Wiscombe - April 2010

It was the first Wiscombe Hill Climb of the series this weekend, we worked out that I have been going for 7 years now! Looking back through the photos of previous years I worked out I have been to at least 14 individual meeting there, and I still love it!

These days has the added bonus of watching my friend Steve whizz up the hill, I believe he came 2nd in his class, which is not a bad start to the season. Here are a few pictures of his car, slightly modified from last year, unfortunately a shower of rain put the dampers (literally) on the time of his second run up the hill.

Mostly people kept it on the track this weekend, but a few people found the hairpin a little slippery in the wet!

New Fifty Pence

Finally the new 50p! Just the 10p and £1 coins to go now.

Congratulations to Steve for getting into the Guardian work suppliment this weekend, online version available here http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/nov/08/working-life-used-car-salesman

Wiscombe Hill Climb 2008

The weekend before last was the National Hillclimb championships at Wiscombe Park, Cars of various shapes and sizes take in turns to hurtle up a narrow track tucked away in a (previously) quiet valley. This East Devon course is considered by many to be the hardest on the calendar.






My friend Steve Clarke was one of the mad people to whizz up the hill, more can be read about that on Sarahs blog (http://tworedboots.co.uk/blog/2008-07-27/priorities-for-the-day-updated/). I am pleased to say he was fastest in his class, and set his best ever time for that particular hill!





The weather was fantastic, and the pint of Otter Ale (http://www.otterbrewery.com/) and Ice cream were very welcome in the heat, goodness knows how hot Steve was in his fireproof overalls.





I was also thinking how many of the July meetings I had been to over the years, here all all the blog entries I can find from over the years...
2007 http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/neil/read.php?25154
2006 http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/neil/read.php?18199
2005 http://www.wibsite.com/wiblog/neil/read.php?11203

Ok, off to play poker now, wish me luck!

Ants, Cars and Shoes

It is flying ant day today, the signal that we are in the midst of summer – not that it has felt like it the last few weeks. This is the day that the ants emerge from the ground to get swiftly eaten by flocks of seagulls. Actually they do it for a good reason, and there is in fact a Wikipedia page all about it! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ant_day).



There are a few cars around Exeter that I always think are cool (certainly not the noisy Saab that I had to help push start on the Iron bridge last night), I do love this Beetle that is always parked on Exe street.



Just up from it is a Matiz (same model as mine) with some rather hippyish stickers on it. Perhaps I could get some big enough to cover the dents in mine?

Finally I forgot to mention the shoes.



This was sight that greeted us in the function room in the City Gate last night as we started our game of poker. Looks like Clarks were having a training session in the day, as there was a manual called “How to Fit shoes”. I flicked to the first page and it said “Before you can learn how to fit shoes you must learn how to put them on”. Real back to basics stuff!