Sophie wanted to come with me and we were picked up at 7am by Sheila who took us up to Birmingham in her car. We had a great drive up and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day as the sky had cleared from the heavy rain we'd had last night.
We went "behind the scenes" with Sheila as she had a pass to park just outside the hall where a lot of cars had started to arrive. We put our bags in a small marquee and then as we were very early we decided to wander around and look at the cars.
I was hoping that today would be fun and we'd get to meet some lovely people. It's a great idea to ask people to give donations to take a ride in some beautiful cars, and with the main show going on as well, it was hinted at that it would be very busy.
We went back to the marquee and Sophie was asked to prepare five float bags while I sat down with one of the volunteers and we had to start preparing the "cheat" sheets. There were about 60 cars taking part and each of them had to be recorded by highlighting the name of the car, how many passengers they could take and whether or not they took children. These had all different highlighted areas and it was a little confusing!
Sophie finished the floats and sat down next to me and we had two sheets of cars each. We were very short of highlighters and soon all the car registrations came flooding in as the drivers were arriving and parking right in front of us. The smell of petrol was very strong!
I looked at Sophie and I felt a bit alarmed as we really didn't have a clue what we were doing! The other people kept hinting that it would get very busy and there were various people with forms that the customers had to fill in (names, addresses, etc) and then they would select a slot to have a ride and pay. I understood we had to be careful about booking in children and the height of the child was very important because of booster seats.
As the opening time of the show approached I began to feel a bit panicky as we really hadn't had a lot of instruction and I visions of loads of people approaching me and not knowing what to do. We finished the "cheat"sheets and I said to Sheila that I was dying for a cup of coffee, so Sophie and I went to find Starbucks to get our daily fix!
I was a bit fed up, to be honest, as we had each given up our precious Saturday to be here and although the people on the stand were friendly, it was a bit "cliquey" with lots of people hugging and being over the top with their welcomes.
We found the Starbucks coffee outlet and enjoyed our drinks before reluctantly going back. When we did arrive back on the stand it was crammed with people and as far as we could see there were more than enough people helping out. Most of the volunteers seemed to be wandering around with clipboards and not doing much else! People visiting the show were all gathered in front of the car boards where each vehicle was advertised as to how much it cost to take a ride and what sort of car it was (with a lot of information about it, such as engine size, blah blah). We saw Sheila who looked like she was having the time of her life and asked what we could do (even though we didn't want to do anything!). She confirmed what I had suspected - that there were more than enough people helping out and she said we could go and look around the show. Well, to be honest, that's not what I had in mind today! I would rather have been at home!
Sophie and I went off and decided to see when the trains were running back to Northampton as we had both decided - without any doubt at all - that we were going home, but we needed to see if there were trains available within the next few hours. The thought of staying all day until 6pm this evening filled us both with dread but there was no point saying to Sheila we were going if we couldn't get a train!
The train station is right next to the NEC and we were told that three trains an hour went through Northampton, most of them on their way to Euston. That gave us the impetus we needed so we headed back (seeing a California Highway Patrol car on the way...I hoped I wouldn't see another one!) and tried to find Sheila who was counting the cash. I left a message with another volunteer, giving the excuse that Sophie had a terrible headache (and she did have one coming on!) and we fled!
By now the show was packed and more and more people were arriving. We arrived back at the station, bought our tickets (£14 each) and went straight to the platform to catch a train heading to Euston in London, but stopping at Northampton on the way.
We heard an announcement that the train was a little late, but when it pulled in we got on board and found a seat. I felt a huge sense of euphoria at being out of the show and I was really looking forward to getting home and relaxing with Sophie. She had had a busy week but I was so glad she had decided to come with me, otherwise I would have been stuck at the show all day, and no doubt being in a stress over what I had to do!
We set off and within ten minutes the ticket conductor appeared to check everyone's tickets. He had a look at ours, commented that we were getting off at Northampton, circled the date and moved on. We stopped at Rugby and a lot of people got onto the train. I was thinking that we just had one more stop - Long Buckby - and then we'd be in Northampton. We'd called Keith to ask him to meet us and told him we'd be in at about 12pm.
However, the train just kept on going and we started to get a bit worried when it got past 12pm and there was no sign of Long Buckby. I happened to look out of the window and I saw a road sign for Berkhampstead, which is a fair way away from Northampton and much further south! Where on earth were we?
Sophie took out her phone and looked at our location, which said Watford! For some reason, it had looked like we'd bypassed Northampton completely and we were heading for London! We both started to panic a bit, but I said to Sophie we could get off at Watford Junction and take a train back, only the train just kept on going! Our next worry was getting out at Euston and being charged for the extra from Birmingham, but when we arrived it was an open platform and we could just walk onto the main concourse.
We debated about going for lunch as we were both now thoroughly fed up with the whole situation, but the costs were starting to mount up as single tickets back to Northampton came to just under £60!
We bought the tickets and waited for our platform number to come up, which it did, just minutes before we were due to leave! We called Keith again and told him we were definitely on our way home and we would get in at 2pm, leaving him plenty of time to go and see Sileby play which is all he was worried about! On the way we ate our packed lunch and watched the sky darken and the rain start. It was typical that we'd missed the best of today's weather while we were in the NEC and on the train!
Sophie was fuming about the situation, though, and we decided to try and contact Virgin about why the conductor hadn't told us about our tickets to Northampton. Surely he must have known the train wasn't stopping at our station? All in all, the cost to get home was about £100 and never again will I go somewhere and be at the mercy of someone else! I should have arranged to meet Sheila at the show and driven myself.
In Northampton it was clear that they'd had a torrential rainfall and we sloshed our way home through flooded roads. Keith dropped us off and then sped back out to go and see Sileby while Sophie and I caught up with some washing and finally relaxed! Never again!
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