I apologise for the delay in getting this up online, but I was on holiday (half term and children off) for the past week getting in some family time and some mileage on my new 1998 XJ Sport.

I am now back at work and the usual daily routine, so finally have a chance to write up my synopsis of our day.

Please bear in mind that I am not known for a good memory - so any mistakes, ommissions etc. I apologise :-)

In the build up to the day our threads had received 25,000 views and we had 15 people following us on Twitter @JFBrightonMeets plus quite a quantity just following our hashtag #MayJagMeet.

We had sponsorship from Harwoods Jaguar with goodie bags, an XE onsite, and test drive bookings being taken, SNG Barratt supplied goodie bags, a £25 gift voucher, & a branded umbrella, and The Guardian (a forum member and attendee) supplied a signed Help For Heroes JLR book, an F-Type branded bound notebook, and a Jaguar Apprentice shirt, and I supplied a cherished E-Type (OK, OK it's a 1/16th model lol)..

My son had gone down with a cold, so it was just me coming along today.. with my XJ boot crammed full of goodie bags, prizes, and welcome packs for everyone - including a very limited quantity of Jaguar posters for those that might want them.

The weather was cool but dry, and I made it to Pease Pottage Services for 8:15am. As I pulled into the car park I saw almost nothing but Jaguars, and lots of people milling around. I pulled in and started unpacking everything.

We had a few issues with the prize draw tickets trying to fly off but managed to distribute everything and Tony (from Harwoods Brighton) started collecting the draw entries.

The posters went rapidly, with more people wanting them than we had.. the posters had all been checked by my son and labelled up to make it easier for people to get the one they wanted.

We then had the welcome to the meet speech and set off for Brighton, a few minutes later than we had planned, but not too bad.

This year we had the gorgeous Mk2 leading the convoy - at pretty much a steady 55mph or so, allowing any late leavers to catch up with the main convoy.

On arrival in Brighton at just gone 9am we found plenty of parking across two sections of Madiera Drive, which we did our best to fully populate.

Whilst parking, the Madiera Harvester called me to check we were actually coming, and I just commented that if they looked out the front of the building they would see Jaguars streaming past them so yes we wopuld be there shortly.

I made sure the banner was mounted across my car, as usual, and we all headed into the restaurant.

The Madiera has a capacity of 175 customers and had set aside the whole back section for us along with an overspill into the front section if needed. The breakfast was a fixed cooked breakfast and served, in my case, within three minutes or less - very good service, and the breakfast was great.

After finishing my breakfast I headed out to the cars and tried to get as many photographed as I could - it was like a surreal situation with car after car after car. I tried to photograph every car individually - if I missed anyone I apologise :-)

After working through all the photos I could reasonably take, I headed for the Jag Gallery to ask their permission for us to take our group photos outside. They were more than happy for this - which works well for us as a backdrop.

Everyone was still in the restaurant having a natter, so I headed back in and settled down for some catchup with everyone.

As we started to approach the time for the signings and photo shoots people started to move from the relaxing environment in the restaurant back out to the cars.

Once we had managed to get everyone to sign (and re-sign as some pointed out) we headed over to the front of the Jag Gallery and after getting the group together we started on the prize draw element.

On a few of the prizes, tickets were re-drawn when it was found that whoever had the number was not there but overall went very smoothly with photos taken of our winners as they collected their prizes.

We then got the banner held up in front of the group and took the group shots - please bear in mind, as always some people had already had to depart before this shoot. The Jag Gallery also took shots of us and had fridge magnets on offer at the end of it for £2.49 :-)

It was a fantastic day with a convoy lead by a gorgeous Mk2, a (for once) relaxing breakfast in a great environment, prizes for several attendees, photo shoots, and a general great social calendar event.. the weather held for us, the backdrop was gorgeous.. and everythiung went smoothly.

It just leaves me to say thankyou to everyone who attended (saving me from pics of me, a Jaguar and tumbleweed), to the Guardian, Ngarara & Tony for all their help on the day, to our sponsors Harwoods Jaguar Brighton, and SNG Barratt, and WaxOnWaxOff for our event discount code.

I am now open to any ideas and thoughts you might have that maybe I could do for next years event - you can catch me on Twitter @JFBrightonMeets or on email JaguarForumsUK@solidlinux.co.uk *or* just keep your eye out for a forum thread appearing near you in the next few weeks :-)

Thankyou once again to everyone!

 

Here is the banner after everyone signed it at our Brighton Convoy & Meet :-)

 

OK, after two years of pulling everything together at six monthly intervals for our convoy and meet events I have been at a bit of a loose end since our May event knowing it is now annual rather than bi-annual - used to constantly organising from the end of one event through to the start of the next one... sooooo...

At this point I am looking at what we would like to incorporate into the next event - the plan being for the next event to be the next level up from our last one (as always) and am very open to anyones suggestions here, or by email or twitter.. so please let me know your ideas.. I want to keep the event free making it possible for anyone on any budget to attend, another free prize draw, and more :-)

Meanwhile I have already started to work with potential sponsors, am looking into whether we stick with the seafront or another venue, and possible things we could incorporate into the event..

A new thread will appear for the next event in the near future :-)

 

OK... summer holidays have finished.. and the family holidays to Leeds for a week, and then Wareham for a week, with the XJ8 notching up 1500 miles have all been done - and yes I am at a loose end, and looking to make our next event bigger and better than ever before!
The next event is listed here: https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/u...2016-a-149200/
Please sign up for what is set to be a great day for all the family, and of course our prized cats :-)
I look forward to seeing you all there!