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>

He has the excel sspeadsheet on bell tents so he knows how much we will save and STILL no budging, pah.

And yes, my dog smells (see name) stinks in fact :)

Don't disillusion me now oranges I want to believe it works on all sorts of things I want but DH doesn't.

I too am liking the 'Good Lord it just APPEARED in the hallway - I didn't think pressing the button that said 'buy' and entering my credit card details would actually WORK?!!!'

When dh gets over the big metal chicken justification (that was this thread wasn't it - dh read that link with a look of bemused fear as he realised I'd be perfectly capable of same...) I might try this instead!

I was so tempted for that Emperor one, but realised that dh would be (not-so-d)h if I got one that size! He did say this weekend that, if I wanted to buy a bigger one, we can, but I suspect he didn't quite mean one the size of a house. Not exactly a quick weekend tent, I have to admit.

Oh well, that's that agony sorted.

so THAT was the excuse we were looking for in the tealight chandalier incident !

The simple ones are always the best. I want a rotivator. Will it work for that, do you think?

thats how you get what you want Yellow.

Make noises about how much you really really want a metal chicken, then at the last minute, swerve into tentery and buy a bell.

He'll be so relieved he doesn't have to see the metal monstrosity that he'll forgive you anything.

Oh, and hide all the receipts/delete any emails so he can't make you send it back......

DH still doesn't know about the tealight chandelier, as he was away when it came and I put it straight in the camping kit area of the spare room, which is a place he fears to venture...

I am going to smuggle bring it to Latitude on Thursday and be all nonchalant and 'What? This old thing?' about it if questioned. If you see reports of a woman murdered in her belltent over the weekend, you'll know who it is...

I've been away ages! Yay to Oranges and Reshape for new tents :o IME Soulpad have always been v. quick with delivery so fingers crossed you get your tent in time for your birthday :)

By the way, I ordered a Trangia fuel bottle as recommended, when I went to get my precious meths from the shed to fill it up, it had gone! Fess up, who drank took it??

I like your style notwaving!!! And yours lovecat - in fact that exact tactic is going to be used by me for all the essential camping stuff I might have bought and hidden in the garage!

What meths, I've only been gone from the thread 5 mins, how dare you.

AIBU to be disappointed that we don't need meths for any of our camping gear, it just seems so much more hardcore. Booked our first two nights camping now, we will be in the municipal campsite in Troyes on Monday night. Sound pretty posh compared with our slopy field by the beach. I am sooooo excited I am bouncing at the moment

Only just got in from work...loooong day.

Will now de-stress by catching up with this thread.

Just finished reading, marvellous.

Best excuse for bell tent purchasing ever - "I just pressed the button to see if it worked " I can only imagine your delight when it appeared in your house. Genius.

Thank you all for making me smile, I needed that.

And my Just So Festival tickets have arrived.

My lovely North Face waterproof arrived yesterday. It's really comfy and was in the sale - result !

Well after excitement of unexpected tent delivery on Monday, yesterday was crap - lost my purse (bit of wibble-brained uselessness) and spent the afternoon cancelling cards. Fingers crossed it will show (so carefully collected free coffees will not be gone for good or dry cleaning - must establish priorities).

Day did not end badly though because to cheer me up DH came back from supermarket with two sets of solar powered fairy lights to attach to surprise tent - bless him and his new-found appreciation of the importance of bell tent-titivation - oh and some mini magnums .

you dh has taken it very well!!

Nettletea has a thread re bank holiday camp, hopefully some of us regulars can make it :)

Oranges, my bet is on your dh hiding your purse to avoid future surprise tents...

oranges your dh sounds very lovely.

Except for the MN camp bh weekend (which I'm really looking forward to!), we have no camping trips booked for the rest of the year and it's only early July . It feels so wrong, but I can't bring myself to book places up as weather's so weird this year. Tell me what to do so that I can blame you later.

Do you all have trips to look forward to or will it be last-minute weekend dashes? I hate how all the nice places nearby get booked up so quickly.

Sal, if you have weekends that are free then I would make ALL of them camping weekends. Check the forecast on Thursday and so long as there are rain free interludes and no gales forecast I would phone, book and go.

How far are you prepared to drive? You can do a radius search on ukcs (I think, you certainly can on the c&cc web site). Then just randomly stick your finger on one and go for it.

The season is so short really for tent camping. I would seize every opportunity you can get. What stops us going away more is the ever encroaching timetable of parties, clubs, sports, school and village events that happen on the w/e. Drives me crazy.

Ok. I will listen to you. In my head, you are the camping authority. Unless you disagree with me, obviously, in which case you know nothing.

I'll have a look on ukcs now. For weekend trips, especially as Sunday night traffic sometimes rubbish coming back into London, would prefer 2 hours max. We're SE, so anything north out really as we lose 1 to 1.5 hours on traffic, even if technically close to "London".

If I'm honest honest, I'm terrified of dodgy sites. Even though I've never been on one so do not even remotely know what I'm talking about. It's completely irrational, I know - what's the worst that can happen really? Maybe I should try your blind pointing approach for our next free weekend, at least that takes the agony over which one to choose away. Hmm, sounds like a plan, thanks.

I'm yet to cut a hole in my tent, but I'm hoping stove would at least give us another couple of camping months a year - without the fantastic long summer days though, of course.

Oh Sal mate I am so very not the camping authority . For me now mn is just this topic, hence my blah blah blahing all over the camping shop

Best thing about weekend camps is that is really doesn't matter if the site turns out to be a bit bobbins. Just use it as a base to sleep and explore the area for a day. Dodgy sites make for good memories and then you can put them on your list of NEVER AGAIN.

:) Ok, end of July weekend will be Pot Luck weekend. Will look for something near beaches - would love some dune walking. Beautiful around Rye, so could start looking from there.

Pot Luck weekend sounds exciting Sal. Beaches and sand dunes sound great.

oooh weird thing happened, I just wrote the reply above and it posted it under a different name.

Bizarre.

How odd, scary! My "Threads I'm On" haven't worked all day, it's highly annoying. I've now got this thread Watched, so at least I can see that way if any updates.

Btw, Scary, can't remember where you live, but if you're ever in South East, Camber Sands is beautiful. The big camp site thing there looked horrible, but I'm sure there will be small places nearby.