With a warbled coo-coo the local Pigeons fly over head on another balmy night, their wings whistling as they work overtime to keep their fat overfed bodies aloft. Today was 36 degs C. One of the hottest days for many years, in fact it has never been over 37 since 1911 or something like that anyway. You can quote me on that, just not to anyone that knows anything about British history & the weather....
Our race meeting at Spa went quite well. The Black Lola T70 spyder had peculiar handling troubles that gave us the run around all weekend, this was offset by the other 2 cars we took. The White Lola (ex Denny Hulme )that I had done the engine for won its class & came 4th overall. The Chevron B8 that I had redesigned the mountings & shrouds for the oil cooler & radiator to improve cooling in the long distance races & also replaced most of the fuel system including new fuel tank with revised fuel pick up points won its class & came 3rd overall. So we were all feeling pretty chuffed by that.
We ended up travelling in a 5series BMW, which was far more civilised that the van-having said that the Merc van is a special order 5 cylinder Turbo diesel with 160 bhp....it drives incredibly well & handles like a mini cooper....just a double decker version! We ended up spending an extra 4 hours travelling because of traffic -that was before we even got to London! The ferry across the channel was very noisey with 10 bus loads of kids running around & we managed to find a quiet corner with 3 old dears in training for the WHINE-ter olympics....Not a pleasant trip. By the time we got to the circuit we were 7 hours later than we intended....but the Muscles from Brussels had the trailer unit unloaded & the awning up! He'd come down with "Camo"....short for camoflage because of his fixation with dialogue from the film "Good Morning Vietnam" & any other Vietnam movie...he's not into war, camoflage, army stuff or violence...he can just recite entire scenes fron vietnam movies, with "Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels" thrown in to keep us interested. "Muscles" isn't actually from Brussels....Stafford doesn't rhyme with Muscles. It was very late by the time we were all set up- I was so hungry I'd stopped eating my gourmet jelly beans flavour by flavour, savouring each fruity taste....I was downing them by the handfull!! We all worked pretty hard for the 4 days we were at the track, heading back to our Hotel at about 8 or 9 pm for a quick shower & then out for a lovely dinner...the lovely dinners just never happened. Our Hotel - the "International" in Mamedy was tired. The only thing that saved it was that we were more tired & didn't care. Breakfast consisted of coffee, a bread roll, jam & all the flies you could eat. It was good coffee though. I shared a room with Steve who is 100% cockney & very funny,the shower was a cupboard in the corner of the room with an excellent view of the main street just for the exhibitionist in you..... Our drivers Big Chris, Little Chris & Paul took us out for what should've been up market, quality gourmet meals....The first night everyone hated the steaks & looked at my HUGE plate of pasta with vegetables longingly. The second night the wine was worse than most of the cleaning fluids we'd brought with us for the cars. The 3rd night Big Chris got into an argument with the staff at the Chinese about the Maggi soy sauce not actually being soy sauce....Chinese women barking their defencein French/Flemish makes for a peculiar scenario to get your head around...the guys all ate very well though......I had to sit through 3 courses of meaty stuff waiting for mine. After the unsatisfactory meals & hard days work we all felt like something more...Mamedy has alot of bars & cafes..they're either closed or devoid of patrons. We did find one place that was hip(ish) , noisey & buzzing. I did enjoy the local speciality -cherry beer. The first night was a quick, quiet & civilised drink. The second night we went without the drivers. It was just me, 3 homophobes & a truck driver with BIG muscles, tatoos, red spikey hair, designer ripped jeans & a penchant for adjusting the contents of his boxers...The bar had changed slightly from the night before, the young, studenty crowd had been swapped for mid 40's, leather wearing, sunburnt & muscley-truck-driver hungry gay men! It was fantastic! I had a great time watching everyone! I left at about 1am & the others stayed on till 3...I missed a mini Mamedy ethnic war on the dance floor. Bottles flew & faces were smashed. Chairs were thrown & the techno beats pulsed on. The guys took the oppertunity to order a fresh round seeing as the bar was empty. I slept. The next night, for some reason,I stayed till 4 with the others. I think I secretely wanted to see my first bar brawl,or it may have been the Belgian "hens" night & "muscles" having a strip duel with the stripper that came in for the hens...then there was his dancing with some Belgian hair dresser. Her only word of english was " Strip?" I think if I hadn't said " right I'm off!" the lads would still be there, staring at Muscles dancing with a girl of 20 with her legs wrapped 'round his hips.... Mind you we were distracted every 10 minutes or so as we checked if the elderly couple in the corner had passed out from the hour & a half of serious snogging- that is to say "face sucking".....possibly they were swapping dentures & it had nothing to do with kissing at all.
Our trip home was uneventfull for me. I slept from Spa to Calais, didn't even notice the change from Belgium to France. I slept on the ferry. I slept on the British motorway ( I was in a car at the time ) And I awoke to Steve shouting at Gary not to kill us as he did 140mph chasing Jon (the driver of the white Lola ) who had just passed us in his supercharged Range Rover like we were leaning on the armco posing for a photo spread for gay trucker monthly....maybe we were?.....or did I dream that?
This weekend I'm off to Knockhill in Scotland with Big Chris & his Mustang. No body wants to go because of the weather. I lost my lovely Ground Effect rain coat in Italy so have just bought a cheapie today ...just in case...
The local fields are being harvested. There is cut hay laying in rows, stacked in bales or rolled into big cylinders & left randomly around paddocks. The Raspberry bushes line the lanes as I brush past at high speed in the Merc van the radio being scanned for any sign of quality music...I went from enjoying The Jam 'a town called mallice' ( from the film "Billy Elliot" for those of you who don't know it...) to Wham! 'wild boys' ....to yet another Billy Joel song on BBC radio 2 as they single handedly support his retirement
..............oh the horrorrrrrrrrrrr!
Please all of you keep warm if need be, chill out if required, hang, stand, sit or just "be" around.
And DO listen to some good music.
Love ,regards, kisses, hugs, pinched bums, squeezed shoulders, thrown beer bottles where required.
Timotei
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