UNICEF Kelso

Sorry I have been a little dilatory in posting this final report on the UK Tour, but I have been busy at MGLive! More on that later, but now the completion of the tour.

My last report finished with me in Whitburn, Central Scotland where Bridget was shown off to around fifty enthusiasts. Once again the weather was unexpectedly good for us and the Scots were their usual appreciative selves; not at all the hard to please audience of music hall fame.

The following day I drove Bridget down to Gretna Green where we would stop over on route to Knutsford in Cheshire. Bridget is a hopeless romantic and wanted to see the famous forge and listen to the lilt of the lone piper. In the morning we moved on to Knutsford, a place name, that until now, had only denoted a service station on the M6 Motorway to me. However the town of Knutsford is a charming ancient place mentioned in the Domesday Book as “Cunetesford”. It is said that the Danish King of England, Canute, forded a stream here around 1000 AD, hence the name.

I was parked behind a new Aston Martin DBS watching the world go by when a man approached and asked “Did you really go around the world in that?” Having assured him that I had we chatted for a few moments before he asked if he could phone me the following week as he had to go now but wanted more information about my journey. He finished off saying he also wanted to do a similar trip in his Aston!!

Once again I had another atypical venue, this time a cricket club. The talk started around 8:00pm and we finished around 11:30pm keeping the poor steward well past his bedtime. This was not the first time that Bridget and I have been thrown out!!

The pen-ultimate venue was at Bromsgrove in the West Midlands. Organised by Brian Osbourne, who had given us great support whilst we were still striving to complete our adventure, he had booked a local sports club with a truly great selection of fine British ales. Again, a very appreciative audience, no doubt helped by the beverages, it was a fine way to round off the travelling part of the tour.

The final presentation was back where we had started, at Kimber House in Abingdon. With an even bigger audience than the first event, clearly word hadn’t got around, it was a very successful last night.

My personal thanks to everyone that helped organise the interestingly varied venues, to the MG Car Club for promoting the tour and to Chris Seaward for his hard work co-ordinating everything, even if he still hasn’t worked out how much we raised for UNICEF!! Also my thanks, and UNICEF’s, to all the enthusiasts that turned up and supported us making it all worthwhile. I know we raised a little over £2,000 for UNICEF and it is very much appreciated.

Next stop MGLive, Silverstone.

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