16/10/2026
The big campervan etc show is back at the NEC. It runs all week from Tuesday to Sunday, Mrs F and I are going on the Friday.
We have our Rapido V62 on order, due next March, but we haven’t seen it (the 2027 model) yet. We’re going to look at the “accessories”.
If anyone fancies an AW mini-mingle, I should be easy to spot – I’m the middle-aged fella with an expanding midriff, receding hairline and reading glasses.
https://mcshow.co.uk/
Easy to spot indeed as I imagine it is mainly attractive young women on the hunt who go there.
🤣
If ever I’m feeling a bit old and stiff, a trip to the NEC show makes me feel young and sprightly.
Interesting choice of words there…
I’m only depping until Moosey returns.
We are maybe considering going to this. At the moment we’re on a fortnight’s trip around the Scottish Isles (specifically Skye, Mull, Ulva and Iona.) The current consensus is that we’re probably keeping our Autosleeper Kemerton for at least another year, partly because we just can’t quite decide on what to get next.
This morning we’re just at the ferry crossing to Ulva, which is on foot only as there are no vehicles on the island.
Not even bicycles????
Should have said motor vehicles, bikes are apparently OK. I don’t think it would be a comfortable ride though, looks like it’s muddy rutted tracks.
If you fancy a mingle, I’ll stand a round of lukewarm and over-priced tea.
Hang on, not everyone has yet dreamed up their witty riposte to the OP, but I’m hoping for a tsunami of gentle ribbing. Let me get some popcorn and a beer – I’ll sit over here on a collapsible camping chair with the pint lodged safely in the armhole, Eagles on the airbuds, poking at the disposable barbeque from time to time. I may open a can of Corsair to have with the charred sausages. If I nod off, nudge me awake when someone comes up with a particularly mirthsome jibe about motorhomes and caravans; wouldn’t want to miss a good Clarksonism.
“Gentle ribbing??” Unlikely to be among the accessories at the NEC…
You never know, Fenton has admitted to going there when he’s a bit stiff, although that probably occurs after he claps eyes on the new Rapido V63 prototype.
Does it need batteries?
You’ve got to think so. It offers a very comfortable ride apparently. It must be customisable as there is an optional large chest.
Where is that confounded Moose??
Most accessories can run off one’s (ahem) leisure battery these days…
Eagles! knowing the demographic I expect vultures circling overhead.
Next March? AI will apparently have destroyed mankind by then.
I suspect that the Rapido V62 comes sheathed in its own integral Faraday cage covered in solar panels, with storage space for canned and bottled food that should last at least 12 months, and a high-efficiency electric motor. Top speed on DC juice may exceed 12 m.p.h. meaning it can outrun a Dalek.
Good investment then! A mobile panic room.
I’d be a bit worried that it also came equipped with Antoine de Caunes.
*speechless*
I may be going. In my mind, I will be lowering the average age and upping the cool quota. In reality, I will be with my people (and my wife).
In my experience, if you, me and Nick go on the same day, we will both bring down the average age and increase the average mobility.
Word to the wise: wear sturdy footwear – the NEC is huge.
I’m quite tempted to go just out of interest but it’s 20 quid to get in. Not that interested!
In fairness, I got our tickets a couple of weeks ago for £12. The first 1,000 were even cheaper, but I missed the deadline before Mrs F got her calendar in order.
The first time we went was a Saturday and it was so busy that by lunchtime I wanted to kill everyone else there just to get round. Hence we’re going on the Friday.
Caravanning has become, like cruise ship holidays and Butlins, synonymous with dogging. This is the shocking (and frankly disgusting) secret behind the nation’s beloved caravan parks. Senior citizens gone wild for the holiday fortnight, divesting themselves not only of false teeth and support hose but every last shred of common decency. At night, the caravan site is an avant-garde symphony of squeaking suspension, falling crockery, and asthmatic grunting as the grannies and grandpas exchange whatever fluids they can still muster. “You like it like that, don’t you , you slut… christ I put me hip out.” “Not to worry dallin’, I’ll put the kettle on.”
Today’s spam email was for a stairlift. I am 56.
“Don’t come knocking if the caravan’s rocking” sign on the door.
Well put it this way, the only lube I am considering at the moment is for my increasingly unreliable metal knee…
I knew there was someone listening to me and Mrs V when were getting it on…