A glass of wine sat around the campfire...

[SeaShellsAndTheInlawInvasion]

so I am fed up with the rest of MN (this whole mamazon shite really is the ,last straw), so I am assuming that if any of you are trolling you are showing extraordinary persistence by delving into the thrills of iceytec and are worth chatting to.

So anyway, hi, I am SeaShells, I have 2 dc and have been camping and trapsing through the Great Outdoors all my life. I hang out here as my love of camping is more a love of the countryside and life, and you lot have a similar outlook.

< admires well made fire and tastefully arranged logs with throws>

ScaryT - am indeed quivering in An-Tici-Pat-ion.

Collapsable storage boxes. Where's good for cheap ones? (And don't say Ikea, we live an hour and a half away from the closest one and DH won't drive there any more because 'it's bad for me' and I hate motorway driving on my own with DSs in the back. ahem)

Loving that coke rocket video Sal with instructions to use coke with lime

Reshape re collapsible baskets, pound shops sell them but me no likey because they don't come with a lid so the creepy crawlies they crawl in. I prefer a nice lidded box me.

I have some boxes ready for the Organisation of all things Camping. And the have lids. Think I'll need a trolley for transportation at the festival.

Reshape - when will get to see pics of you all set up with the lovely bell tent? I'm excited too.

My cousin's boy did the coke and mint thing. In the supermarket. Over the manager's paperwork. Didn't go down too well.

Yes Slubber. I LOVE a camping box . Nearly as much as a LIST for the contents therein.......

Do I need instructions for missile launching too?

I would love to go to WOWO it sounds lovely.

Sorry pressed send too soon. Collapsable boxes available at tesco £3.99 each. I generally take a couple of collapsable boxes which have utensils etc to go which then double up as shoe/coat storage. Then I take a lidded box for the crisps perishables which don't go in the coolbox. I'm with you all on the creepy crawly risk.

We have useless pound shops round here, anyway. Tesco - will have to drive to the larger one for Stuff (rather than Food) but that's overdue anyway. I might look for a couple for stuff that I don't mind becoming beetle-infested. Actually, it's always earwigs, isn't it? Was sitting in DS1's play tipi in garden today (acclimatising both DSs to life under canvas...) and had to flick an unfeasible number of the pinchy buggers out again.

scaryT, haven't had pics on profile since I namechanged a year or so ago. Might be tempted out of anonymity when tent arrives and is erected in the garden though. Or I could put the large canvas bag it comes in, over my head.

Oh, meant to say, brilliant emergency-spacer, Slubber. If there was ever a reason to carry Pringles with, this is one. You can never be too safe, is my motto.

Have put pics of Frank's Spot on my MN Flickr account. Very private, so if you've got children old enough to want to play with others, probably not the best, but I love it.

Gosh never heard of wowo before but those pics look fabulous Sal, really wish it wasn't so far from me.

Off to dream of woods and campfires now.

Night scary.

Hi all. Can I pull up a moonchair and join you all (wine glass in hand, of course)? This is almost the only topic I look at these days and all this talk of collapsible storage and laminated camping lists (another thread I think) has drawn me in to the campfire.

Also, am currently in a slight state of shock as a new 5 metre bell tent has arrived today from Obelink. I only really pressed order out of curiosity to see if it would arrive as we already have a 4m. Now it is here though I can't wait to see if it really will change our lives having that extra metre of space. All you 5m owners PLEASE tell me it will....

If it is as fab as I suspect, it will be off to ebay wit for the 4m (surely we don't need two bell tents.....)

PS B&Q have a pack of 3 collapsible crates (no lids though) for £8.48.

"wit"? Where did that come from? Too many campfire wines tonight I think.

Hi Orange, welcome :) out of interest, did you get them to deliverto the uk? I really want to get one from them...

MissSal, your camp and wowo look amazing! You even have a hammock what dc do you have? Do they love it as much as you?

Ds1 seems to love camping, he 2.8yo and has to be "outside" the whole time. He seems much more relaxed and happy there, we certainly seem to be :)

Thanks Seashells. One ds, aged 3.3. Same as yours - he just loves it and keeps asking when we'll go again. I think it's the chance to just "be", not actually having to do anything, that makes camping so relaxing for me, and I think it rubs off.

Hi Oranges. Was wondering re tent too.

Amazingly, yes. I only did it to see if I could. I kept expecting a pop-up to appear saying "get lost, we don't want your custom - how many times do we have to tell you lot?" but it didn't. Neither Dh nor I really expected it to turn up but, lo, it is sitting in our hall as I type. I have looked in the box and it claims to be a 5m bell tent.

Now very excited. I have managed to squeeze a few cushions, a rug and a throw or two out of DH (packing-wise - he is not made of them) provided we get roof bars for our roof box before the next trip, so 5m bell tent glamping, here we come!

By the way, in case it makes a difference to what they will deliver, we ordered a 5m with separate groundsheet, none of your fancy-dancy zippy ones for us. Bugger the worms and spiders - we "saved" 200 euro!

Ooooooo now that is the most exciting thing I has read for a while, and may have just turned my day around (it started pretty shit!!)

Gosh - glad to bring some sunshine into someone's life today! Makes up for ruining my DD's life this morning by turning off Peppa Pig after only about 500 episodes!

BTW, if you are thinking of ordering one, I wouldn't necessarily delay too long. Dutch bell tent purchasing loopholes have had a habit of being closed in the past and you never know who is lurking here!

Oh WOW oranges! My fingers are itching... No, really, I shouldn't. No really. Arghhhh. Wait, I'll open Excel - that'll kill off any will to live camp I've got.

I either love or hate you, not quite sure.

You ok SeaShells? Gwan, tent will solve it. Tent will solve anything.

That's what I'm currently trying to explain to dh

Please see my earlier hundreds posts and threads about trying to get one over there.

Why oh why do I still have 4 weeks before work starts again?!!!

Morning all. No time to say much except, very shocked for you MisSal wrt the pringles rocket. Some idiot let off fireworks at our campsite the other week. I've only experienced that when camping at motor racing circuits before, but there is a special breed of person that camps at those.

And oranges what a fantastic excuse for ordering new stuff: 'I just clicked order to see if anything would happen.' Does that work for everything or just bell tents from Obelink?

DH has just sent me this Independent link for the 50 best campsites. With all the recommendations I've been getting from here I don't think I'll ever get round to staying at all the ones I like the look of.

Ooooh nooo - one tiny message and now I am sowing conflict in marriages and risking bankrupting people and IT MAY NOT EVEN WORK AGAIN. Aaaargh!

Oh yes, MisSal, forgot to say how shocking about the Pringles rocket. What an incredibly stupid thing to do, whoever it was. We had horizontal fireworks once at Park Farm which was pretty scary when you are in bed but, then, that is what you used to expect from Park Farm. Part of its "charm" you could say - it's a lot better now to be fair (I hope - off there for a 40th birthday camp in a couple of weeks) with new enormo-bell tent .

Quenelle - I agree that it is a teensy bit of a poor excuse (and I am a tragic camping-gadget spendthrift so I don't normally even need an excuse). However, if you look back at old bell tent threads you will understand quite how much of a shock it was that it did actually arrive. My justification is that the 4m is now a bit cramped with random crap DD's travel cot and we are selling our old dinghy and campervan (prays hard) so we might sort of get the money back (ahem).

oranges please can I commend you on your TOTALLY AWESOME 'let's just see if they let me buy it' tent buying strategy followed by 'good Lord we seem to have a new tent in the hallway' shock

I know I know up until now Obelink buys have been verboten but still, I'm going to go and try it on the De Waard site [joke]

DH was quite impressed too Slubber.

Haha at De Waard trick. You might need to work on your explanation strategy to dh. If it would help, we could start a thread saying how it is impossible, banned, in breach of all kinds of free trade principles, and then you could "try" it, just, well, you know, in case. Give us a couple of days, and have Oranges' bribe thank you card ready.

Lol sal

Well, day slightly better now (thanks to you all and completely an excellent fish pie, cottage pie and done the cleaning) and Mainly as fing tenants have paid their rent so I was able to do the weekly shop. I am so bored of being broke!! The sooner we sell said house and I go back to work and take the pressure off dh the better (much as it breaks my heart to leave dd, Ds just loves nursery and doesn't miss me!!)

Rant over.

Dh's response was "keep it quiet and we will get one next year" arrrgg he is so sensible