11 May 07
Three women heading off to a music festival, as you'd imagine, need a fair bit of storage space.
And while the venue - Butlins at Minehead - didn't involve camping, previous experience of such events at Camber Sands meant we went prepared with our own bedding, crockery, cooking pans, utensils and cutlery. Add to that a supermarket stop on the way down for food - plus the usual selection of wine, spirits and mixers - and the Auris got pretty laden.
The extra weight (down to the multiple outfits, pairs of shoes and booze, of course, rather than friends Kim and Sharon) took its toll on the car's handling; at one point, I thought I'd better check that the front tyres were properly inflated as the steering was so heavy. After a couple of hours on the road stop-starting, brake-fade set in as well.
Still, our journey from Brighton - a slow six-hour haul on a busy Friday afternoon along a circuitous route - was by no means unpleasant and, for the bulk of the trip, we weren't going fast enough for the above issues to be a problem anyway.
We could have done with a stronger stereo, though - after all, how else could we acquaint ourselves with all the songs from Nick Cave's new album prior to his gigs? Even he could barely be heard once we hit 60mph.
