Anarchy In August Continues!

Flying into the second week of August, time nor events either slowed down.

Monday, 7th August 2023

Monday was already a naturally busy day with work and then in the evening, my weekly FRL (Formula Racing League) race-night.

On this night in particular, it ended in tragedy as I was called just as I was heading into turn one at Laguna Seca - by sheer LUCK, I avoided all 6 of my fellow competitors.

Unfortunately though, with the speed I was carrying, I flew past turn one, and clouted the outside barrier at Turn 1 - first having to wait to be towed back to the pit-lane before having to serve 10 + minutes of repairs. The race only being an hour, I was out before I had even turned for turn 2.

Tuesday 8th August, 2023

Tuesday was my friend's birthday - so I decided to visit her along with a friend of ours.

Up until the drive to my birthday friend's house - we didn't know WHAT the plan was - but eventually we agreed on bowling and food. Bowling was an absolute blast - and surprisingly I won - even despite my pitiful hand-eye coordination - but we all had a thoroughly enjoyable time out.

We had a bit of a "split" plan for lunch - different people wanting to do different things - but eventually we got Nandos for my friend, and myself and my Birthday Friend ate at an all-you-can-eat buffet (Nines) after my other friend had eaten.

I'd say it was about 60% oriental/asian food and 40% American - from the top of my head, for starters I had cocktail sausages, prawn toast, chicken nuggets and spring rolls, (and possibly a sausage) then for my main course I had duck and pork belly (can't go wrong with that) - but didn't quite manage the ribs.

For desert(s), I had a little bit of brownie, a little connetto, and a small bowl of soft sweets. Yes. I know, nobody cares.

That evening, I drove my friend home (not the birthday girl), before heading back to my other friend's house overnight.

Wednesday 9th August, 2023

On Wednesday, we saw the relative of the birthday girl, before celebrating her daughter's birthday on the 10th August.

Thursday 10th August, 2023 For her daughter's birthday, my friend took her to softplay, whilst I dealt with "other matters" - but I eventually met up with them and bought her daughter a little birthday present.

On Thursday night, I realised I was nearing 123,456 miles in my car, so meticulously planned where I could pull over and take a picture on my drive home the following day.

On Thursday night, we finished the day with a Maccies. It was also supposed to be Round 1 of the FRL (Formula Racing League) GT4 VS LMP3 League - but it was postponed a week due to numbers - which was fine by me.

Sure, I did miss the Evolution Sim Racing Ferrari GT3 Challenge at Donington Park - but I was enjoying my time on the mainland and celebrating a mate's birthday(s) - so, I'd know where I'd much rather be!

Friday 11th August, 2023

By Friday, all the films I wanted to see had pretty much all been released:

Elemental (Disney): 7th July

Mission Impossible: 10th July Heartstopper (Netflix): 3rd August

Meg 2: 4th August

Red, White & Royal Blue (Amazon Prime): 11th August

Gran Turismo: 11th August

Which is...okay, although nothing beats a brand spanking new film straight out the box office!

It was just a shame my schedule said otherwise.

At 3:48pm on Friday 11th August, 2023, I hit 123456 miles in my car - a feat I've never completed - and will likely never complete again.

My first car, a Kia Venga, never made it to 100,000 miles before I sold her/she gave me too much trouble - and I doubt I'll buy a car at the exact right mileage to be able to do this again.

I'll admit - it was a bit of a faff - I had to drive to Basingstoke (easy enough), which got me in the ballpark (123400-ish) but then to find roads/side roads I could easily pull-over into was a bit more challenging - my Kia displayed the total mileage on the fly/whilst driving, but Timon (my Skoda) I have to turn the ignition off to see this - so, whilst working out routes, I had to factor in a little bit of lee-way in case I was either at the start of the mile or the end of the mile.

I can't remember how long it took - or how long I spent in Basingstoke - but I remember bumbling around Basingstoke/housing estates until I hit the magic number.

Now. From here, it should have been a simple, 1 hour drive back to Lymington and onto the ferry... After leaving at 4:25pm - at 6:10pm I was still stuck on the M3 - I still haven't a clue what happened, but it was absolute grid-lock for hours on end - I eventually called my dad to book a later ferry, because my ETA was getting more and more dire by the minute - 7:30pm, 7:45pm, 8:00pm... And the last ferry left at 8:15pm. Portsmouth is half-an-hour closer to (where I was) than Lymington - and after a long old drive, I eventually arrived at Portsmouth at about 7:30pm - meaning I would have absolutely missed the last ferry of the night at Lymington.

But yes, the traffic home was absolutely brutal, not a hint of movement from either lane for several minutes.

Saturday 12th - Monday 14th August, 2023

As soon as I got home, I pretty much fell straight asleep - I had work from 11:45am the following morning, and I was exhausted from a busy day.

As per usual, I had work on the weekend, and that was where my head was focussed. On Monday, I had a rather insane race at Interlagos in the Formula Racing League - I ended up finishing 2nd place.

On writing this on the 16th August (Wednesday), the championship standings haven't been updated to include this - but prior to my 2nd place at Interlagos, I was sitting 4th place, a single point behind Cooper.

Spoiler, Young won the race - and prior to Interlagos, he was sitting 2nd in the championship standings behind Klaassens - this season, Young has finished 2nd x4 times (and 3rd once) - so is absolutely challenging for the championship win.

Tuesday 15th August, 2023

Mid-August just strolled on by like nothing happened - Where HAS this year gone.

On Tuesday, a friend called Jack Joyce came over (ONTO THE ISLAND!) - ironically, he came during August 2022 - and has been the only friend to visit me on the island. Full Stop.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable day and ticked off some cool sights during our day - and even played a game of mini-golf.

Wednesday 16th August, 2023

Race-Day by name, Race-day by nature, I've ended up doing four races today - more in the next blog!

But in me heading to the mainland, I missed a fair old amount of league races - which meant I dropped like a pebble in the championship standings I was racing in - being back on the Isle Of Wight, I had some fixing to do!