Le Mans 24 Hour Rollers 2012

So I just got back from our annual London Wheelers team trip to the Le Mans 24Rollers event.
I've done it 4 times now, 3 running our own team, and it was mostly excellent!

Every year I go to the event and think of something that could be done better next year. Last year, after a long train journey and a horrible walk to get to the campsite with several heavy bags, I saw some friends roll up on motorbikes and in cars and thought "I could have done that" so this year I did!

I wanted to really look after the team this year, as some were travelling from across the Atlantic ocean and others hadn't been before, so I bought enough tent space for everyone. This consisted of a gigantic tent that was sold as a 6-person tent but could probably fit an entire battalion of troops in it. The best tent on the whole campsite though, was my VW Camper Van shaped tent. It was very popular with hundreds of people stopping to take photos of it. At night while trying to sleep I kept thinking a thunderstorm was about to start from all the flash photography, and people were using it as a landmark for describing how to get to places!

To transport all this stuff there, I spent some money getting my old BMW 528i back on the road. It has a huge boot and, apart from the problems with fuel consumption and steering that both still need looking at after the MOT, it was a great motorway cruiser.

Back at the track, the team got on really well and it was lovely to have everyone there with smiles on their faces. The only downside was that although we were sharing our pit lane with several other London teams consisting of a lot of our friends, we arrived at the pit lane a little later than everyone else and they had left no space for us at all, filling it with double mattresses and a baby change area. It made the pit lane useless to us and we mostly found ourselves sitting by the trackside instead of with friends. This is reflected in the photos which either all show the other teams or our team but never together.

Next year we'll turn up early and set up a Hard Rock Cafe in the pit lane. And maybe fit a toll booth for anyone who wants to pass.

Holy Calamazoo!

I haven't written anything here for ages.

That's because I couldn't be bothered, but while having a burrito at Benito's Hat this afternoon one of my colleagues told me he has a blog, and because we were talking about it I decided to write another post.
Holy Calamazoo!

So what's happened since the last post? I can't remember when it was, so I'll mention a few trips...

Le Mans 24h Skating race. That rocked. T-shirt fail by Nike but we are all up for going again next year.
Bunk Barn weekend. Also rocked. Cheap as chips too :)
Paris Birthday weekend. I am at a loss for words on that one. Whoa! 50 people showed up in Paris and another 40 in London. Amazing :)

What else?
My employer wants me to be featured in the social club newsletter. W00t!

Oh yeah, Boris bikes. They rock too. Not as good as Ve'lib but close enough. £45 a year gets me unlimited access, free for the first half hour of usage. One or two teething problems but I've been riding to work on them, and back :)

The only thing is, everyone beeps their horn at me. The gearing on them is terrible so they can't go very fast, so taxis and buses beep loudly. The bus this morning was the worst so far. I had to stop the bike in front of him at the ring of steel and let him beep his horn for a bit longer before carrying on. I forgot the number plate, else I'd have reported him. In Paris the buses have a bell so they can politely remind you there is a bus behind you. This guy pulled away from his bus stop into the next lane, I proceeded at my regular slow speed (as fast as I can make the bike go) but the bus realised he shoudl be in the bus lane and started to close in on me. The front of my bike was level with the front of the bus when he started beeping me. He really wanted to crush me.

Oh well, I kind of enjoy holding buses up. Feels like revenge for when I'm driving a car and they hold me up at 20mph :)

Wow long time

So I haven't posted here for a long time, probably a month.

Why am I posting now? Well I was commenting on my friend's blog and thought I'd comment on my own.

So what's happened lately? I guess most recently was my big karting crash. Driver error of course, but I came off the track in a big way and I'm in lots of pain! Oh well...

I'm going to Barcelona this weekend, volcanic ash permitting, and I've started ordering components for my prosthetic sound system, which I have yet to name.

What else is new? Oh yeah Le Mans t-shirt nightmares.

I can't think of anything else right now. Maybe Monday morning isn't the best time to post :s