A few months ago I put up my hand to be the director for Jugiong 2009 and with the help of Belinda and mentors Bob and Fran the event was a great success.
The original plan was to drive R8G down to the event but after refusing family help to carry the equipment, I wanted to get everything down there myself like they did in the ‘good old days’, I realised that R8G was not going to cope with the extra weight. So I put the car back in the garage and covered it up vowing that I would get R8G to Jugiong one day in the future, but this weekend would not be that day 
My kids were excited to be camping for the weekend and my daughter was upset that R8G was not the mode of transport but setbacks aside we left Sydney mid afternoon on Friday for the Australia Day weekend pilgrimage to Jugiong.
The road ahead after Yass was darkened skies and lightening and it was approx 5pm when we turned off the highway and crossed the cattle grid in to Jugiong. We swiftly made our way to the camping area around the showground where Andrew and Belinda we already setup and waiting our company.
It started to sprinkle as we unpacked the car and the wind picked up making the tent setup interesting, sprinkling turned in to heavier rain but the fir pine gave us some shelter and with the help of everyone our tent was up and we were settling in with a beer in no time at all.
Friday night was a BBQ and socialising around the camp site but by 2am the wind and rain had picked up again and blown open the front of our tent. I had left the tent open as Rebekah and Andrew had decided to kick on through the night and I crashed at about 12am, yet the two socialites had not yet come to bed. After fumbling my way around in the dark looking for a tent peg I came across them held up in the common area shelter wet from putting up the side curtain and with a good dent in the Jack D and Bicardi bottles. I left them to it, battened down the hatches and crashed.
The next morning there was a light breeze and some sore heads moving around the camp site, with a lazy morning and a light lunch I met with Bob to setup up the Motorkhana in the flood plain behind the showground.
The weather was on our side as we had heard Sydney was experiencing a scortcher, and my 2.45pm we were setup and ready to head to the hotel’s bar for the ‘First Beer’.
It only took an hour for the beer to be won by Ted and for once it was won drinking a beer! Not a lemonade or a shandy but a beer.
Dinner Saturday night was our at our social evening and beautiful BBQ was prepared by Andrew and Jo with fresh salads and some fantastic desserts. A big thank-you to the both of them for all the work they put in.
Saturday night was not as big as the previous night but back at the camp site some more stories were told, a few more beers were sunk but an earlier night was called so we could all be fresh for Sunday’s main event.
Jugiong 2009 was in full swing by 8am with entries starting to roll in, cars to be scrutineered and the drivers briefing started on time at 10am. I was fairly nervous addressing everyone as it was my first event as Director and added plenty of um’s and ar’s to pad the briefing up. With some comments addressed from the peanut gallery (Bruce…..) the event was a go and cars were lining up at the start garages to tackle the first events.
We got through 5 events before lunch which was put on my the local bush fire brigade. Snags, salad and a cold drink hit the spot and we finished the day with another 2 events albeit a little dusty.
I finished the afternoon with a swim with the kids in Jugiong pool prior to our presentation dinner.
Sunday nights presentation dinner is held upstairs in the hotel restaurant where you can get a chicken schnitzel that would make Gordon Ramsey proud.
We stopped the dinner mid way to make some presentations for the winners of the day, all in all I felt the weekend was a big success. Thanks to all that helped me out, I appreciate it.
Monday morning we had breakfast and packed up and was on the road by 10am, home at 2pm. The run home was a lonely one as I had a tired family on board catching up on some zzzz’s.
Till next year – Jason
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