Even more of a tragedy

It is terrible news that a small plane crashed yesterday, killing five people. Luckily the house it hit was empty, no doubt had it not been even more people would have been killed.

What makes the crash even worse is that two prominent motor racing personalities were on the plane. David Leslie was a former touring car driver, well known commentator and an exceptionally pleasant and welcoming man in the paddock. Richard Lloyd had not only been a racer, but had moved into race team management including running the Bentley Speed 8 program at Le Mans and laterly developing the Jaguar XKR GT3 car.

So once again, seemingly so soon after the terrible helicopter accident that claimed the life of Colin McRae and his son last year, it is a sad day for motor sport.

It’s only money, oh deer…

I had a shock this morning when filling the Jeep up with petrol.

The petrol light was on, and currently the Jeep is the only car I’m using, so the tank needed filling to get me through the week, although with the trips I have planned it would actually need to be filled twice.

The 350z is sat in my garage not feeling very well. The other week on a late night dash back from Salisbury, I encountered an already dead deer on the road. At ~60mph I wasn’t going to avoid it as I saw it far too late. Thankfully the impact was somewhat offset by the cars position and so the only damage I suffered was to the back box of the exhaust. However, the car is loud anyway, so having no back box means that it is far too loud to even contemplate driving. I started it up the other day to run it to the local garage to we could get it up on the ramps and have a look underneath and it was embarrassingly loud. Still the local chavs seemed to approve. Apparently it is ‘wicked innit’.

I have bought a new back box off Ebay and am waiting to arrange delivery so that the car can get back on the road. A couple of people told me I should put a fancy sports exhaust on it, but subject to me agreeing the commercials with a new sponsor, the 350z will be sold to the race team and turned into a very fast (hopefully) and lightweight GT race car for use at the tail end of this season and the whole of 2009.

As I have to to go Bournemouth, Birmingham and London (twice) next week, I shall be using the train rather than driving the Jeep I think.

In other shock news, I have bought a pair of Skechers this morning. Rumours that I might be getting slightly trendy are strenuously denied.

Perpetual medicine

In an effort to beat off my sore throat I have moved away from a staple diet of lemsip and day nurse, to a supplement of Cohiba Robustos and Jamesons. I feel much better for that change.

It has been a long week and whilst it may have been a bank holiday week, I have still had to do five days worth of work in four days. Add to that the fact that I forgot my assistant was on holiday this week (you can see now why I need an assistant), and I’m glad it is Friday night.

I have no work that needs doing this weekend, so shall be relaxing and taking it easy. Have a good weekend everyone!

The beginners guide to (bohemian) dogging

Here is the Perpetual Spiral guide to dogging -

1. You don’t know who you might meet as it can be pot luck who is there, so make sure you are clean and well presented.
2. If you are lucky you could be there quite a long time, so best take a drink to keep yourself hydrated.
3. Always take a toy or two with you, they can turn a boring time into an exciting time.
4. The larger the car, the easier getting in and out is - this is very useful at the start and the end of the dogging activity.
5. Where possible, you should endeavour to remember the names of people you meet.

Now that I have the attention of you all, I am of course talking about walking my dog, rather than the more salubrious kind of dogging. So those of you who are dirty perverts can go stand at the back for the rest of the post and think about how you should cleanse your dirty, warped mind.

I have discovered so many places to take the dog walking and as a consequence so many people and other dogs that it is an if I have a whole new social circle. We have places to go for short walks, medium length walks, huge walks, watery walks, hilly walks, you name it.

Last week I bought the best dog present ever, a box of 60 tennis balls off Ebay. Recently she has really got into chasing after a ball and we were losing a fair few (one time I did not realise how far I could fling a ball and promptly flung it into the middle of a river, I got a sad look for that one). I reasoned that from the pet shop it was expensive to keep buying them in packs of three, so 60 for twenty quid was a bargain indeed. One week later we are down to 56 with the River Thames having claimed a couple more at the weekend.

My driveway has become a collecting area for sticks, last night I counted four of them sat there by the back door. Quite often a stick will get picked up, taken on a walk and brought right back home again. I hope by November to have collected enough for a bonfire on the 5th!