It has been a few years since we last went to the Himley Hall MINI meet and as we have always enjoyed the show it was time we went again. We went with YAM MINI, which gave us a chance to catch up again with some old friends from the MINI community whom we had not seen for a while, the Gidfather, SMonster, Tweedbean, Supermario, to name but a few. As always it is this opportunity to renew old friendships that makes these MINI events such fun.

We met in a nearby pub car park at 8 am, collected our tickets from the Gidfather, who had kindly organised the club stand and tickets and convoyed in together. We all got parked up then it was coffee and an exorbitantly expensive coffee and bacon sarnie for us. The cooker is coming with us to these events in future that’s for sure! the weather held good till about twelve, which gave us a chance toi look around take some photographs and spend some money.

The highlights for us were the Park Lane MINI shop, an ingenious  umbrella shelter, the abundance of MINI Coupés on show and the visual spectacle of a row of MINI GPs on the MINI UK GP stand.

We spotted this umbrella, which is probably designed for fishermen and thought it was superb for these car events. We spoke with the owner who was pleased we liked it and told us that Argos was our friend! It’s on the list!

 Next off we saw the Park Lane MINI stand which resembled a jumble sale as they cleared out old stock. It was a bargain place and Peanut bagged some Beat The Street sneakers which were just sat there waiting for her and I got a JCW Works lightweight jacket. The bargains compensated for the cost of the coffee and bacon butty!

 The GPs arrived after us but by 9.30 they were all set up and looking resplendent. Yes I know they all look much the same but they do make a spectacle. This itch for one of these never goes away!

 Finally, we were not the only Coupé there this time. SMonster had brought his wife’s Cooper Coupé, which looked very handsome in red with a black roof and there was also a fine looking back and red Coupé Works to drool over.

 An hour or so chatting under a tree sheltering from the rain and another tour of inspection of the show and it wss job done and we headed home, getting back a little after 3.30. It was a great day out made all the more fun by seeing old friends and actually grabbing a few bargains at the event. Cheers Yam MINI see you soon!

PS Click the photographs for a slideshow from the day!