most of the rain.

Check out those clouds

Friday night was Disney Film night with Shark Tale for the younger ones and Grease (is the word) for everyone. There was also a BBQ and a little bit of alcohol may have been consumed.

Pre-movie BBQ

 

 

 

 

Alison in her vintage outfit (…post washing up…)

We had a relatively early night and I was up early on Saturday morning to walk Boz before we set up our Hot Dog stall. Actually, I was up an hour earlier than I thought, thanks to a wobbly little hand on the van clock, which made life much less stressed for me. It’s a bit like the day in Autumn when the clock go back – I usually save my hour until about 7pm, when all of a sudden I claim it back (weird? me? No…)

 

 

 

 

 

The longest journey of all by Georg and his family from Germany

The theme was Disney and all things American and there were some great stalls, including:

• MarcusH – Milkshakes and Ice Cream
• Absinthe – Hotdogs
• Harryhornet – Dubby Donuts 
• Eddy’s Beer and Candy Pong 
• Beakyboy’s Beverages – for coffee and cakes
• Brand Autos with their Money Grabber game  
• Brazilian Kampers  Mega-Slide
• URmysunshine – with their Temporary Tattoos. 
• Surwagenstan – a Ten Pin Bowling Alley At noon  
• Scooby hosting their Disney based Tunes from Toons Music Quiz.

 

 

 

 

Our leader, Tim, getting a temporary tattoo

Mine is rather more permanent…

The other big event of the afternoon, after the Rounders and Tug of War was the Drag Race. Members had been challenged to make a cardboard vehicle which they’d be able to race down a track – albeit using their own legs as the power system.

Rounders action – watercooled came out winners

 

The air cooled team waiting to start

 

Tug of War – a win for air cooled

 

Tim celebrating

The Drag Race

 

Steve steaming ahead…

 

The race was great fun and I suspect it will be back another year. There was a prize for the best car, won by John and Sharon with their Pink Cadillac.

Next up was the Charity Auction – well done John and Sharon for getting through it within the 60 minutes you were allocated and still raising loads of money. In total the whole weekend’s events collected around £1,500 for Cancer charities – a great result.

Scooby working hard at the Auction, ably assisted by Steve and Sharon

It was soon time for prize giving and we gathered together to watch the presentations. There are two main awards over the weekend:

• Star KOMBI: Once again, every BraziBay attending is automatically entered for this.  A voting form is included in your welcome pack and the trophy is voted for by all members of brazilianvwbay.com present at The KOMBI Sleepover.

 

• Spike’s Trophy: named after one of our legendary members who sadly passed away last year.  This is awarded to the owner of the BraziBay that captures the spirit of our show’s theme best.  This year the winner was chosen by Spike’s widow, Nicola. It was pleasure to meet Nicola, her brother and his two children – I hope they’ll be back again but next time in their lovely Brazilian Kombi.

Amazingly, and a massive shock to me and Alison, Absinthe won the Star Kombi trophy.

Spike’s Trophy was won by Sarah & Richard with their van Lola. They must have been close to winning last year, but for 2015 their van looked even more fantastic.

 

 

 

The awesome, Lola

 

Spike’s Trophy

Boris with Nicola’s nephew and niece

Prizes awarded, it was time to get ready for the Disney themed fancy dress and disco.

There were some amazing costumes

 

Alison seeing double…

 

I’m not sure a lightsaber is fair when your opponent only has a tiny cutlass

 

The lovely Happyhouse crew – the nicest family I’ve ever met

 

Wig swap

Boris meets his match

Incredible

We had a couple of guest MCs from within our ranks this year. First up was Kiteman (Steve) who got everyone up on their feet.

Kiteman doing his thing

Steve was followed by Tallulah (Keith) with his own choices, which had me dancing into the early hours. I’m actually listening to his CD whilst I’m typing and still grinning from ear to ear.

Tallulah doing his Thing 2

Sleepover wouldn’t be Sleepover without drunken antics on the Bouncy Slide – I was sensible this year but a number of people definitely weren’t.

Chaos on the slide

By the time midnight arrived, so had the rain so we made our way to bed to be up bright and breezy on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, I may have had one (?) drink too many and felt distinctly rough in the morning. We overslept and at one point I was thinking of missing this year’s other first – the Dog Show organised by Steve and Rachel.

Competitors waiting for the Dog Show

We made it though, along with several other competitors hoping to win awards.

The first category was agility (not Boris’s best skill – we usually have to lift him into the Landrover!). In the event, he did quite well, helped by my pocket full of Smackos!

Boz awaiting instructions

 

Boz on the agility course – notice the piece of Smacko in my fingers

Next up was fetching a ball, bringing it back, then dropping it – not a chance I thought, but he seemed keen, shot off after the ball and even dropped it when he got back (or rather swapped it for another piece of Smacko!).

Bozzer off after the ball…

It started to rain quite heavily, so we all moved into the shelter to finish off the other categories. Boris won the “dog who looked most like his master” (or was it the other way round?), did a dancing trick and high-fived, but failed to bark on command!

I can’t see the similarity, myself…

Ultimately, he was placed third overall – a creditable performance – remember, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

The award winning dogs

 

Boris with his rosette for coming third

So that’s it for another 12 months. I’d like to thank everyone who’s photos I’ve borrowed – you know who you are and I’m very grateful.

A special mention to Simon Carr – if you want to see a Blog with much better photos take a look here: The Adventures of Skooby Blue (and Simon too)

Things we’ve learned:

• The M6 is a better Car Park than a Motorway
• It is possible to sell 120 hotdogs in one day
• Uncle Joe’s vodka will always be popular
• You can’t fry onions without oil – many thanks to Monica for coming to our rescue
• Bozzer will do anything for a Smacko (except bark. He won’t do that…)
• Alison will buy anything that’s green, in the auction
• We’ll never get home from a Sleepover without stopping for a dirty Burger King at the services

Things Boris has learned:

• If I attack Neil’s dog, my Mum won’t speak to me for hours
• Staring intensely at Sharon’s hot dog will definitely get me some
• Motorway journeys are boring
• All I have to do to get Smackos, is fetch a ball and do a couple of tricks
• I love Irishman
• Biting my Mum when she’s dressing me as a T-rex won’t get me out of wearing a costume
• We’ll never get home from a Sleepover without stopping for a dirty Burger King at the services

There’s a full set of my Pics here: FLICKR