Men with beards, classic cars and my first trip to Ally Pally

Alexandra Palace sits atop of North London and boasts an amazing view over the city, on a clear day you can pick off the landmarks one by one. This was just such a clear day, as was yesterday and silly me forgot to take the photo *face:palm*.

I went to Ally Pally yesterday and today to help out at Classic Cars Live on the stand of the car owners club I belong to; the Alfa Romeo Owners Club http://www.aroc-uk.com. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, one thing's for sure there were rather alot of bearded men. Now I'm not making any accusations about men of a certain age who like classic cars, but it does seem amongst the motoring fraternity (and motorcycles for that matter) that age brings facial hair. Thank god I've not reached 30 yet.

Over the past two days I've learned all about the Alfa Romeo GTA and GTC on our stand and got to know some of the chaps who keep the club going, including club Chairman Jon Dooley, a very interesting and thoroughly pleasant man, I'll happily seek him out for a natter at future events. I met photographers, journalists of many varieties and lots of like minded people with an empathy for things all-geriatric-car.

Yesterday (friday) my friend Vikki brought along her cuddly sheep mascot which we placed on the roof of the 1967 European Touring Car luminary GTA, which proved rather fruitful; lots of bearded men came and took photos.

I went to watch James May (of BBC2's Top Gear, pictured at Ally Pally below) do a Q&A session about his stable of elderly cars & bikes after which I expressed to him the fact I didn't think he suited his new 1980's Porsche 911, I see James as being more of a relaxing driver down a country lane in something comfy (like his Bentley T2) listening to radio 3 with a pretty young lady alongside and nice hamper full of decadent foodstuffs and alcohol bringing up the rear. James said that I hadn't been the first to air my disapproval of the 911, and went on to say he approved of my Alfa Spider. Cut to me feeling guilty, James, I'm sure you'll enjoy cutting loose in the 911, just watch out for those bends!

James May

An explanation: I like James May, he's one of those people I view as an unread book, bloody interesting and just my sort of slightly acerbic, laconic motoring journalist who seems to have a penchant for cars with a slight air of "basket case" about them that need homes (a bit like oneself). Now I feel slightly guilty about this but nonetheless through my curiosity and undeterred interest, I somewhat forcibly made James a (probably definite) unwitting acquaintance of mine early last year through the fact we work for the same organisation. Sorry James.

I digress...However, I do think the presence of a young lass on the stand confused the bearded types, they assumed I was there merely to look at (although with my confidence looks-wise I saw this as a potential crowd dissolver), so I had to be pushy to get the fact across I was a fellow petrolhead. Saturday was full-on car talk from beginning to end, I met Mark the AROC's web meister who rather bravely put up with my girly witterings for most of the afternoon (a gold star and motor muppet valour award nominee). Jeremy was with me for the whole weekend and told me all about his trips with his cars and the fact he brought back his Spider from the US. He always had a smile and never once complained about the fact I kept retouching my lipstick and saying I was in love with the GTC because it was "sooooo pretty" (motor muppet valour award nominee).

motor muppet word of the weekend: "pretty"
motor muppet phrase of the weekend: "it's just one of those cars that looks fast, you know like it's moving but it's standing still..."

Here's to the next event!!!