Brighton beckons..........

Two more nights in London and then when the words Brighton Photographer pop up on the screen there'll be a new option at the end of the search. I'm looking forward to the new challenges and hoping that this rain will stop so that if I'm not too busy on moving in then I can at least feel on holiday by the seaside.

Special mention for wasting a whole pile of time this week must go to Ulster Bank for making it so difficult to get  money to buy the house out of an instant access account and the Royal Mail for prnting off postal redirection forms online which aren't accepted when you get into the post office one hour later because they are out of date. Yes, the counter staff said, it's really stupid isn't it...

Photos from Vintage at Goodwood

Scene at the funfair in the evening

King of the World

Jessie and the Orbits

Yes, it rained

Had a great weekend away at Vintage at Goodwood, the new festival on the Goodwood estate in West Sussex. (Yes, it rained). An evening at Goodwood races gave the opportunity for some photos from one of the most stylish race meetings I've ever been to while the following 3 days of the festival proper allowed for catching up on some music I'd missed in my youth (The Damned especially) and some fantastic photo opportunities.

You can see many more images in my Vintage at Goodwood photo collection on flickr

The Faces

The Caezars

Captain Sensible of the Damned

Revisiting old ground - The Royal Oak, Fritham, New Forest

Shirley is someone who likes to go back to places previously visited, whereas I'm the opposite. Usually anyway. But I made the exception today to come back to the Royal Oak, a lovely small pub in the middle of nowhere which we visited this time last year. I had a fantastic pint of Barbury Castle ale from the Three Castles micro-brewery in Wiltshires Pewsey Vale. Wonderful little "Wanted" sign inside the pub about a donkey rustler who has a dangerous car and poisonous powders.....

Employee discretion advised

Our second site is a 'Forest Holidays' campsite at Ashurst in the New Forest proper. Unfortunately arrival was spoilt by one of those really annoying clashes of the voice of reason (ie me) with authority (ie reception staff at the campsite....)

I'd booked ahead on the web and ticked all the boxes in line with our status and as far as I was concerned fully paid up for us to have a pitch with Wendel in his small tent.  It was explained that Wendel being 18 needed a separate pitch for himself and his tent. Now just about anywhere else we'd be able to share a pitch. But not at Forest Holiday sites. We'd have to pay £20 per night for his own pitch.

OK I asked, remembering how things work elsewhere, is there a backpacker price? Yes, £6.50. OK I said, he can walk in separately from us with his tent on his back. Ah, but we've seen him in your campervan now.....

I asked if they had any discretion. No, the rules have to be followed.

So there you have it. A group of 5 adults all with well paid jobs with a huge SUV and a mammoth caravan finishes up paying the same as a family of three with small camper and tiny tent.

Organisations that leave their employees no discretion to use their brains are doomed to fail. Add Forest Holidays to the long list.

Anyway, here's another pic of Wendel putting up his tent. The horse was later seen to be carrying off Wendel's sleeping bag in his mouth.