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Well, it's come that time again, to fill you in on what I have been up to during the last month or so.
I’ve really been busy over the last 4 weeks. Flying from one airport to the other. And racing in some pretty tough races.
I guess I should take you from the start - so here goes. Around 6 weeks ago, I was at work pulling beers for the locals at the
Riverside Inn, when my boss said they were planning on doing a fund raiser.
The fund raiser was for the Red Cross, and they were organizing a big party at the pub, where the local radio station and Pimms Drinks would come out and do a live show. He also said that he and his wife, Tina, were going to be abseiling down a massive building to raise some money.
A few days later Tina come to me and asked if I could do the abseil in place of Mike. Only last year, Mike had massive triple bypass heart surgery, and she said his heart was playing up a little. I agreed straightaway, as I thought it would be great fun and something I had never done before.
We then went about raising some money, asking just about every person who entered the pub, to put in some money for the charity.
A few days before the abseil, I could see Tina was getting very nervous about it. She is afraid of heights, so it was a massive deal for her. I was asking Mike if he was sure he still wanted me to take his place, as I thought he may still want to do it. I could see he was eager to get to the top of the building just like me, but just kept saying that he was fine watching. Then, on the morning of the abseil, I rode my bike to the pub to meet up with Tina, when Mike arrived and told me he was doing it. He had gotten the ok from his doctor and was keen to have A go. He said he had rung the red cross and got a third spot for me to do the abseil, so it was all 3 of us having a go at it.
We got to the building and it was pretty high. Tina was getting more and more anxious and nervous. We suited up and rode the elevator to the top.
I suggested to Mike and Tina that they go down together, as there were 2 ropes. They climbed to the side of the building and then, with no fuss at all, they climbed over the edge and zoomed down the side of the building.
It was now my turn. I quickly tackled up and climbed off the side myself. I have to say, it was extremely easy, and in no time I was back to terrafirma.
All in all, the day was an unqualified success, and raised over 2 thousand pounds from all the young’s breweries.
 Thats me about to abseil down.
The following day it was a 4am start to head to Stansted airport to fly out to Japan. The flight was a little bit of mucking around. I flew from Stansted Airport, England, to Glasgow in Scotland. There I met up with my Diablo team, and then we flew on to Dubai. We then had a little wait in Dubai, and finally flew to Japan. We then all piled into a van for a 2 hour drive to the Suzuka race circuit.
When I arrived in the foyer of the hotel, I saw Damo standing there. He had landed with his team only a few hours earlier. I hadn’t seen Damo for about 6 weeks so it was good to see him again.
All of my team were tired and went off to bed. I was completely awake, and so was Damo. We saw a sign that said "Spa and Sauna" at the hotel, and decided to head there at 11.30pm
We played charades with the non English speaking Japanese attendant at the spa's entrance trying to work out the prices, and then went into the spa room. Damo and I walked in as you normally would, with shoes and all, and thought that we could take our shirt and shoes off in the locker room. We entered the room and had an mass of Japanese men screaming at us.
It's tradition there that you must remove your shoes and socks, and wash your feet before you enter the locker room. After much apologising on our part for our ignorance of local customs, we entered the spa, having first removed our shirts and donning our Billabong shorts, when once again we heard a mass of angry screaming Japanese men. One of them came up to us and told us, that at these spas, everyone must enter it naked! Apparently, that’s also part of their custom. So, Damo and I obliged, by stripping off our boardies and heading back to the spa in our birthday suits. The Spa area. No photo's were allowed.
It was extremely funny when Damo and I walked in, as we were the only westerners in the place. We had about 60 Japanese people staring at us as we entered, so after a couple of helicopters tricks to the onlookers, we waded in. To be honest, it wasn’t my thing at all, and we were only in there for about 10 minutes before we were evacuated out again. The Suzuka Circuit is a massive layout. It not only has the circuit but 6 hotels, Fun parks, Water parks, 3 resturants, Bowling alley, Tennis courts. Just about anything you could want is right there.
The next 4 days was all racing, and as you know we had a pretty good result. We finished up 6th in the SBK class and got some much needed points in the Championship.  Suzuka Map
It’s was then another marathon of long flights back to England with my team.Only 3 days Later and I was off again, this time with Amy joining me. The German Oschersleben 24 hour endurance race was coming up in a week and a half's time, and my parents were planning on coming over to watch it. Its was also the weekend of my 21st birthday, so they could kill 2 birds with one stone - watching Damo and I race, and be there with me to celebrate my 21st birthday, all on the same weekend.
Mum and Dad had planned to fly into Frankfurt airport, so I sorted out my flights to land there as well. Mum and Dad were due to arrive 1 hour earlier then me, and then the plan was to meet up, hire a van, and head to Damo’s house - a 6 hour drive from Frankfurt to Austria.
Amy and I walked out of immigration expecting to see Mum and Dad. I hadn’t seen them since February, so I couldn’t wait to see them again. We walked through the immigration doors and couldn’t see any sign of Mum and Dad. I thought it was a little strange, so I called them on the mobile. Mum answered the phone and I asked where they were. She said, "we are at Frankfurt airport." I still couldn’t see them and then I saw a sign. It said "Welcome to Frankfurt HAHN Airport"!!!!!
I realised that the flight Amy and I had come in on had landed at a different airport to the one they had flown in to. I went and asked the guy at the info desk how far it was from Frankfurt Hahn to Frankfurt Main airport, and he said about 150 kilometers! I quickly got onto Mum, but she had already discovered the same thing, and her and Dad were on their way. 2 hours later they had made it. It was great to see them again after so long. I quickly jumped into the front seat of the Rentavan and headed to Damo’s place in Austria, back the same way that Mum and Dad had already travelled to pick us up, so a 6 hour trip to Damo's turned out t O be a 10 hour trip for Mum and Dad - a big ask after a 30 hour flight!
The motorways are fantastic in Germany and Austria. I was comfortably sitting on 160kph and still getting passed by faster drivers. After 6 hours of driving through the beautiful mountain side of Austria, we arrived to Damian and Amy’s house.
 Damo in front of his flat in Austria
To be continued…….. |
