World Superbikes 2010

The major sporting event of this weekend was the British Round of the WorldSuperbikes championship, held at Silverstone. As one of the invited Owners Clubs, myself and other member of the Benelli Forum were able to get a good deal on weekend tickets, and park our beloved bikes in a special Clubs Display area in the infield. Apart from a being pretty cool way to show off your bike to the general public it also just saves a lot of the hassle of attending these events, parking in a massive carpark miles away and having to carry your gear around all day. So it’s a Win-Win!

A major excitement this time was the promise of a ‘parade lap’ of the circuit on Saturday, between the various practice sessions. Naturally I wasn’t going to miss out on that one: I borrowed Alien’s GoPro HD camera and recorded the whole thing. It was an amazing experience to be on track in front of the paying public – though it made me rather nervous! Great circuit though – fast, smooth surface and those huge grandstands…!

Raks’ 30th @ Vibe, Brick Lane

Rakesh has now hit the Big 3-0 and we caught up with him and Kristina at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane. Smeeta’s cousin Vimisha came with us too – a treat for her as she’d not been to Brick Lane before, being a Wembley girl rather than an East-Ender. Zaki (Manish’s MUAK mate) was there playing a set and a few other recognisable faces. Home via the Beigel shop as always…

Wet week in the Lakes

We’ve just spent a week in the Lake District, with the ‘Brunch Bunch’ and associated kids and partners. Charlotte found a lovely big 1920’s property set in woods on the side of the hill above Ambleside, overlooking Lake Windermere. Sadly the weather wasn’t very kind to us from Saturday until Wednesday morning and we were limited to trudging around Ambleside, in and out of the endless outdoor equipment shops, plus the odd cafe and pub visit. Matters were also not helped by the fact that the property was still very much a ‘work in progress’ – we had builders on site daily fixing a variety of issues with plumbing / heating / bathrooms.

Wednesday brightened up considerably though and Smeeta and I set off for a 10-mile walk, starting in Ambleside, up over Loughrigg Crag and then over and around Grasmere, providing some stunning views on a glorious day. We stopped for a relaxing pint / G&T and then walked past Rydal Water, along the banks of Rydal Beck, and back in to Ambleside.

On Thursday we headed out from the house up through Skelghyll Woods over to Troutbeck and then back over the top of Wansfell, with more views over Windermere and Ambleside, and the bigger hills over to the West. It was blowy and fresh up top, but still a great day out. After two straight days hiking I my legs and feet were suffering a bit so on Friday we drove over to the beautiful Langdale valley, up the two treacherous passes: Wrynose and Hardknot and along the gentle green floor of Eskdale. From the Western end of Eskdale we turned south up over Birker Fell (even more stunning scenery!!) and then across to Coniston Water as Torver. We stopped for lunch in Coniston itself and the drove along the eastern side of the lake and over to the southern tip of Windermere. Finally drove up through Hawkshead and back into Ambleside.

The evenings were spent hanging out together in the house, eating far too much food (thanks to all) and plenty of wine, beer, and Baileys with ice 🙂 Altogether it was a great, long and refreshing week. Lots of pics here on Flickr…

Lucy & Bo

Lucy & Bo came up for the weekend and we headed into London for the day. We wanted to go and see Tom Lewis’s work at the Spitalfields Art Fair, so we headed for Liverpool St via Bank first and then wandered back through the City via St Pauls, and over the Millenium Bridge to Tate Modern. We then planned to walk West along the river but were diverted by some major construction works around Blackfriars Bridge.

Smeeta was keen to buy a Tom Lewis print for the house but he’d sold out of her favourite so we’re going to leave it a while and see what’s in his next batch of work.