Dartington Crystal Mini Show

Thankyou to everyone who came today and well done to those who won trophys and raffle prizes we have finished counting the Money raised and im pleased to say that the total so far is




£571.09

Thank you all once again for coming and for those who didnt you missed a lovely sunny day at Torrington

Safe journey home everyone

Dartington Crystal will never be a fantastic mini show nor will it ever be up there in the top ten of mini show but
Oh it's was such a perfect day
I'm glad I spent it with you.

What a nice way to spend a sunday and a few mini owners went away with some fantastic trophies and on top of that you raised nearly £600 for the Children's Hospice.

Well done to you all, I hope you had fun. CU in August.

Got home about 9.30 last night after a brilliant day. Big thanks to everyone who made us feel so welcome, & to cap it all we won our 1st ever trophy Absolutely made up about it Bring on that thing at the end of August

We left the show at 4 and was home by 8.30 thanks to our new sat nav but it was not all smooth going as we had a domestic over it. I'll let Andrew tell you why later. We could have done with a few more dogs at the Dog Show but every one that entered got a rosette (except Domino). Thanks to Mike and Emma for judging. I think you quite enjoyed yourselves.......

We would have have been back earlier but we stopped for about an hour to get the boys a KFC, that & I overshot the turning off the A34 onto the Oxford ringroad & ended up having to go through the centre of Oxford

Well Done  everyone   glad all went well  

What a great little show!
Nice weather, great cause, lovely cars and loads of family fun!!!!!!!!!!!!
Huntleys busy working his way through the doggie bags and the boys are still argueing over who has the trophy in their bedroom.  
Top day!
Well done all you organisers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quoted from Bumble

We left the show at 4 and was home by 8.30 thanks to our new sat nav but it was not all smooth going as we had a domestic over it. I'll let Andrew tell you why later.

The satnav has a delay icon which comes up on the screen with the length of delay. But if Emily (the lady inside) works out that it would be quicker to go another way the icon disappears and she simply gives you instructions to go another way. That can be a bit disconcerting when she tells you to go across the Severn Bridge instead of turning down the M5 to Devon or to go round the back of Stonehenge to avoid the 5 minute queue on the A303.

On our way home up the M3 she began to tell us to turn off at junction 5 instead of continuing all the way to the M25. I then started to press icons to find out what the delay was and what way Emily wanted to take us. She was predicting a 40 minute delay on a 20 mile section of M3 and instead wanted to take us cross-country to join the A3. The benefit of this way is that we wouldn't need to touch the M25. To say that Rita way unhappy at my icon-pushing while drivng on the motorway is a big understatement.

We agreed to give Emily the benefit of the doubt but at the next roundabout I misinterpreted the icon and found myself in the wrong lane. I allowed myself to be distracted by this and was too busy moaning about the misleading icon to notice a car coming around the roundabout towards us so wasn't going to stop. Rita warned me that the car was there and I decided to accelerate onto the roundabout in front of it rather than stop. Once again Rita was very unimpressed.

I learnt an important lesson here - satnavs can be very useful but can also be a big and dangerous distraction. I also learnt a new route - a nice peaceful 30 minute drive instead of 27 miles on the M3 and M25 with an extra 40 minute delay. I'm tempted to use that route again even when the traffic isn't so heavy. And only press those extra icons when the car is stationary.