Well mrs T and I cut short our holiday in europe by a day or so and made it back to the UK in one 12 hour run, leaving behind a few souvenier photos of the Aero for the French police.
After a short night's sleep, we joined Asbo and Boshly at Oxford and made a rather damp drive to Cheltenham. Full marks to Asbo for driving roof down. No chance from the management for doing the same!
On arriving at Cheltenham we were well looked after as last minute attendees to the event even if things on Saturday am were quite chaotic in terms of the events team finding the right Morgan people to get the car to in time for it's starring role in the evening celebrations. Still turning up in a recognisable car has its benefits in terms of driving wherever you like.
Saturday was very enjoyable, we met with friends old and new alike. Great to see Missprint Cerial and Young-One during the day (if not for long enough) as well as meet Orthodoc and of course Boshly AsboJohn Aeroman and others.
We attended Saturday nights gala dinner and were very happy to find ourselves sat next to none other than Matt Humphries! Liz and I had a fabulous dinner and much amusing conversation with Matt and the other table guests, though to Matts credit my attempts to get him drunk and spill the beans on 'whats next' failed dismally! Interestingly we shared a great deal of enthusiasm for similar cars and talked at length about Maseratis (in particular A6GS and 3200GT) as well as Morgans. Still much amusing talk and the story of the development of the golf cart - it's even got sidepipes!
As an aside, what really struck me about Matt was the fact that here is a young guy who has designed what is widely recognised as one of the most striking cars made in the last 10 years, yet he was utterly modest and unnasuming and insitnctively understood the Morgan brand.
One thing that illustrates this perfectly was a guy from the Morgan Club of Japan coming to our table between courses and asking Matt to take a photo. Matt immediately assumed he wanted Matt (as a random person neaby) to take a picture of him in front of the stage, when to the rest of us it was clear that the guy wanted a picture of him with Matt the 'celebrity' designer! All very amusing when Liz gently pointed out to him that he was in fact a celebrity and should be used to this kind of thing!
The overall evening was excellent, with Charles doing a great job of hosting, the intro to his arrival on stage (complete with film of my now very famous car doing a lot of doughnuts) and great input as Aeroman mentioned from various illuminaries.
For me though I think Zog Zigler summed it up brilliantly at dinner when he said
"I drive a Morgan because I want to be loved"
Mogs do get that reaction on the road wherever you go in the world it seems. Long may it continue, and it's a line I shall remember in case anyone ever asks me!
So all in all a great weekend at Cheltenham, sad I missed the earlier events due to travels but fantastic to see so many from here and meet so many new and interesting people all weekend.
Had a fun drive back down the A40 and my arm is still tired from waving at Mog after Mog all weekend. All weekend I had nothing but smiles and waves from all types of car Morgan old new or non Morgan, so clearly orange is the way forward!
