13:55 - Aug. 04, 2003
my new vocation
Friday was bad. But Saturday fair rocked my socks off! We drove up to Loughborough on Friday night (took 4 hours due to the gig at Knebworth), checked into our little B&B and played a few games of pool before bed. Then it was up bright and early on Saturday to head over to the racing track. The weather was glorious - clear blue skies and very warm sunshine. After a briefing, we were off! First we were driven around the track a few times to familiarise us with the course and to learn when we should brake, turn etc. Then 4 laps in an E-type Jaguar! I'd never known much about them before, beyond the fact that they looked nice, but oh my god. This car was a dream to drive - fast and handled beautifully! The 4 laps were over too fast, but then it was time for the Mini. :o)
I set off, and the instructor, to my absolute delight, asked "Have you done circuit racing before? You're very good!" and I proceded to score 93% on that little exercise. After that, I was a passenger in a Cooper S with a professional racer. I have never been so exhilerated! We sped round at over 110mph, taking the corners so fast I thought we were sure to hit the cones. I reluctantly got out after 4 laps of that, and then tried my hand at driving a coach! It wasn't too bad, but quite slow and not half as much fun as the cars. But we finished the session off racing a Mini around an autotest circuit, though obstacles, under the smallest tunnel you can imagine and back around to the start. When we got there, the top speed of the day was 58 seconds. My speed was fairly respectable 1 minute. (yeah i'm showing off, so what? there's not too much i'm this good at!) Then they let C have a go, and he did it in 53 seconds.
Yeah, it was fun. We took heaps of photos, and got some of them developed while we had lunch afterwards.
My Dad is not doing so great. The blood clots in his legs got worse last week, and he was taken into hospital to have his blood thinned. That's not worked so well so now he's having a procedure to find out where they are, and possibly an operation to have them removed. But this is all happening in a hospital further away from where he and Mum live, so I might go home soon to help out with things. Being so far away just makes me feel useless. Of course, both he and Mum are still being excessively upbeat about the whole thing, which doesn't convince me. It was all a bit too much for me to handle on Friday, and I ended up in tears at work. You know how in those kind of situations, some people are just useless and some people seem to know exactly what to say and how to handle you? Well there's one bloke who works here who was just so sweet to me. He took me into his office, told me about both his parents having cancer, one after the other, and let me just sound off and use his office to compose myself (conversely, that horrid boss i've mentioned before came in at one point, and seeing my red face said "wot, are you in trouble again?" Yeah, that's how compassionate that fucker is). But the sweet man outweighed that... I like him. He smiles as he talks.
