It was time for dressing up and again and I was fearful that I wouldn’t be able to don my dancing feet after all that walking in heels at Goodwood, but after a bit of pampering at the hair dressers I made a miraculous recovery!

The whole gang were soon there, Pete and I arrived first and had a good chat with Pete’s Cobnor colleagues (one of which revealed that he owns seven brief cases- the mind boggles!) Then Jeremy and Ben arrived with their lovely ladies Celine and Lucy. We found a nice big table just outside the marquee (close enough to duck under if the heavens opened) and near enough to the log fire to ward off that approaching autumn chill. 

There was much merriment from the Chichester Design table as we revelled in dining from a burger van while dressed up to the nines and built up the confidence (in glasses of wine) to throw some shapes on the dance floor. And let me tell you that a certain Monsieur who was insistent that he does not do dancing was up there shaking his stuff with the rest of us!

Big Boy Bloater and his band provided some sterling entertainment and Disco Dave filled in the gaps with some eclectic music (and eclectic jokes). Ben and Lucy even managed to bag themselves a crate of beer in the charity raffle, so all was good.

Everyone had a ball and it was a lovely opportunity for the Chichester Designers and their other halves to let their hair down at a local event and raise money for charity in the meantime.  Who could complain about good rustic food, good local booze, good music from a local band and, most importantly, good company? Ben and I complained a little about the giant mosquito bites we gained though!

First off was a stop at the Swallow Bakery van where I got the boys shamelessly addicted to cupcakes- my weakness! Jeremy managed a whole double chocolate cupcake in a matter of seconds, very impressive, while Ben found a new love for the 24-Carrot cupcake. Anyway that’s enough about cakes we were there for the cars.

From there we watched the sixties dancers shaking their funky stuff around Union Jack Minis while the Beatles strutted across the Abbey Road style crossing. This enticed us to take a trip under the bridge to check out the Vintage Goodwood display.  It was in fact not an entirely work-free day as we were there to mingle with the Vintage Goodwood crew and get a better grasp of the fab innovation for when we start designing their websites in a few months time. We also bumped into a few of our other clients too, so it turned into a bit of a networking affair.

We were very impressed with the vintage shop and caught part of the very entertaining 1950s swimwear fashion show. What we loved best was the vibe this section of the Revival gave off, there were people dancing and performing in character and it was a great place to hang out in the Vintage deckchairs and Mini-sofas to watch the rest of the Goodwood Revival play out. But there was so much to see that our trip back to Vintage Goodwood was put on hold.

After a look around the Earls Court Motor Show and deciding which cars we would love to take home with us if our salaries allowed and getting up close and personal with the lovely aircrafts displayed on the airfield, we took in the track parade of Sir Stirling Moss’ 80^th Birthday celebrations. We also watched the brace of Spitfires and Mustangs Air display (see video) while we munched on wild boar sausages and hefty burgers (well, a humble cheese sarnie for poor old veggie Ben).

Then I spied that the funfair for this year’s event was supplied by none other than Google AdWords clients, James Horton’s Steam Fair.  I’m always enamoured by the organ music from a traditional steam carousel and on seeing James’ names whizzing round and surmising that it was his gang at the heart of the fairground fun, we just had to go and check it out. I fancied a go on the helter-skelter but meany Ben said no!

A long, long walk to the other side of the motor circuit brought us to the optimum corner spot to watch the official practices for the races that would take part on Saturday and Sunday. We stocked up on nachos and beverages and settled in to watch the Richmond Trophy, St Mary’s Trophy Part 2, RAC TT Celebration and Freddie March Memorial Trophy. Ben and I managed to stow our way into the Grandstand  and had a fab view and comfy seats for a while but guilt over came us and we went to join poor Jeremy and Pete outside with the rest of the commoners.

My feet were hurting so much by this point (damn the sixties and their ridiculous footwear!) that the only way we could get back to the other side of the motor circuit was by tractor trailer. This turned out to be a lot of fun, although my body was not best pleased at having Pimms and Belgian waffle churned around inside it we did get some good views of the race track and the surrounding countryside as we were passed by motor bikes and crowds dressed in costumes from 1940s-60s.

After disembarking from the tractor we saw some of the whacky car creations including Minis that were half car-half boat, a car shaped as an orange and a Lambretta with more headlights than you could shake a stick at. We then took one final look around the Vintage Goodwood display and were glad to see the full effect of the efforts that Wayne Hemingway and his team had gone to, in comparable privacy without the crowds that were there earlier in the day.

We had a chance to have a good nose around, get some snaps, meet up with client Ajay from Kabuki Productions and even have a bit of a lounge in the Vintage Goodwood deckchairs and Mini sofas. The perfect end to the perfect day. Well almost, I still had to do a half hour walk to find our car amidst the many others in the furthest car park known to man and did I mention that my feet hurt…

Click here to view the embedded video.