Penguin is off to Mersea Island Scooter Rally off the Essex coast

My 1966 Vespa Sprint and tent…

My 1966 Vespa Sprint again…

The Sea

The tree

…so please talk amongst yourselves for a few days while I fight the elements as my tent blows away with the expected gale. I will probably have to hug a skinhead for warmth…records will also keep me warm, dancing at the sound systems on the camp site:

Andy And Joey – Your Wondering Now

Joey Flames Coxson Allstars – Version

The Maytals – A Man Who Knows

Roland Alphonso – The President

The West Indians – Right On Time

The West Indians – Hokey Pokey

The West Indians 7″ single is Eric Donaldson’s (of ‘Cherry O Baby’ fame) first release by the way.

21 comments
  1. alistairliv
    alistairliv
    September 5, 2008 at 11:51 am

    Hope you get good weather. It has turned a bit ‘parka’ ish up here.

  2. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    September 5, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    Weather is going to be piss poor scooting from North London (with all the crap I will have to take on the back like tents and clothes etc getting wet) to the coast and even worse tomorrow supposedly Al.
    Might as well live in bloody Scotland!

  3. Carl
    Carl
    September 5, 2008 at 3:35 pm

    Well, I wish you good luck…The North West of UK is under water at the moment !!

  4. luggy
    luggy
    September 5, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    Have a good one, that tent doesn’t look very weatherproof though!

  5. Carl
    Carl
    September 5, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    With the weather as wild as it is, it may well be missing the roof by the time he gets there !!

  6. Nuzz
    Nuzz
    September 5, 2008 at 6:25 pm

    still Penguins are used to extreme conditions, so he should be OK, have a good time and take care.

  7. Val
    Val
    September 6, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Oh dear the weather is really against you this weekend. My boy went off to Bestival last night with nowt but a clean pair of socks and a mac – got a text this morning saying its “just awful”.

  8. John No Last Name
    John No Last Name
    September 6, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    Hi Val, you really ought to make him at least wear trousers in the future.

  9. John Liedown
    John Liedown
    September 6, 2008 at 10:53 pm

    Hope you & your lovely Vespa come back in one piece. Lovely looking ride by the way, mines more like the two battered bastards in the middle these days. Enjoy the endless Northern Soul. If your lucky…. Bad Manners will be playing. Have a good one.

  10. Stewart
    Stewart
    September 7, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    Penguin – I get the strong impression this whole ‘tent’ thing is just to fool the wife – what you’re really doing is getting a hotel room for you and your Vespa, aren’t you?

    Johnnolastname – lol 🙂

  11. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    September 7, 2008 at 8:04 pm

    No I really struggled on in a tent Stewey. Honest.
    Got a nice upgrade with a huge tent (4 people) left at the site this morning, brand new…lovely. Even all the pegbags and all that were there.
    Took that down and gave my tent (which I got from Mersea last year, cos it was better than my own one) to some other scooterist.
    Funny that after these events folk just go on the scoots and leave the tents cos they can not be bothered to take them down. There were about 50 of them left, some in poor nick, but others looking brand new…next year I will probably end up with a marquee.

  12. Stewart
    Stewart
    September 7, 2008 at 8:23 pm

    Penguin – I think that’s enough about tents, now… Go and lie down. 😉

  13. jules
    jules
    September 8, 2008 at 5:52 pm

    great weekend, pissed down all the way there
    loved the beer and bananas game (and the beer)
    i quite fancied the coasters tent but dont think my px could have managed to take it home
    we will all be back next year
    could have stayed at home and seen bad manners, but never mind

  14. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    September 8, 2008 at 6:50 pm

    Don’t get Stewey off with the ‘bananas’ Jules. He will be naughty and make something up which will be x rated and not for our eyes to view.
    I bought Garry Bushell a drink cos I was bolloxed and he was behind me in the marquee bar…only trouble is he walked me over to watch the Gonads, one band I promised myself in 1982 to avoid like the plague for the rest of my life. Rotten bit of luck, I witnessed half the set then went to my normal spot in the ska room. Bit blustery wern’t it? My Vespa behaved all weekend. I went up on Friday at 15.00 when the rain was the worst all the way round north circ and the up the A12.

  15. Nic
    Nic
    September 8, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    Getting Stewey off with a ‘banana’?
    This thread gets filthier by the moment…

  16. Stewart
    Stewart
    September 8, 2008 at 9:00 pm

    Well, I’m up for it… Seems like a healthier option than four leeks, a tin of VapoRub and a pair of Marigolds anyway…

  17. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    September 8, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    Oh no, Stewey got started and is very excitable. I got all this stuff round the house, if you go to our meet up later in the month in North London then I will bring them along. What you think?

  18. Stewart
    Stewart
    September 8, 2008 at 9:16 pm

    I’m not getting fucked with a banana in public, if that’s what you’re suggesting?!?! 🙁

  19. Penguin
    Penguin • Post Author •
    September 8, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    NO of course not, with the leeks in public is what I meant dear…

  20. Nic
    Nic
    September 8, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    A Sprint? Are you saving up for a GS?
    😉

  21. pantherin
    pantherin
    August 6, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    Going through KYPP is a feast for any self-respecting alternative…

    And this takes me back to camping in the sunshine, scooter louts and my own dear Bajaj Chetak and two PXes.

    Living in Germany, I got out their excretably commercial Goff scene and pursued something I could relate to. Scootering is brilliant!

    There’s nothing like taking a PX or better yet, a sprint and travelling to some far off Rallye or Run.

    I went to the Eurovespa 2002 with me Girlfriend at that time and it was 27hrs straight ride and no sleep and 800miles… Brilliant! I think, sometimes you only learn to live through complete excertion and exhaustion. There is nothing like getting lost in the countryside in the middle of nowhere . Some fog over windmill in what I suspect was the Champagne area of France and you stand there, shivvering whillst the first rays of the sun highlight the scene… No some things are too good to convey!

    Cheers then

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