The Craziest Week Of My Life...

Where HAS the year gone?! It's already late June with July eagerly looming in the not-too-far distance.

2023 has just...happened and I haven't had a second to process it - I'm still processing March and April to be honest!

But as they always say, life doesn't wait for a soul - ready or not...

Monday June 19th, 2023

As mentioned in my previous blog, on our final full day in France/Paris we went to the City Centre and had a day in Paris - most of this spent on a hop-on/hop-off tour bus - seeing sights such as the Arc De Triomphe, Notre Dame (I was excited to see the post-fire damage/work being done to it) among other notable sites.

My highlight of the day was climbing up and then down the Eiffel Tower (stairs) - quite a big accomplishment considering the sheer size and significance of the tower.

I've now bossed The Walkie Talkie Tower, Gherkin and now the Eiffel Tower - where next? The Shard?

~

That evening, on iRacing, it was the FRL iMotoring Mondays league race at Road Atlanta (Club) - and things were getting a little spicy...

Klassens, my closest competitor, won Round 1 (VIRginia International Raceway)

I won Round 2 (Monza)

Klassens would re-take the championship lead by a single point, as I was in Paris for Round 3 (Road Atlanta)

Tuesday, June 20th, 2023

Despite the knowledge it was our very last day in France - the sun rose, and we returned to Disneyland just like any other day.

Of course, naturally, on the day we were due to leave, Stitch was out and meeting fans - as was Winnie The Pooh, one of my friend's favourite characters.

Up until 4pm - it was a good, enjoyable day - we saw a live show, took part in an drawing class and just made the most out of our day.

With our flight at 9:55pm/10pm - we left Disneyland at about 5pm/5:30pm, returned to the hotel to collect our suitcases and then headed back to the airport.

We were stuck between a rock and a hard place - our original flight had been cancelled, however, there was another (flight) which was earlier than our last (9:55pm) - which, at the time, was still flying.

A mad sprint through the airport (and the loss of a glass AJ Bottle - RIP Soldier) lead us to our correct gate...and the flight had been cancelled.

I honestly feel for check-in staff who have to deal with cancelled flights - and the fuming passengers as a result of the cancellations out of their control.

Being such a late flight, the earliest we could get was first thing tomorrow - and whilst far from ideal - it was our only option.

My friends had work, I had a ferry, was due to pick up a car-part (and at the time I thought I had a job interview that same day) - it's fair to say, we put all our eggs in this one plane.

Miraculously, due to us staying at one of the Disney Hotels the prior night, we were able to get a bed for one night at a Disney Hotel next door to our previous hotel - it wasn't so much "crisis averted" - more crisis controlled and managed.

From having our flight at 2pm/4pm, we somehow managed to wiggle our way onto an AirFrance flight that left at 6am - although this meant a ghoulishly early start - we'd have to be at the airport for 4am - and with an hour drive to the airport - it'd be a 3am start.

Wednesday 21st June, 2023 (Summer Solstice)

After barely 5 hours sleep, we'd have to be up at 3am/3:30am.

It was going to be a long day.

~

I felt guilty, this incredibly nice chap was giving away his parcel shelf - and I was going between "Thursday at 1pm", "First thing on Thursday" "Thursday after 9am" - the last thing I wanted was him to think I wasn't going to pick up his Parcel Shelf.

But we'll get onto that.

By 03:47am (Local Time) we were bundled in the taxi and headed to the airport.

By 05:19am, we were at the gate and ready and waiting for our 7am - 8am flight (6am - 7am France time flight) - by 6:30am, we were onboard the plane.

Somehow, we'd land about half-an-hour before we were due to - giving us half-an hour more to play around with.

After getting a shuttle back to the airport, my friend's parents drove us from the car-park back to his house, where my other friend's mum was waiting - and also where Timon was waiting.

From there, things went pretty quickly - I headed down to Southampton, picked up the Parcel Shelf, did a bodge-job trying to fit it, then tried to make the 12:00 ferry - failed - made the 13:00 alongside a very nice Rocket Bunny Toyota GT86.

The rest of that week was absolutely BONKERS.

20th June - Flight back to the UK - Missed QRT League Race.

21st June - ACTUAL Flight back to UK, Summer Solstice, Picked up parcel shelf

(Also FalkenTyre Sports Car Challenge At Watkins Glen - Finished 5th in class, same position at Oulton Park, Round 1) - just not as entertaining.

22nd June - VRG GT4 Tour League cancelled after lack of entries - this was devastating as the finale (Donington Park) was the next week, and it marked the second GT4 league in less than a month to wrap up.

Come the end of May I was doing:

Tuesday - QRT GT3/GT4 Battle Tour

Wednesday - DML GT4 Showdown

Thursday - VRG GT4 Tour

With QRT and VRG now wrapped up, that left Wednesday left - The very next week after this (28th June) would mark the big finale to the DML GT4 showdown league. I've had a blast racing in all of these series - and getting the most out of the Aston.

In addition to this, on the 22nd June, I also had a job interview for Tesco - and later that same afternoon, they phoned me to say that I got the job - after 9 months of unemployment - this was all I needed - and I was chuffed and over the moon.

23rd June

Driving Lesson (starting from Newport)

This Week's blog (24th - 28th June) up very soon!