The "Great" British Grand Prix

This weekend Formula 1 returns to its spiritual home. The Silverstone circuit hosted the inaugural Grand Prix way back in 1950 and has been an almost permanent fixture ever since.

The qualifying session for today's race held a few surprises which, as a McLaren fan, have left me less than happy. In the first session (Q1) the top 10 places were filled by the usual suspects, Mercedes, Lotus, Red Bull, McLaren and Force India. The biggest surprise here was that the Ferrari team mates, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, were 14th and 15th, barely scraping through to Q2.

The next session is the reason for my (Mc)misery as neither Jenson Button nor, McLaren new boy, Sergio Perez managed to get their cars into the top ten. Button starts from 11th and Perez 14th. This season is probably the worst I've ever seen my favourite team competing at since I started seriously following the sport in 2001.

Q3 barely matters to me by this point but I'm going to give you the details anyway.

In pole position is Lewis Hamilton flanked by Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. On row two are Red Bull drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

Actually, I really can't be bothered with who is on what row. The fact that McLaren are so far down the order has me bordering on depression. It won't stop me watching the race but I really wish they would pull their fingers out and make me proud.

Handcrafted cards by Robin's Myth

My wife has been making cards for many years, long before I met her, in fact and she has had some small success selling them to family and friends. I like what she does very much so I suggested that we could make a proper business out of this if we pulled together and worked hard at it. So for the last year we have been slowly creating our little empire, still only selling to those closest to us but always with a view to something more. We have a Twitter account and a Facebook page, using the name Robin's Myth, which are both steadily attracting followers and likers, respectively and even have a verbal contract of sorts with a well known card retailer but for some reason just couldn't get our act together to make it work. Until now.

Later this morning I'm going to take nearly 100 handcrafted cards, etc to a table sale at our 4 year olds preschool. We don't expect it to be a massive event but it will be the first time we've put them on display for people to buy. Normally my wife receives an order from someone we know for a particular occasion such as a birthday or Christmas and then she creates whatever is desired, usually for very little money. This time is very different for us as we've had to create a large quantity of cards for stock, we're both happily exhausted with the result and the only downside of the event is that my wife cannot attend herself as she works on a Saturday.
 

I wish she could be there too, to interact with our customers and have a little banter with them because I think she'd be great at it. If you're in the Harrow area between 10:00 and noon pay a visit to Trinity church on Hindes Road and I'll flirt as much money out of you as decently possible. You won't be disappointed with your purchases (or my flirting) because you can't get cards like these anywhere else. If you can't make it then follow these links to Twitter & Facebook and put in an order or just say hello, we don't bite and we're always happy to spend a few minutes being sociable.
 

Le Mans 2013

I have never watched the Le Mans 24 hour race before today but about an hour ago I was flicking through the channels and there it was. Ok, I thought, lets take a look at this and see what's what. Having raced on the track within the Gran Turismo Playstation game I thought I knew what to expect. How wrong could I be? It looks absolutely terrifying at those speeds in the dark! Those drivers have to be incredibly courageous in order to compete at this level of motorsport.


Unfortunately, accidents still happen. While searching twitter for whatever information I could glean about the race I discovered that the leading driver, Allan Simonsen, crashed his Aston Martin on lap 4 and lost his life. According to the commentators, his family urged the teams to continue racing as that's what they thought he would have wanted. Much respect.


Having next to no knowledge about the sport, except that it's held in France over a 24 hour period, I'm finding the commentary to be very informative. It feels like when I started watching Formula 1 over a decade ago, desperate to learn as much as I could about the on track action. I'm pleasantly surprised that I even recognise a few names of ex-F1 drivers in the race, such as Alan McNish, Lucas Di Grasi, Kamui Kobayashi and Giancarlo Fisichella.

If my wife lets me, I may even watch an hour or two in the morning.

F1 by the numbers

Last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix threw up some interesting statistics that I'd like to share with you, some being more positive than others, starting with the number 100. That's the number of GPs that Force India have competed in since their entering the Formula 1 world championship in 2008.
They've had their ups and downs, the most notable up being the 2009 Belgian GP where they very nearly won their first race with, then driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, who eventually finished 2nd behind Kimi Raikkonen. This season Force India are currently sitting above F1 veterans Williams and, surprisingly, McLaren in the championship.




This leads me nicely onto my next stat. McLaren's run of 64 consecutive points finishes came to an end in Canada. Regular readers will know I'm a huge fan of the team but I've felt disappointment more often than not this year. I've been used to seeing McLaren fighting, if not for the win, then at least for the podium. They've always been at the sharp end of the grid, racing hard, always focused on winning the championship but something is wrong with the car and both drivers, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez, have been struggling to qualify in the top 10 at far too many races to have a hope in hell of coming anywhere close to being the 2013 world champions.




In contrast to McLaren's woes, Kimi Raikkonen has equaled 7 times world champion Michael Schumacher's record of 24 consecutive points finishes which is pretty impressive, given that he took two years out of Formula 1 to try his hand at rallying. If I'm not mistaken, I'll put my hands up if I am, he was the only driver to have completed 100% of the laps in 2012. Kimi has always been one of my favourite drivers, nearly winning the drivers title in 2003 and 2005 before stealing it out from under the noses of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in 2007. So there's a fair chance, as long as Lotus continue to push the development of their car, that Raikkonen could be fighting for the title again by end of the year.




Finally, and this brings me no pleasure to repeat this awful news, the first fatality in 12 years occurred in Canada when a track marshal was struck by a recovery vehicle during the Grand Prix. The last fatality took place at the Australian GP in 2001 when a wheel detached from Jacque Villeneuve's BAR during a high speed collision and struck a marshal, Graham Beveridge, critically wounding him. On this occasion it was a less dramatic accident that caused the marshal's death. While removing Esteban Gutierrez' Sauber from beside the track Mark Robinson dropped his radio and while attempting to retrieve it was crushed by the wheels of the recovery vehicle. He was taken to hospital but eventually succumbed to his injuries. Accidents happen and, although I am saddened by his death, take small comfort that every precaution is taken to ensure the safety of all involved. Just a few decades ago it was common to lose a great many drivers each year. Now, after any on track accident I fully expect to see the driver walking away from their car, no matter how bad the wreckage, nursing only their pride. With just a handful of exceptions, most notably Robert Kubica's horrific crash in 2007 and Felipe Massa's freak head injury in 2009, that's exactly what happens.

There is no pain, you are receding

I've been going through some changes over the last couple of years and reaching the grand old age of 40 has only served to highlight my situation.




Last month I had to donate some jeans and trousers to a local charity shop because (shock, horror) they didn't fit me anymore. I've always been slim, some would even say skinny, and I've always had trouble finding jeans, etc, that wouldn't slide off my hips without the aid of a belt, so you can imagine my surprise when I couldn't even button them up.
And don't mention my T-shirts. For most of my twenties I wore a medium because that's what I thought I was. Medium. Average. But no. I eventually accepted the truth and started buying small, slim T-shirts and I actually started to feel that I looked good in what I was wearing. Now I tend to look like a snake that's swallowed a watermelon.




In my late teens to early twenties my hair was my crowning glory, starting with an almost Brian May kind of style that was, now I think about it, quite awful (I got a lot of stick for it at school). Over time I let the curls straighten out as it grew longer and let it flow past my shoulders on it's way down my back. How proud I was, I considered it to be akin to Samson's locks, a source of strength, etc.
Securing employment meant that I was forced to have a more public friendly image, hence a shorter style but in the back of my mind I always intended to grow it again when the opportunity presented itself.
Ha!
Ever wondered why I always wear a hat? My hair is receding and not in a respectable widow's peak kind of way. It has formed two desolate islands of hair above my forehead that makes me look like I have horns. And not in a cool Hellboy kind of way, either!
Now you know why I wear a hat. It'll be reading glasses next!