We are often asked...'what do you do in the winter?'...well, apart from our 3 month break at our holiday villa in Mustique (not), moving a few caravans around and painting that makes the efforts on the Forth Rail Bridge look like something you could do with a match pot and a pastry brush...we are going to the annual trade association conference. This year, the BHHPA will meet up for 2 days of presentations, workshops, speakers and a bit of a knees up in Blackpool.
Last year I made a personal decision to boycott the event on the grounds that the key speaker, one Clarissa Dickson-Wright, did not have the same view of the countryside and its management that I did. So having made a stand for the much-maligned fox, imagine my surprise to discover that one of this year's speakers is a badger! Ruth Badger to be precise...straight-talking salesperson and TV star of 'The Apprentice' and 'Badger or Bust'. I suspect she will go for something dark and business cut rather than hunting pink and I look forward to hearing her own personal take on 'selling'. However, she will have to go some to top one Mick Seal, who helped us out on the site in the year of the Eclipse (1999) and managed to sell 3 Bicycle Puncture Repair Outfits, that had been sitting on the shelf for decades, as 'De-Luxe Eclipse Viewers'. I still remember the screams as we tried to peel the patches off that poor bloke's eyes. Still, it was the only excitement we had that day, given the cloudy conditions.
Joining the Badger on stage at Blackpool will be Carol Thatcher, straight out of the jungle, and Professor David Bellamy...who always looks as if he got dressed in a jungle. He's a top man, he just doesn't shop there!
So, if you live in the Blackpool area, expect us to call in for a cup of tea in February and remember, next year's theme at Lower Treave is 'It's a jungle out there...get the grass cut Norman!'
