Now, although i'd been planning to do hemsby for months fate stepped in and knackered my Lambretta and as new Mugello's are harder to find in the UK at the moment than rocking horse crap it looked like I was doing it in the car.

Then, I managed to track down a Mark I T5 in Essex for £800. Getting that home was an experience in itself, finding out when I got there that the air filter hose had a bigger hole than a jailbirds bitch! As well as that I was relying on the rear brake for stopping power as the front was all but useless. All this on the day before the off!

Hoping Id get the work done that night I settled down for an hours telly and woke up at 10.30pm, no work done and no packing either. Well, that was it! I'd have to catch up on the Pilgrims that were leaving from Baldock later in the day Sad Still I was pleased Id be going on a scooter Smiley

The next day I managed to sort cables, brakes and air filters, get packed and was ready for the off. By 5pm I was whizzing up the A1, and was just the far side of Eaton Socon when something didn't feel right.
Pulling over in a layby I find a cloud of rubber smelling smoke catching up with me and on investigation it appears that the mickek exhaust bracket had broken and started to melt one side of my tyre!! FFS!
So, I limp a few miles back to Eaton Socon's B&Q and got some bits and bobs to strap it up and limp back to Bedford unsure what to do, and wondering if someone is deliberately trying to stop me going!!

So, after much deliberation I decided that the best thing to do was to get an exhaust and new tyre from bedlam's the next morning and fit them, which is exactly what I did.

Well by the time id done this it was midday on the Saturday so i set off safe in the knowledge that 120 miles away in Hemsby many of my fellow Pilgrims were probably still nursing hangovers and enjoying the battle of the Bands.

Nearing Bury St. Edmund's I thought that Id go to the hospital to visit Nicky who along with Woody, had been thrown off their scooter after suffering a rear blowout at 70mph!!

After finding her, and Woody happening to visit within 5 minutes of my arrival, I sat chatting to them and sussing out the injuries, which thankfully were relatively minor, the only broken bone being Nicki's right elbow. The main downside of which being the fact that it'll be that much more difficult to pleasure herself for a while.

Woody informs me that their escapade was much discussed round Hemsby the previous night, with Dean Parrish even announcing it at the gig

so, as it was getting on, i buggered off out of the hospital, onto the scooter and started the last 40 odd miles to Hemsby. thankfully it was uneventful other than the fact that it was rapidly going dark, not a lot of fun by yourself in heavy traffic.

Still, it wasn't long until I managed to find Hemsby, checked in and had to go find the lads. Hmmmmm now where would they be?

of course, the pub! And I was right, soon located Simon and Ed, borrowed the key and buggered back off to the apartment to freshen up and get over the trip!

Once done it was back to the music to find that it was pretty much over which really didn't leave me with a lot to do but hunt down a few other Pilgrims and suss out what the plans were for the night.

Wasn't long before I was having a few drinks with Quincy and then onto one of the apartments where some lads had laid on some food and yet more beer and for some odd reason the kids were throwing eggs at scooters, little buggers.

Still, they were a better shot than Quincy was!!

Next it was onto the main room for the night were the line up included The Undertones which I was looking forward to. Myself and Quincy organised the top corner near the dance floor for the Pilgrims etc and we were soon watching the room fill up with familiar faces and listening to great music all night.

There's not very much more I remember about the night other than The Undertones were great, when the DJ put on some of the modern stuff at about midnight I was up there dancing and being daft all over the place and for some reason I had 2 of the extra large meals from the takeaway outside the main room. All in all a great old night!

Of course the next morning was a hazy hungover awakening which consisted of a quick packing, a breakfast that consisted of mainly plastic sausages and the trip home.

I ended up riding home with Simon and Mick the Flame as we were late getting up. I had told Quincy that they should crack on as I didn't feel it was fair to hold the whole lot up for us, so I think we ended up leaving about 20 minutes after the main group.

The trip home was ok, though it rained practically the whole way. We only had one stop only about 20 to 30 miles from Hemsby to warm up and have a coffee, but Christ, the girl at the Little Thief could have grown and ground the fecking coffee beans in the time it took them!

To be fair they were apologetic about the delay, though not enough to waive the bill! Hey, if you don't ask.;.....

Anyway, back on the scoots and all was well for the next 60 to 70 miles in the pissing rain until we'd been past Cambridge and at a roundabout at Cambourne when Mick the Flame's scooter decided to hit a huge diesel slick and it's ass looked like it was soon going to be facing the wrong way. If he hadn't put his foot down, speedway style, he would certainly have been off. I'm just glad I was far enough behind him to avoid the diesel!

Our next stumble didn't happen 'til we were nearly onto the A1 when the heavens opened. No, really I mean it rained that hard that we were slowed to about 10 mile an hour! Then Mick the Flame disappeared but it turned out it was only because he went on reserve.

Getting off the slip road and onto the A1 in that was fun believe me, it really was do or die and if you tried to go over 20 you were blinded by rain and risked aquaplaning!

Anyway, I waved goodbye to the lads at the Black Cat roundabout and pootled home, soaking wet, freezing cold but glad I'd been to at least half of Hemsby.

Roll on next year!