I was camping at a music festival near Lowerstoft (Eastern Haze) when I noticed people in the next tent looking very agitated. They had lost some of their poles and even sent one of their party home to look for them. I'm not sure whether they were grateful or not when I pointed out that they were on the ground behind the tent in full view from where I was sitting!
My worst 'abroad' mistake was discovered whilst packing my suitcase ready for my flight to San Francisco the next day. I wasn't the most organised person then (hence packing my case the night before) so I wasn't that worried when I couldn't find my passport at first. Once I'd turned my house upside down (tiny 2 up, 2 down cottage) resulting in no passport, I began to feel serious palpitations ... where was the bl**dy thing??? Slowlyit dawned on me that 3 days previously I'd had a good clearout of some paperwork which was ages old and I'd made 2 piles - stuff to go out on 1 pile, stuff to file & keep on another pile. I remember seeing my passport whilst doing this job .... surely, surely, surely I hadn't put it on the wrong pile by mistake?!!
By 2am I was going through the wheelie-bin and then I remembered that the bin-men had only been the day before ... Those were the days when you could turn up at a passport office and be issued with an emergency one, so after several phone calls (including one to a very annoyed boyfriend in SF and one to a very amused boss about taking more time off), I'd rebooked my flight and was there on the door at Newport Passport office as it opened, having run around the day before collecting the necessary signatures for my application.
I didn't marry the annoyed boyfriend, I married the very amused boss a few years later and he still reminds me to this day about my thrown-out passport, especially now that I can't be relied upon to pack the tent poles!
------------- Angie ~~
~ If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours ~
Quote: I didn't marry the annoyed boyfriend, I married the very amused boss a few years later and he still reminds me to this day about my thrown-out passport, especially now that I can't be relied upon to pack the tent poles!
LOL Angie you should have rung, our camping collection is at Dad's and we have any number of tents you could have borrowed!
Glad it all worked out, but you aren't ever going to live this down at home I imagine
I once sent OH to France with the Coleman Sahara, its poles AND the poles from another tent as well! We had a hell of a job getting everything in the car!
I now do as Val suggests, I have different coloured laminated labels for each tent, on one side it shows what it is (Athena Poles) and on the back lists the remaining parts of the tent (Anthena canvas, Athena inners etc.)
Quote: Originally posted by PigletandTigger on 29/5/2009
LOL Angie you should have rung, our camping collection is at Dad's and we have any number of tents you could have borrowed!
Do you know, that didn't even occur to me! We were trying to remember if there was a Millets/Blacks in Dorchester as we knew the shop in Charmouth only does bits & caravans. We did think about you & your Dad when we were in Lyme, wondered if you'd made a good start on the extension and how different Mimi probably looks inside!
OH did graciously say that he should have checked in the loft too, but he took me at my word. We've just put everything back in the loft and found the bag of poles, buried under some sleeping-bags. This wouldn't have happened last year, but this year we've all treated ourselves to some sooper-dooper new 3 season bags that are really easy to pack, so of course there was no need to lift the other sleeping-bags and see the poles. I can only plead that it was a new tent last year and I'm not that familiar yet with the different bags .
Main thing is we had a good time and will be back in the summer, trying out one of the CSs this time. We've found a couple, do you know any good ones down there yet Anita?
------------- Angie ~~
~ If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours ~
I always dread arriving without poles, airbed, etc etc. Means that, as husband packs the vehicle, he spends the first 20 miles answering repeated "did you put the poles/airbed/tent/bedding in?"
Our worse case was arriving, pitching, pumping airbed (after the shops had closed) and discovering that it wouldn't inflate. Couldn't find the hole to repair it, so first night was not a great success.
At least with an airbed you're unlikely to be more than an hour or so from a big supermarket where you can buy cheapo airbeds up to 10 pm. Tent poles are a bit harder to source!
We were on the same site as you. Why didn't you pop in - had left a UK Campsite label in the window of our tent. We really enjoyed the stay and thought the Site and Staff were lovely. The rain didn't spoil Wednesday for us - stayed an extra night.
------------- Why yearn for tomorrow when you can have chocolate today.
Do you know, that didn't even occur to me! We were trying to remember if there was a Millets/Blacks in Dorchester as we knew the shop in Charmouth only does bits & caravans.
I have the number for Yellow Pages in my mobile for just that sort of emergency!
Quote: Originally posted by The Doozers on 30/5/2009
We were on the same site as you. Why didn't you pop in - had left a UK Campsite label in the window of our tent. We really enjoyed the stay and thought the Site and Staff were lovely. The rain didn't spoil Wednesday for us - stayed an extra night.
Oooh, I saw the sign! I was quite thrilled because it was the first time I've seen the logo displayed, although I look every time. It was in the window of a Sunncamp Grange, there was no-one there when I spotted it. So I wandered past the next day and the tent had gone - a belated "Hello" to you!
------------- Angie ~~
~ If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours ~
We've just nearly done somethign similar, I tend to gather all the stuff that's in the house in the hall and OH and DS pack it all. I've just come home from getting a new gas bottle, and OH is watching Everton game with a confident "all packed and I've got loads of space left" That worried me slightly as there isn't normally ANY space left so I've just gone out to the shed to make sure he's packed everything and he's forgotten the stove!!! Thank god I checked that would have been very difficult.
We had moved house in April 2005 ,and this was the first camp since in July.
Most annoying was that I had packed them in the roofbox once ! :-( As I was loading it all up, I thought that I wasn't sure if I'd packed the pegs, so dragged stuff out again to check for the pegs. Somehow in all this the pole back ended back in the outside cupboard (can't remember why now) when it all got packed in.
When I did that mental check off off of what stuff that I'd packed in my head the poles were still packed.
Things were a bit fraught when we got to the site - we got there about 6 pm, wife and come from work, it was such an arghh!!!!! moment to relaise they really weren'ty in there.
We were camping with a big bunch of other people, some friends had the outer for their Khyam which we were going to use as a communal tent. We put that up, hung up an inner from our Khyam and slept in there.
Very early the next morning (about 5am) I drove the 90 miles/2 hrs to our house to pick up the poles and take them back. Buy lunvhtime order was restored :-)
I still get jokes though about poles.
Someother friends from Reading went camping in Cornwall and the hubby forgot the poles. THey went and bought another tent
I can't remember how many times I unravelled the tent and felt through it all, hoping the poles would just appear - our very nice neighbours were looking at me a bit curiously, obviously thinking this was a ritual I had to go through before pitching!
Buying another tent was initially foremost in my list of options, although I hadn't got as far as where from. We'd just camped at Easter in our smaller weekend tent and with 4 of us plus 2 dogs, we'd remarked then about how cramped it felt even for 2 nights, so my heart was sinking with the thought of:-
a) buying another tent anyway - we are happy with the 2 tents we have, we don't need to offload another tent.
b) the potential cost of a good-sized one for 5 nights that would mean us all still on speaking terms at the end of the break!
I'm pleased to say we didn't consider for one minute going home, as we'd all really looked forward to this break and I couldn't have found the words to tell that to our 8 & 6 yr olds!
------------- Angie ~~
~ If you see someone without a smile give them one of yours ~
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Check, check and check again ,,,
Those were the days when you could turn up at a passport office and be issued with an emergency one, so after several phone calls (including one to a very annoyed boyfriend in SF and one to a very amused boss about taking more time off), I'd rebooked my flight and was there on the door at Newport Passport office as it opened, having run around the day before collecting the necessary signatures for my application.
Angie you should have rung, our camping collection is at Dad's and we have any number of tents you could have borrowed! 
