A little update 3rd August 2006

As you are all aware, we have been especially slack in updating our blog of late. I’m sure a brief synopsis of our recent activity will garner your understanding in this matter.

We settled back into relative tedium after our trip to Belgium. As our trip to Belgium was by way of a birthday present for me, it seemed only fitting that I return the favour and organise an outing for Maria’s once yearly celebration of not yet being dead. Thus I booked two tickets to the Festival of Speed. The festival of speed is an extravaganza of fast cars, old and new, held on the estates of the Earl of March at Goodwood. What better birthday present could a girl ask for?

Getting to Goodwood from London was a 2-hour mission. The weather was quite drizzly and overcast, helping me to make a mistake of omission that was to come back to haunt me. You see, I couldn’t fit my Akubra into the pack when we left sunny Brisbane, and since we did most of our travel in the winter, I haven’t found myself needing one. We had decided to buy a hat for me on the way to Goodwood, but the inclement weather inspired complacency on my part. Being England, the weather changed its mind around lunchtime, burning the water from both the atmosphere and the racetrack, leading to excellent racing conditions, and a Fletch that passed through pink and red to an alarming shade of maroon. I at least had the smarts to wear a long sleeved, collared shirt. It was therefore only my face that bore the brunt of the sun’s vengeful wrath. I haven’t been burnt like that for over 10 years, I’m sure.

Now that I’ve got my moaning over, I can assure you that the pain was well worth it. There were some really fantastic cars at Goodwood. The theme this year was 100 years of Grand Prix, as the first was the French Grand Prix of 1906. Renault made their presence felt, bringing three 1906 Grand Prix cars, as well as the 2006 F1 car driven by Giancarlo Fiscicella (not sure if the spelling is even close). The 2006 F1 car was hooked up to a laptop and played ‘God Save the Queen’ and the ‘Marseilles’ in revs at regular intervals. I’m sure being in that tent probably lost me some of my future income, at least where mixing is concerned! (WHAT WAS THAT HONEY? STOP DITHERING AND GET ON WITH IT? WHAT? I’M NOT SHOUTING!)

Audi also had a big presence, with some 1930s Auto Unions sitting aggressively next to their rival Mercedes contemporaries. The usual gaggle of F1 and Indy cars from the past 40 years were there, as well as WRC cars of various groups and ages, and motorbikes. The 5th fastest time of the day was recorded by a Ford Transit van, one of the course vehicles, but apparently that’s fairly common. Lord March himself took a not quite leisurely drive up the hill in the new Bugatti super car, as well as a white knuckles ride on the back of a 2 seater Ducatti super bike. The F1 drivers had burnout and doughnut competitions in front of the main grandstand, and Jacky Stewart was characteristically blunt about the ergonomics of modern grand prix cars after he and Giancarlo swapped cars for a photographically opportunistic meander up the hill.

The best thing about Goodwood is how close you can get to the cars. It’s a lot like the Speed on the Tweed, only the cars cost more, and there are more women in expensive clothes sipping champagne. It’s like a cross between car racing and horse racing. Anyway, I’ll presume to talk for both of us when I say that it was a highlight of our English experience so far.

Since the Festival of Speed, we have been hard at work. We had a distinctly forgettable experience finding a new place to live. We were lead up the garden path on the first property we arranged to move into, and due a shortage of time, were forced to take a place that wasn’t available until a week after we moved out of our former residence. With the prospect of a week of outdoor living looming, we were therefore very grateful to Dominic and Samantha for providing us with refuge for our week in limbo (in Chelsea no less!). We have now moved however, and are very comfortable in our new place on the Isle of Dogs. The unit is in an excellent location, and our flatmates are of the most desirable kind; tidy, quiet and mostly absent.

So now is a time of planning and consolidation for the future. I’m hard at work applying for jobs, and am hoping for a positive response soon, as working in the shop does my head in, to use the local vernacular. Maria is also considering her options, as her thesis should be returned from marking soon, and the exciting world of patents administration has failed to keep her enthused. We are also planning on a short sojourn to Scotland in early September, before it gets too cold. Summer seems to have ended here though, with the maximum temperature being 35C on Sunday, and 25C on Monday. The sun is also setting noticeable earlier too now, with daylight only extending to about 8pm. Thank goodness I say, for London simply isn’t designed for heat, and the English seem to disdain deodorant almost as much as they disdain showers. Nothing is quite as fragrant as a trip on the tube in peak hour on a hot day. *Shudder* (Did I just indicate an action in the middle of my text? *Shudder* )

Speak again soon,

Fletch and Maria