Dashing Towards December! (Pt. 1)

Good evening, I hope you are all well!

Before I begin, I'd like to apologise for not blogging in over a week - life got fast, and starting December, I WANTED/planned to do a blog a day - but I was just not home to upload it, but we're here now.

Instead, I'll upload two (plus the ones I planned) to catch everyone back up to date.

As a re-cap:

Saturday 1st Oct: First Week in October

Saturday 8th Oct: iRacing Petite Le Mans (Finished 2nd!)

Saturday 15th Oct: Nurburgring Endurance Championship Finale (Aston GT4)

Friday 21st Oct: W1/W5 On Mainland - Helping friend in Essex+

Thurs 27th Oct: W2/W5 On Mainland - Major Service (on my car)

Saturday 5th Oct: W3/W5 On Mainland - Fireworks Night/s (X2)

Friday 11th Nov: W4/W5 On Mainland - Race Of Remembrance (We are here) Sunday 20th Nov: W5/W5 On Mainland - Comicon (Winter) (We'll come to that)

(Previous blogs are available to read through)

The Race Of Remembrance finished at 3pm on Sunday - and after announcing the podium finishers and packing up our endless bags of things, we eventually left, the commentary box looking exactly as we found it - not a soul could tell a 12 hour race had just taken place.

We had a long journey home - so, on the way, we pulled into a travel-lodge and spent the night there, us both having a KFC before bed.

Had we continued on, we would have arrived at the ferry at about midnight, and arrived home at about 01:00am - it was much more preferable to be well rested, and fight the following day after a full-nights' sleep.

The drive home was incredibly interesting, and we had some incredibly deep conversations about A LOT including the fabrics that make up life itself.

14/11/2022

At this point, I'm about 18 days (over 2 weeks) behind, time's honestly escaped me, and I have no idea where it's gone, or where to find it.

So, as quickly as possible, here are my highlights of the second-half of November

16/11/2022

After an uneventful Tuesday, race-day Wednesday came along pretty quickly.

This week, the GT4 Challenge was at Road America, my lesser-favoured of the two Roads (Atlanta and America).

Once again, I was joined by my good friend Dominik, and it was very much a race of two halves - Dominik ALMOST had a Grand Chelem, winning the race from pole, whilst I battled for my life to stay in the Top 10.

I qualified 10th/21st.

After almost being murdered on the formation lap, I was on high alert and wasn't taking any risks.

Despite moving up to 9th due to P8 starting from the pits, I lost a further 3 positions before I even got to turn 3 - Two legitimately, and one out of fear (same driver who almost killed me on formation lap). I lost a further position the next turn.

Through The Kink, I found myself behind a driver who was having a few problems - his brake lights were blinking - this in turn slowing him down - and further in turn, slowing ME down.

The problem was, that he wasn't exactly "defending" - he just plonked his car in the middle of the circuit, and wherever I wanted to go, he was already there.

The BMW behind me also got caught up in our (mine & the beemer's) scuffle, but managed to dive down the inside at the next corner (Canada Corner).

By the end of the first lap, I was down in 13th, but Dominik played the absolute MASTER KABORT PLAN and got P2 to overtake him off the start-line, giving him (P2) a drive-through penalty, gifting P12 back to me. It was a long race.

Now, I must add, this was entirely accidental and Dominik thought that he was P2, so pulled behind THE ACTUAL P2 driver.

By the end of the 2nd lap, I was back where I started: P10.

This was after I overtook the Brakey BMW and an Aston who came to grief during a battle for 2nd. (Dominik was long gone in the lead)

My last position gained (that race) was ironically the same McLaren that almost killed me on the formation lap (and turn 3) - he found the wall at The Kink whilst in a bloody and brutal battle for 4th place.

Enter Dahoom Shah who had been closing the gap, slowly but surely on the laps prior to catching me...exactly at the moment the McLaren stopped to the left of the circuit at the fastest part of the track. We (McLaren, me and the Merc of Dahoom) went three wide, but Dahoom managed to get around my outside into the braking zone of Canada corner.

On the next lap, I noticed Dahoom wasn't getting away, and I also had an Aston on my tail - this was about to be a thrilling three laps to the finish!

Starting the penultimate lap, I had the slipstream - and blasted past, I now just needed to stay ahead for 28 more corners....and I did so, in an under-powered, under-steery McLaren, as a result, I fell a further -3 iRating away from my 1300 iRating goal - sitting at an uncomfortable 1285...onto the next!

17th - 20th November, 2022

Between the 17th - 20th November, I stayed over a friends house in Surrey - this was SLIGHTLY unusual as I don't usually stay overnight at their house, instead, I see them for the day, before heading home.

The reason for my stay? I was about to attend my first comicon/convention!

This wasn't THE London Comicon, but a Winter version - a few weeks after the official/summer one.

The 17th also marked a MONTH to the day that I started going to the mainland on consecutive weeks.

On the 17th (Oct), I left for Surrey, arriving at 2:30pm.

On this day, we walked the dogs and had a calm evening in. Artemis 1 also launched.

On the 18th, I had a haircut and we went shopping (mostly for clothes) so I'd look nice for London, and it added a few optional extras to my cupboard.

On the 19th, I headed off to Essex for the day to watch the Christmas Light Switch On and returned pretty late after a great/enjoyable (but cold!) night out - to find parking and be able to see the switch-on within 10 minutes of it starting was an absolute miracle!

My friend stayed at home as she had other commitments.

I returned home at about midnight.

On iRacing, the European Endurance Series (EES) headed to Le Mans for the 6hrs of Le Mans, but I was much prefering being with friends!

~

Eventually Sunday came and so did Comicon and we both had a GLORIOUS...1 hour sleep. After heading to bed at 3:55am, we had a power-nap until 4:55am, before we woke up and got ready to attack the day.

There were many headaches ahead, and I guess it was better to discuss them, then have a stressful day at our first Comicon.

Problem 1: Parking (or a lack thereof) & The ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone)

Solution 1: Park at Woking (nearest station that commutes to London), take the train

Problem 2: There weren't trains running from Woking.

Solution 2: Take a bus replacement service from Woking...

Problem 3: The bus replacement service didn't go to Clapham Junction (where we needed to swap trains)

Solution 3: Drive to the nearest station which DID go to Clapham Junction.

Problem 4: The car-park was closed for Bus Replacement Coaches

Solution 4: Park in the (or under the) multi-storey car-park just up the road.

Once here, things slowly started to go our way, we managed to find the right platform and get on the right train, before locating which platform Kensington Olympia was.

Once there, we crossed one road and voila, were there, being so early, the queue was pretty short, and I managed to have a look at some of the costumes people had come in, and I was amazed - if not, a little overwhelmed (everyone had a reason to be there, and I wasn't really into any franchises, or didn't watch much TV)

I don't quite know what I was expecting, but at first, it was pretty over-whelming with lots happening everywhere. Our first port of call was to pick up my friend's passes (she had a meet and greet passes) and find out when David Tenant would be doing his autograph and photograph sessions.

I'd say a good half of the day was spent walking - walking SOMEWHERE or to SOMETHING. After we had my friend's passes sorted, we began looking at the stalls - there was LITERALLY something for everyone.

I won't describe every step I took, but in short:

- we walked and walked and walked

- upstairs, downstairs, through the stairs, around the stairs and into the stairs.

- Few rest/air breaks

- Although I didn't have a pass, I was able to walk the route of the autograph session and get within a couple of meters of David Tennant.

(I know who he is, I've seen a handful of Doctor Who episodes, and saw his appearance on Lauren Tate - but I'm not a "Whovian" as some would say

- Finally found something I liked, a little Stitch with a guitar, and a little something for my brother.

- Saw my first real-life "full-masked" Furry - and despite what people online say, I, admittedly fell in love at first sight, and following the first sighting, the rest of the day was very much "find my girlfriend, the furry" - not following them, just trying to spot them in the crowd.

It was quite an interesting encounter - because I've seen "furries" on YouTube ample of times, but to see it in person (for the first time, and the only masked one there) was very much a "novelty". I suppose it's because I'm a soppy bastard and the character they played (or cos-played) as appealed to me - they acted as their furry looked - (and added bonus points as they had a lovely tail).

I'll admit, I did look up furry conventions afterwards, but didn't really know where to start on how "big" these were - furries being (I assume) much more commonplace/popular in America - where they originated from (if not Japan).

During a rest-break (whilst waiting for the second session to start) I saw something absolutely INCREDIBLE...a Ferrari 250 GTO...almost.

It was a BMW Z3 Replica, but a fine one at that - and one that hoovered up it's own article:

https://www.rcnmag.com/garage/a-rolling-stone

The exact car - stolen from Reddit

At the time, I was still absolutely blown away at what I thought was a LEGITIMATE 250 GTO SWB Berlinetta (had it been real, it would be only 1 of 176) - but we headed inside and continued our day.

After my friend had her photo taken, we pretty swiftly made an exit and returned to the train, and then the car, and then (after dropping my friend off) the Isle Of Wight.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for sticking with me!