Võtan taas selle teema üles ja seda ka edaspidi. Nüüd on siis aasta nr juba ka õige, seega tasuks üle küsida, kes on tõsiselt mõtlemas üritusele?
Siia otsa üks vahva vahepala, mille kogemata muu tegevuse käigus ühest vastavast foorumist leidsin. Jutt küll mõni aasta vana, aga küll see kehtib. Ehk siis lihtsalt vahva, hariv ja naljakas lugemine. Aga lisaks sellele, ka midagi meelde jätta, kui minek käes.
I went in 2009, 2010 and 2011, but not 2012 and not this year either. Why? because I hate it! No, not Scale Model World itself, it's a fantastic show, I loved it! Fantastic models and trade stands all manned by real enthusiasts. But I hate everything else that goes with it, ie. Location, facilities, parking etc. etc.
For example, in 2009 I took no food or drink because I thought 'It's a huge exhibition centre, there's bound to be great catering facilities, I'll have a full English breakfast upon arrival'. No such luck, all I was offered was a crappy ham and cheese roll thing at a hugely inflated price, and it was awful. And when I bought a drink from what (for that year) they laughably called a bar I got ripped off beyond belief.
Moving on a year to 2010 I arrived just after 10am... After ages and ages queuing on the approaching roads I finally arrive at the car park, 'Oh no guvnor, the car park's full, you'll have to go to the overspill car park, 87 miles away' I was told. Hmmm, an international exhibition centre with totally and completely inadequate parking, they really thought that one through didn't they?
Got to the other car park, massive queue of cars, the barriers wouldn't come up, I pressed the speaker button 'No, this car park's full too' said the disinterested voice, 'No it isn't, I can see loads of empty spaces with my own eyes' I replied, 'No you can't' he said. Okaaaaaay, so I am either blind or I'm a liar.
So, being bolshie Londerners, my lady got out of the car and manually forced the barrier up with her arms while I slipped under it and parked up in one of the many available spaces. Sadly the other long suffering punters queuing up didn't have the guts to repeat our actions, despite our encouragement. No wonder we put up with so much petty bureaucracy in this country, no-one's got any bottle to take action.
By 2011 I was getting seriously hacked off with the whole experience, and from here in South London it's a horrible and tiring drive to Telford featuring some of the busiest motorways on route and takes hours, and remembering the complete and total parking fiasco that was a feature of Telford of previous years, I though to myself 'Sod it, I'm not driving this year, it's gonna be the train'
A train form Euston (London) to Birmingham New street was a swift and comfortable Virgin Pendolino, very nice, only a little over an hour. But at £86 pound for each person, and there was two of us! ***k, I nearly passed out at the eye watering cost! And our stupid government wants to get us out of our cars and use public transport more to protect the environment, not at those prices we won't! Ignorant idiots.
Anyway arrived at Birmingham refreshed from the fast and comfortable Virgin Pendolino train and was then forced onto some ratty old cattle truck laughable passing itself off as a train, looking like something from George Stephenson's era. This pile of rubbish puffed, rattled, wheezed and shook it's way from Birmingham to Telford in what seemed like about a week. A truly uncomfortable experience. Maybe I should've taken the Cadillac after all? Then I remembered the queues and totally inadequate parking of 2010.......
Walked to Scale Model World and it was a great show as always, then it was time to go home. Walked back to Telford station, guess what? Trains to Birmingham delayed, no times or other information available. It was freezing cold and my lady had the shivers, no problem I thought, we'll go into the warm waiting room. No, it's locked up for the night and not staffed! So we have to stand out in the freezing cold for ages and ages until another Stephenson's Rocket crawled in, and being so late it meant we missed our connection for the London train from Birmingham.... More waiting around, Grrrr.
Please don't misunderstand me, Scale Model World itself is an absolutely fantastic show, the IPMS volunteers do fantastic work and the modelling and trade are brilliant. And the CBK guys I met (James P, Matt B, Beany etc.) were lovely, friendly, super guys. But the fiasco of getting to the dump that is laughably called Telford Exhibition Centre is just too much grief for me!
OK, rant over, I am off work on Sunday, maybe we'll go anyway......
Kk
