The FIA have decided to ban the BAR Honda from Formula One for two races commencing this weekend. I’ve read the courtroom minutes and the evidence put up on the FIA and BAR websites and none of it points to BAR deliberately cheating. How the FIA came to this conclusion is beyond me. This, in a climate where Ferrari are allowed to get away with testing and developing their car outside of the testing regulations agreed by the other nine teams, is ridiculous.
I now hope that the nine manufacturers split to create their own racing organisation rather than sign a new Concorde Agreement (defining the rules and organisation of F1). I love F1 but the political situation has got to the stage where it is ruining the spectacle of the sport. As a result of my favourite team not competing this weekend, I don’t actually see the point in watching the race!
Formula One 0
The Roller Coaster of life that was April 0
So April has come to an end and May has started. What an up and down month it has been. Thought I’d let you in on some of the things that have been going on.
Firstly, I was in Whistler at the start of the month in order to achieve something that I never imagined I would end up doing and get my ski instructor qualifications. As a result of that I’m now a qualified skiing instructor! This feels awesome and embarking on these qualifications has meant much more careful analysis and improvement of my skiing technique. There’s lots still to improve but this has opened my eyes to that (although unlike Neil I didn’t think I was world class beforehand!).
I didn’t feel well for the last couple of days when I was in Canada and found when I got back that I’d got Chicken Pox. I wish to apologise to those that I infected on the flight home – Sorry but I didn’t know! This meant 2 weeks of solitary confinement at home; not fun after 2 weeks in the mountains! Anyway, fortunately I had a lot of support from Dave and Julie during this time, which was much appreciated!
No sooner had I recovered and was ready to get back to work than I heard some sad news from one of my friends over that reminded me of how precious our lives are. I’ve learned in recent years that you’ve got to enjoy life while you can and my friend’s strength in adversity when I spoke to him was something that was another prime example of the sort of attitude with which to live.
Returning to work was actually welcome because finally I was able to ask my employers at Nationwide something I’d been lining up when in Canada. Having met with strong backing from my boss and friend, Dave, I was delighted to hear that I would be allowed to spend the winter away from the office, and instead spend it in Canada working as a ski instructor. However, when this was approved, it turned out to be the very day that the quota of working holiday visas for non-students for 2005/2006 ran out. Therefore, after mentally preparing myself for a winter of fun in the snow, I was brought back down to earth with a bump. Therefore I’m now planning extensive skiing holidays this winter in preparation for a 2006/2007 season in the snow.
The final drop of the rollercoaster was at the weekend when I caught up with Steve, Lia and Grace in London. Having been fighting a running battle with the British Government about Lia’s residency visa, and despite the situation being a complete farce and an embarrassment to those of us who on the whole feel proud to be British, Steve and Lia have given in and decided to leave the country. They are moving back to Munich on Saturday. Naturally, we’re all devastated that we will no longer be able to catch up anywhere near as easily and it really struck me on Monday when leaving their soon-to-be-vacated London flat what this means to me. It will be much more difficult to spend time with three of my favourite people, not least of which being Grace, who is growing up frighteningly quickly and is becoming a beautiful, intelligent, lively and exhausting little girl! I hope that at some point in the future, the ridiculous visa situation can be resolved in order that the family can enjoy sharing as many experiences as we have done in the last couple of years here in the UK.
Today (ok, we’re in May now) was General Election day and that has proven to be the catalyst for my feelings about Steve, Lia and Grace moving abroad. Although I’m the furthest from a strongly politically vocal person that you could imagine, but I have to have a bit of a rant at this point. I never realised that a political party (Labour) demonstrating such a complete lack of common sense (even after prompting through 4 MPs and ignorance by the Prime Minister) could have such a direct impact on my family. As such, any respect I had for the current government is now at an all time low. I sympathise with those who will today have voted for opposition parties only for Labour to inevitably win and cause social damage to more unsuspecting and undeserving victims.
Having now put April behind me, I’m going to concentrate on the positives of life. Good luck to Steve, Lia and Grace for their move and new adventure starting this coming weekend. Watch this space because you never know what’s going to happen next…
Afan Exhaustion 0
Went to Afan for some extreme Welsh biking in the sunshine for once on Saturday. It was agreed with Nick and Liz that I would arrive early to get in an extra lap without them. By the end of the day, having done three climbs on the Whites Level trail, one descent on the Whites and two on the Skyline, I realised that I was absolutely exhausted.
Fortunately Mum came up trumps in that she was staying over at my place in preparation for visiting Steve, Lia and Grace the next day and she offered to cook dinner for the three of us. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to arrive home at 10.15pm with a decent meal ready to eat on the table waiting for us! What a superstar that woman is!
The aftermath of what turned out to be 45km spent on Welsh mountain trails (mainly uphill it seemed) was that I felt tired all weekend, managing to fall asleep on Steve’s wooden table at lunch on Sunday and then sleeping for another 2 hours in the afternoon and again on Monday. Needless to say, no running training happened until Tuesday! I think I am just about recovered now though!
For those trails in the sun, and the looks on Nick and Lizs’ faces after hitting the Skyline descent for the first time; all the tiredness was worth it!
