My Last Blog...

Good Morning!

I hope you are all well!

Midnight Strikes, it's a new day - the last day of the year. 24 Hours until a new year begins - and a new leaf is turned.

At 10am, Kiribati (Christmas Island) was the first to enter 2023 - I wonder how it looks!

Midday strikes - half a day to go!

Time for my very last blog...of the year.

Wednesday 28th December, 2022

My last blog ended on the 28th December - so we will continue on where we left off.

After spending the day at my cousin's house, we dropped my brother off at his friend's house, before heading to a hotel ourselves that night.

The hotel (the "Tudor Lodge Hotel") was incredibly interesting.

Built 500 years ago (1500's) it was originally a Tudor farmhouse, before being turned into a hospital during World War I.

More recently, in 2003, it was given an "annex" adding more hotel rooms - which is where we stayed - and it appeared we had dinner and breakfast in a later-built conservatory, the reception and other rooms being in the "old bit"

Naturally, surviving for over 500 years, it was given a Grade II listing.

The legacy of the hotel goes on - and what interested me most was that both the staff (that we saw) and the menu were both of Indian culture.

That evening, due to the naturally spicy nature of the menu, I had a chicken burger (was a decision between burger and chicken wings).

Thursday 29th December, 2022

Thursday was a very long day - starting off with some breakfast, quick stop at a cafe (had a bacon and sausage sandwich) before heading to Felix's friend's house for lunch/visit/meeting of Felix's friend's family (mum and pets).

after lunch (snacky bits) we then hit the road - a fairly long old journey down to the Isle Of Wight (2hrs + or so)

We were all pretty shattered when we arrived back, but opened some presents and then hit the hay.

Friday 30th December, 2022

(Last Formula 4/IR-04/Formula D Race Of The Year)

Due to being away for the previous two days, Friday is my race-day - F4's at Monza. Unfortunately it doesn't quite go to plan.

I qualify 10th - my lowest of the year - but I know I'm very much "up against it" after my first two races saw a massive gain in iRating.

After getting into a battle with 8th at the end of lap 1, I continue to battle this driver for the next three laps.

On lap four, I use all of the track available to me and try and get down the inside at turn one - P8 (the driver I'm battling) out-brakes himself and uses the run off at turn one - but re-joins..."in a fashion I was not expecting", hitting me and damaging my steering and front wing.

Monza's the last place you want aero damage, and I quickly came under pressure from the driver behind (In a "La Broca" livery - a YouTuber I follow, but it's not the YouTuber himself, probably just a fellow fan)

Under pressure, I take Ascari as I would without damage - the car understeers, I manage to save it before hitting the gravel - but launch my car over a sausage kerb and slam into a barrier after landing on the marbles.

After 1 minute + of towing, I use a fast repair (basically jumped into the spare car) and tried to salvage any positions I could. From 18th, I managed to get up to 14th - saving myself from a little bit of iRating loss, but still losing 35.

I'm still at the second highest iRating I've ever been - so, still an incredible way to start the year.

It was very much a day to forget, but we have good days and bad days - and as they all say: That's Racing.

The "weird" theme of the 30th continued as lunch was said to be at 5pm - at first I thought this was rather late - but on being distracted by a comment war (on the video above) time eventually flew by.

After lunch, we played a rather lengthy game of Ticket To Ride - a board game about creating a train which goes between two European Cities.

I lost by quite some considerable margin.

December 31st

Apologies about the "bluntness" of this blog, I'm just trying to ensure that I don't end up in the same position as I did last year with things left over from the previous year - by 7pm I want to be bored, running out of things to do!

Hope you've enjoyed this little summary - and I will see you all next year!

Robin