Blokes and Chick's Weekend

ED's BLOKEY WEEKEND - Donnington Motobike Grand Prix

I finished work and picked up my hire car on Friday afternoon.  I jumped on the M62 and then joined the M1 South to London.  These two motorways are some of the busiest motorways in the world.  Surprisingly, during peak hour I was down in Donnington (near Nottingham) within an hour and 40mins.  I was very surprised that there was so little traffic.  I guess I just got lucky.  When I arrived at the track, waiting in line with other cars to enter the campground with my window down I could hear the constant buzzing noises of the bikes going around the track.  They start practising Friday morning and finish the last race at 3pm Sunday avo.  I was quite surprised to hear the bikes going around as it was quite late at night.  They run the event well into the evening due to the very long nights they have here in the UK in summertime.  Within seconds of hearing the bikes, I instantly got excited and couldn't wait till the next day to see the Australians on the track.  I set my tent up next to an amusement park and rides which they have just outside the track for the event.  There were 1000's of tents and parties went on until early hours of the morning.  Although me being quite the party pooper, I was in bed by 10pm.  I woke up quite early on Sat and headed to the track.  England didn't disappoint with the weather and gave it's usual consistant shit weather of extreme wind and rain .... all day.  Within one minute of getting to the track, I saw 4 massive stacks in the 250CC class.  If you go to our photos you will see a guy holding his shoulder, this is one of the poor fellows who broke his collar bone within a minute of me being there.  Quite often after falling off, within 15seconds the guys had stood up, picked up their bikes and revving the motor and speeding off.  It wasn't long until Casey Stoner was on the track with his Ducati bike.  It was by far the loudest bike out there and as it proved, it was also the most powerful.  The bike was like a fire breathing dragon and somehow he just had to control it going around the track.  Even when going in a straight line and changing gears, the bike would shake.  Valentino Rossey looked quite smooth around the track and also Danny Pedrosa on his Honda Repsol looked quite smooth.  Towards the end of the final qualifying time two other Aussies riding put in extremely good times and Aussie looked like 1,2,3 on the front row grid.  But Rossey in his fine style, within the last couple of laps, ended up one place behind Casey Stoner.  Before I knew it Sunday came around and it was race day.  They had a quick practise session in the morning, and Casey Stoner did a few laps and then disappeared and soon returned on his second motorcycle to do some final adjustments and a few laps.  The first race was a 125CC, followed by 250CC and then at 3pm the MotoGP race.  Casey Stoner started on pole position and lead from start to finish.  He increased his lead out to 5 seconds ahead of Rossey.  The English rider crashed out on the first corner which seemed to be a great disappointment to all the English fans.  On every lap I screamed out and cheered as he went round in the lead.  Towards the end of the race I was biting my nails hoping that he would stay on the bike.  As he crossed the finish line, I jumped the first fence, crawled under the second and ran onto the track to wave the Aussie flag in support as he rode past.  I screamed out his name, he raised his visor flap and nodded to say Hi.  I ran into a few Aussies during the weekend and they were all thrilled to see him win.  I have put up some videos of the races throughout the weekend you can watch.  In video number 5 you will hear me screaming my support as he takes the lead on the first lap of the main race.  Obviously, you don't hear any poms screaming out because they are coming last!!  It was by far the best sporting event that i have ever been to.  I would actually rate it higher than when I qualified for the Olympics 12 yrs ago.   I came back feeling like I'd just been on another planet.  Needless to say, i am already sussing out the next Grand Prix event in Europe that I can go to.  It's looking like we might be doing a trip to Czech Republic in August. 

DEBBIE's CHICKS WEEKEND - Wales

While Ed was away in Donnington watching noisy bikes go round and round in circles (yawn!), I decided that it was a perfect excuse for a girly weekend away with Tania.  We decided to head over to Wales for a few days which we have had on our agenda for months now.  We have an old friend, Kieran, from our London days who lives there now, and who I haven't seen for nearly 10yrs.  Kieran lives on the South Coast in a town called Cardigan.  Since we were going there we also decided to combine it with a visit to my relatives who live near Swansea.  So on Friday night after work we jumped in the car and headed off.  The roads were very good the whole way and we didn't get stuck in any traffic at all.  We headed west from Halifax and then once we got into Wales we followed the roads diagonally down towards the coast.  We only had one short stop and it took us 5hrs to get there, however the scenery through Wales was lovely and the time passed fairly quickly.  It was fabulous to see Kieran and his friends and flatmates made us feel very welcome.  Saturday morning we went for a wander down to the town of Cardigan for a look around and then Kieran had to go to a golf event in the afternoon.  Tania and I went to the local beach, Poppit Bay, which was a few km's away.  The tide was a long way out but it was a lovely beach, not all touristy and packed with deckchairs like other European ones.  There was some really nice hills on either side with lots of hiking trails so we took ourselves up one of them and walked for an hour or so.  Because we were up on the hills we had some great views looking back down on the beach and surrounding areas.  Unfortunately we had drizzle most of the time but it was still lovely.  Kieran organised a bbq on the Sat night and his mates came over and they were a great bunch of people and we had a really enjoyable evening with them. 
Sunday morning we set off about 10:00am towards Swansea area to a little town called Ystalyfera which borders the Brecon Beacon National Park.  This is the place where my fathers family come from and we still have quite a few rellies there.  It took us 2hours and we arrived at midday.  I was visiting my Great Aunty Lotti who turned the grand age of 90yrs young last year and is still hasn't changed abit, and my 2nd-Cousin Mercedes.  We were only going to stay for a short time due to our long journey home, but we got chatting and had so much to tell each other and lots of things to reminisce about that before we knew it 3 hours had passed.  I could have spent days there chatting to them both but unfortunately we had to leave to get back to Halifax.  Mercedes took us to a Church graveyard where another one of my Great Aunty's is buried, I was keen to go and pay my respects as I have been visiting her ever since I have been going to Wales and this is the first time i have been back since she died.  After visiting her, we then drove past the house where my father lived when he was a young boy.  It was very interesting to think this was where he grew up and played and while I was taking photos of the house and streets for dad, the owner came out and kindly invited us inside to see what the house looks like now.  It was roughly 4pm by the time we set off home and we were both tired but decided to take the long way home and go through the Brecon Beacons to see the views rather than along the motorway.  I am already planning my next visit down there to visit the family again before we leave in October.  Trying to fit this in with Czechoslovakia trips, London weekends, Yorkshire sightseeing etc is going to be interesting!  I can't believe how quickly the time is flying and I think October will be here before we know it.