Bank Holiday weekend

Of course it rained over the weekend, especially Monday, when it didn’t stop!

But Saturday and Sunday weren’t as bad as feared, so we had a great day at the Dunsfold Airshow. It was a tiny bit worrying after the awful crash at Shoreham but we soon got over that and had a lovely day.

Actually it’s Wheels and Wings so there are lots of cars too, but I don’t think they’re as exciting as the air display. But they were doing laps in really old cars when we first arrived so we watched those first. No idea what type of cars they were but some were really fast. And they also had a race between a plane and a car. Taxiing the car won by a mile but once the airplane was airbourne there was no contest.

We bagged a spot where we could see the whole runway, cos that’s where they do all the interesting flying, away from the crowds. Most people had brought their own chairs but we’d never been to an airshow before so Mum and Dad didn’t think to bring anything. I sat on the grass mostly – until it started raining in the afternoon, when it got far too wet.

The airshow was great. I forget the names of all the planes but I remember the Pitts because Dad used to do aerobatics when they lived in America and he always wanted a Pitts Special. Never gonna happen though!

Then there was a Spitfire that flew with a Typhoon and a really really noisy modern plane – maybe that was the Typhoon too. That was ear-splitting, so not so keen on that one. The Spitfire also flew with a Hurricane and I think a Mustang.

And the Red Arrows were fantastic. I’ve never seen them give a display before, only a fly-over. They went back and forth in all sorts of formations, belching out red, white and blue smoke. It was really good. Loved them.

Unfortunately the rain got quite heavy after the Red Arrows so we decided to leave soon after. They did warn us there would be queues to leave but there really wasn’t much option. It was too wet to sit on the grass and we didn’t even have umbrellas.

So we queued to leave. OMG it was dreadful. How can they be so efficient at getting you into the show and so terrible at getting you out? In the end Mum dodged past someone and followed some other renegades down a track we weren’t supposed to go. Haha luckily she has a 4×4 because the track ended. Just like that with a brick wall. Luckily she went off-road on the grass, through a small ditch and we’d skipped a good part of the queue and got out much faster.

Then we made another mistake and decided to head off on some back roads to bypass a huge queue on the road. We ended up on a little track and asked a lady whether it went anywhere. No, she said, you’ll have to turn back. She told us she’d probably see 50 cars up there over the weekend. So we weren’t the only “clever” ones.

Got home eventually, but it took about 3 times as long as the journey there.

So we really enjoyed the show, shame about the journey home, but if we go again next year then we’ll look for another route.

Rest of the weekend was a bit of a washout. Chilled on Monday and watched a couple of videos and caught up on Facebook but that was about all. Didn’t even bother going out, but Holly came round Monday evening to chill with me.