Anarchy In August!

Last year, August was... "eventful" let's just say, with non-stop events on every day of the month.

On the lead up to August, I thought that August this year would be slightly less hectic, but come the end of July, I appeared to be wrong...very wrong. So wrong in fact that half-way through the month, I've barely felt like I've had a second to myself - or to compose/process my thoughts - it's just been flat-out event after event after event!

Tuesday 1st August, 2023

On Tuesday, myself and a friend headed to Kent - on the way there, I decided to take a little detour and pass by my old school - having a pretty packed schedule ahead, we had no time to park up and say hello, it was just to see the building and relive good memories after not attending/visiting in 6 years (even now, I still cannot believe it's been that long...) The Kent trip was short but sweet and enjoyable. The 1st August also marked 1 Month of me working at Tesco.

Wednesday 2nd August, 2023

That night, I stayed in Essex before returning to Surrey the following day to see another mate for the day. At the end of the day, I returned to Essex. I won't say what happened in Surrey, but it's not what you're expecting - and not what I was expecting on starting July.

That evening myself and my friends had Weatherspoons in Woking - and I tried the BBQ Chicken melt - Chicken draped in BBQ Sauce - a change from my usual of Mixed Grill. On Wednesday night I missed DML @ Charlotte - 3 turned up, 0 raced - Despite not being around for the race, nobody (on track) scored any points either - so it was like I hadn't even missed it at all!

On Thursday I missed Evolution Sim Racing's Ferrari league at a VERY long variant of VIRginia International Raceway. It was a bit upsetting - as it sounded chaotic. I had been on iRacing a while, and usually seeing friends (on the mainland) is a slightly rarer occurrence.

Thursday 3rd August, 2023 Thursday was absolutely one to forget as I was incredibly unwell and spent most of the day on the sofa.

On iRacing, it was the "Race For More Le Mans 2.4hr" race - a charity for MS (Multiple Sclerosis).

In 2021, the (charity) race was Mazda MX5's VS GT4's at Charlotte Motor Speedway (Roval) - I raced in the McLaren.

In 2022, the race was held at Road Atlanta, and was Mazdas (once again) and GTE's - I started well before getting involved in an accident.

Come 2023, the race went to Le Mans - pitching GTP's (Cadillac) against Toyota GR86's and GT1's. I was unavailable to race - but always look forward to the end.

Friday 4th August, 2023

Another day, another town - on this day, I went to a relative of a friend's house, who has an incredibly cute Frenchie. Out of respect for their privacy, I won't say where, but we sat in the gorgeous sun/garden for a bit before Britain did it's usual thing of threatening clouds and heavy rain.

After a slight detour on the way home, I eventually got on the 10pm Ferry home.

Due to my busy schedule, I completely missed the fact that it was yet another anniversary since the devastating and deadly explosion in Beirut which rocked the port city to the core back in 2020.

3 years on and it feels like we are no closer to answers - and nothing has been done to prevent another tragedy like the events of 4th August, 2020 happening again.

Saturday 5th - Monday 7th August, 2023

After a very eventful week on the mainland, it was straight back to work.

I won't lie, for the most part, I really enjoy work - every day offers something different - even if I'm doing the same tasks - and, I'll admit, time absolutely FLIES at Tesco - not sure if it's the long tasks or that I'm enjoying it - but time flies, I enjoy what I'm doing and I'm paid for it - it's a triple win.

There was no rest for me, as that evening, after work, mum's friend wanted to visit me - that night we had an incredibly in-depth chat about ChatGPT, Google Translate, iRacing, my life and ambitions - it was the first time I've been able to just fully let my heart and passion out - she's a great conversationalist - and a great listener - I've really got to organise something with her again!

On Sunday, I was supposed to go canoeing in my local swimming pool, but it had finished up for summer - later in the week/month we'd have a discussion about me canoeing on the Solent with the Isle Of Wight Canoe Club.

Monday

Which brings us to now, 22:32 on Monday Evening.

Tonight was a bust - I was just heading into Turn 1 on Lap 1 for FRL at Laguna Seca when I get a call on messenger - my screen goes black, then iRacing is forced into windowed mode, when the screen comes back on, I'm hurtling towards a field of cars turning for a nice, calm slow turn one - WOOSH, I go through the middle of them, missing everyone - but my race is done. After a minute of towing, I'm shown a good 10 + minutes of repairs. From tied to second in the championship to 4th... With just two races and 80 points to play for - damage limitation will absolutely be the name of the game.

Tomorrow I'm out for my friend's birthday - and will likely be out for the week - missing my second FalkenTyre Sportscar Challenge race of the week (I've missed Road America and I'm looking at missing Willow Springs - before the series heads to VIR to end FSCS's USA-Triple Header (Road America, VIR, Willow Springs) before finishing the season at Aragon and Suzuka.

Outside of iRacing? The month doesn't look like it's getting any less busy with movies to watch and friends to see!