Tales from the Campsite - Birmingham

Back to Britain with a bump!

‘There are dogs outside wearing pyjamas’ announces Mr.Dean as he opens the blinds on our Motorhome.

We are back in the UK, it’s wet, cold, windy and seems a million miles away from the countryside of Spain and Portugal.

We are near (not in) Birmingham, it is March so for me that means Crufts and we are staying on a Camping and Caravan site about 9 miles away from the NEC (National Exhibition Centre) where Crufts is held every March

Crufts is an international dog show held annually in the United Kingdom, held since 1891, and organised by The Kennel Club. It is the largest show of its kind in the world - Source, Wikipedia

This is my 6th Crufts.

I have a stand at the show and we have a fabulous, albeit exhausting, time meeting all the dogs, my best friend (also called Jo) comes to help and it’s the most important event in the calendar for my business. Here’s a little review of our 4 days at the show.

It’s the main reason we’re not still in Southern Europe and it’s also the reason why the dogs are wearing pyjamas, to keep them warm and dry in the wind and the rain

It’s more than likely that these dogs are also going to Crufts, there are a lot of dogs on the campsite, more than usual

Although I don’t have much campsite news/gossip or observations, I‘ve hardly been here but now we’re back in the UK and we happen to be on a campsite in middle England 2 things jump out at me;

1. Rules - these are quite in your face here, signs everywhere about what you can or can’t do. I’m not suggesting there are no rules at European campsites, but when abroad, it feels more like you are trusted to read the sign tucked away in a corner somewhere, whereas in the UK you’re not to be trusted and all the rules need to be posted at head height all over the place and repeated often. This campsite also locks you in 😲, as we head out for our first day of ‘work’ on Day 1 of Crufts (we parked outside the night before) we see a van trying to leave before the barriers open automatically at 7am, and worse still, there’s no local override so the staff at the campsite can’t let you out either. This nearly caught us out last year so we pull sympathetic faces and drive off unable to help. Control is the word that’s just popped into my mind, is it just me or here in the UK do you feel more controlled?

2. Pyjamas - never mind the dogs, tell me, are people spending more time outdoors, in the shops and most of the day in some cases in their pyjamas?

   In Europe, there’s a steady stream of jim-jams and dressing gowns going to and from the showers on the campsites, at all times of the day, but that’s it.

   I don’t see Europeans in their pyjamas buying their bread in the local shop or doing a big shop in Lidl’s, neither do they stand outside their campers smoking or walking their dogs in their pyjamas. I know the pyjama ‘thing’ has been around in the UK for a while and lockdowns made pyjama living acceptable. Several years ago when we were living in Belfast for a while, having just come from London, I was amazed at the troops of people walking past our front room window in their pyjamas, dressing gowns AND slippers on their way to the local shop.

   I also wondered where this originated, is this something we could blame the Americans for?

   If you’re in the US do people live their lives in their pyjamas there too?

Of course, now I’ve noticed the extra rules around the place and people in their pyjamas all day, it’s all I see.

We have some more trips planned over the next 6 months, with some exciting destinations to come, Namibia and Mongolia to name two. I will be keeping a look out for things that catch my eye or that I overhear on the campsites we stay at and I’ll be sure to report back in the next edition of Tales from the Campsite…