Final 40th celebration!

The 40th birthday celebrations have been a long road (pun intended). From shooting in Gleneagles, shoot/support with Alan, , family weekend at centreparcs, the BMW offroad skills course and now last weekend I got to spend the 40th birthday vouchers from my mates - a morning at castle combe racing school! After some instruction in a ford focus we got let loose in a single seater formula ford. Castle combe is 1.85 miles long and bumpy. Overall a good circuit. Comments from the instructor assessment were - "a great drive, very good lines. remember - slow in and fast out. brake early @ quarry. Very good in all other braking zones". Seems being a biker helps hook up turn-in, apex and exit of corners. Obviously has never seen me on public roads! Seems i was trying to be fast in and fast out! Might try this single seater lark again. Top day out.

Considerate car thieves?

In the borders of scotland, a quiet rural community, a spate of car thefts have taken place. Why write about this? Well the theives break-in, take keys, drive away, come back, break in again, replace keys and leave the car outside house before anyones noticed! Full story here.

Sounds to me like "Yoofs" who can't afford insurance, want to kill the boredem, and fancy a wee joy ride!

Part of me is concerned by the breaking in and stealing but you have to admit there is a bit of "style" about returning the property before the theft has been noticed. Reminds you of those ealing studio black and white films where the bad guys are viewed as the "loveable rogues". Ah - thieving the "old way"

Ferry across the solent

Spent the day on the Isle of Wight today. 0930hrs ferry out and then we managed to get on the 1730hrs back. This shot taken as we leave Fishbourne, IOW for Portsmouth on a lovely spring day.

Disco Dancer has landed

We traded in the X5 for a new Land Rover Discovery. Before we get comments - all new land rovers have a compulsory ClimateCase package so all C02 has been offset for first 45K miles and the entire manufacturing process.

All the boys like the various gadgets and keeps us quiet on long journeys. Landie also lets us off-road when we shoot and is very handy in the green lanes around the house. It's also great having 7 seats as we don't need two cars to ferry visitors around over the weekends. Lets hope ownership over the next few years is without incident!

Just for grins

One from the back catalogue. Had the pleasure of being invited as a guest of Nissan BTCC team during there winning years and had the opportunity to watch the race from the pit garage. During the mayhem of the race calm descended as everyone watched the monitors and in popped the pit crew. Obviously this guy was having a case of the grins!!