Hi All,

OK, I am a bit of a gluton for driving long distances for no reason - seriously, I will happily do 400 miles roundtrip for an evening. One day I'll end up with a bent spine but until that happens I'm enjoying every contorting minute, especially with Volvo's fine adjustable seating.

My friend had a Volvo 440 and we did a weekend trip to Gibraltar (left Fri, back Mon). Enjoyed it so much I bought myself a T-5 this last summer and immediatly did a 2 week european tour. With winter depressing me to the max and the 2005 holiday quota approaching at work I am eager for more.

So, a few ideas for future trips / gatherings which I am keen on doing:

- Another Euro-trip, in convoy with other T-5 owners.
I'm not sure where we could end up, but there are a few possibilities:
  • The Med -> always a winner, sit on the beach, best make sure the aircon is working!
  • Sweden -> Fantastic country, I have already been to Stockholm a few times and it is indeed amazing.... Surely the cars deserve to return to their motherland at least once??
  • Anywhere else "close" to Calais -> Weekend-able, dependable and cheap providing we avoid toll roads.


- Central London Rally. How good would it be to get a picture of all our T-5s at night parked on Whitehall or Tower Bridge? Sunday nights are dead and we could take over the City.

- For a long term plan, I have a personal ambition to take/ship the car to the USA. As it is impossible to drive there (unless you fancy ice-scating across the Bering Strait during the 2 months it freezes over), there aren't any EU-plated cars in the US and we'd make quite a show. OrganiZe a meet with a US Volvo club and it'd be party central. Plus you'd get pulled over by US cops all the time going "Are thoze owta-state playtes on that vee-hick-le?" Priceless.

- Meet up with another Volvo owners club in the EU. Possible eastern-europe - cheap and friendly.

- Do some kind of humanitarian thing like a charity drive to the Balcans or Russia to deliver orphanage supplies (what else do you deliver for chairty?) ?!?

In between all of this, we could go to the pub every now and then.

Anyway, just a few ideas

debug!