'Merry' Easter

Cold enough for you! Snow at Easter, whatever next.

I hope you boys and girls are having a pleasant Easter; better than my miserable weekend! With no money in my pocket and no petrol in the car, I've confined to the house, with the gogglebox as company. Not a major problem seeing as my Sky+ box was rammed full of unwatched shows. But with just £5 to get me through to this coming Friday and the fact that I enter the last month of my probation period at work, with me effectively not selling a thing during February I'm fearful that I have not done enough to keep my job! :(


At least Kimi Raikkonen provided a ray of sunshine on a dull weekend by storming to win the Malaysian Grand Prix early Sunday morning. It was well worth getting up at 6.30am for. It would of been a Ferrari 1-2 if Felipe Massa hadn't spun off the track whilst running in a comfortable 2nd place, next time. In further good news. the BBC acquired the rights to broadcast Formula One from 2009. ITV coverage has been dire from day one and I'm so happy they won't be showing it anymore. Hopefully ex-drivers Martin Brundle, Mark Blundell and Louise Goodman will be retained as the only ones on ITV at the moment who know what they're talking about!

Kimi Raikkonen - Formula One World Champion!!

Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari!



I couldn't even sit down for the last 15 laps! Kimi Raikkonen was the rank outsider to win the championship lying 7 pionts behind series leader, Lewis Hamilton and 4 points behind Fernando Alonso. Kimi needed to win, with Alonso 3rd and Hamilton outside the top six. With the year Hamilton has had, pretty much no one, especially, the British media thought he couldn't fail. But his luck ran out and he lost 30 seconds when his car developed a glitch, dropping him to 18th place. He recovered to 7th place by the flag, a lap adrift, but it was not enough though. Alonso never looked like beating the Ferraris finishing over 30 seconds behind them.



Therefore Kimi took the win and the Championship.
Kimi Raikkonen 110 points - 6 wins
Fernando Alonso 109 points - 4 wins
Lewis Hamilton 109 points - 4 wins



Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari! Ferrari!

thanks to wikipedia.org and raikkonen_design (for using his wallpapers)

Vittorie del Ferrari! (Ferrari wins!)

Yay! Ferrari ha vinto odierno grande prix francese con vincita di Kimi Raikkonen e Felipe Massa che viene in secondo luogo; Primo uno del Ferrari, due rifinisce questo anno! Hanno battuto facilmente il Mclarens. Andare su Ferrari! Mantenerlo in su!

(Yay! Ferrari have won today's French Grand Prix with Kimi Raikkonen winning and Felipe Massa coming second; Ferrari's first one, two finish this year! They easily beat the Mclarens. Go on Ferrari! Keep it up!)

The boy's done good! / The long haul

First off, a very big well done and congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for his maiden Formula 1 win. It a was remarkable win considering his immediate and arguably more skilled rivals all goofed up so much so the it was also the 1st podium this year not monopolised by Ferrari or McLaren. Even better, Lewis is British and will definitely win the World Championship; if not this year, then very, very soon. He is 8 points clear at the top of the Championship and has yet to finish outside the top 3, again something his own team mate and current World Champion has failed to do.

Keep it up my son! (N.B He is also the very first black Formula 1 winner!)

Unfortunately my love of motor racing wore heavy yesterday as there were 5 different disciplines on which meant 7 hours of tv (I had to pass on the last one which would have made it 9 hours!)

First up was the DTM (German touring cars), that started at 1pm.


Followed smartly by the Australian V8s (Australian touring cars). Luckily it was only race one, as race 2 and 3 take place today. [11/6]


I had an hour's gap before the Formula 1 started...


..and showing at the exact same time was the Indy Racing League (America's version of F1, but mostly on oval tracks). Which I then watched on recording once the F1 was over.


Lastly the Champ Cars (another American version of F1, but this time mostly on regular race tracks), but this started at 9pm and I really had enough of cars by then. Still, I've got it recorded!

Gagarin Night

On Sunday I revelled in a other grand prix win for Ferrari and Felipe Massa, whilst lamenting that the other Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen pulled out with an electrical fault. Hopefully we'll get a Ferrari 1-2 very soon! Gregg had called me during the race but I ignored his call because NOTHING interrupts my Formula 1. Nothing!

I called him back later that evening and he wanted to invite me out. Unfortunately due to the hour I only had an hour lead time to get to west London, so I had to get my skates on!

Gagarin Night. That where we went, hosted in the Notting Hill Arts Club. It was my first visit there and I was a little shocked once I got inside; I was expecting a plush ultra modern venue, but instead it was a concrete walled and floored, cellar type affair. There were a number of bands on that night, obviously playing live music, but music with Gypsy origins. It was all highly entertaining with a marching band style group my favourite, playing the type of music you might hear in a Turkish or Greek environment. The night, for me, ended with a more soulful, jazz-like group with vocalist. The trumpet player of the group was a friend of Gregg's girlfriend, Gigi, which is how he learned of the night.

Sadly fatigue won once more and I left at 11, but it was a bloody good night out!

Formula 1 blues

Last Sunday was the 2nd F1 Grand Prix of the year and after Ferrari's dominant win at the opening race in Australia I was hoping for another win at least for Ferrari. Unfortunately I had to watch as Ferrari fumbled the ball and allowed McLaren to out-race them, out-manoeuvre them and embarrassed them, scoring their first win in over a year! Plus, it was my most despised driver who won; anyone but Alonso!
I was not a happy bunny that day, hopefully Ferrari redeem themselves this weekend in Bahrain.


thanks to wikipedia.org for the photo

A lil bit of this, a lil bit of that..

What a weekend it could of been. What with Red Nose day on Friday; St Patrick's Day on Saturday and Mother's Day on Sunday - If you mom was a fund raising Irish comedian she would of been on a 3 day bender!

Sunday was the 1st F1 Grand Prix of the year, and I woke up at 2am Saturday night to watch it. Thankfully it was a good race, the Ferrari won and Alonso got beat. Hopefully those two events will happen every race weekend, and that will make me a very happy bunny! If you've had an eye on the British press of media only one thing happened race weekend; Lewis Hamilton came 3rd. You'd have to look, real hard, to read anywhere that Kimi Raikkonen won, for the first time in over a year, and on his debut in a new car for a new team!

Last night I stayed back late at work to type up and print out my sledgehammer of a letter to Sky. I sent one letter to the complaints department and another to the Managing Director. The little people have no power.

Today, my day off, I visited the gym again. I'm back in the swing and the crowds have dwindled from the New Year fitness fads. Feels good to be back. I also had a lovely sauna a steam, and guess what was in the changing rooms....

sweaty pants!

Let the race begin

It is with great excitement that this weekend I welcome back my most favourite of motor sport disciplines; the pinnacle, Formula 1.
It has been a long off season as always but then with the new year comes the new car launches, then the pre season testing which drip feeds you back into the full racing season.

Sadly my most favourite driver, Micheal Schumacher retired from the sport last year so I don't really have anyone to cheer on this year. I will still, however, cheer on the scarlet Ferraris, as my favourite team. Also any driver that stuffs it to current World Champion, Fernando Alonso, gets my vote! (I can't stand him. Grr!)

I wish good things on my fellow Brits; Jenson Button, David Coulthard, Anthony Davidson and Lewis Hamilton, but will definitely miss dancing around my room and 'whooping' like a looney every time Schumacher won! 14 years of dancing!

The first Grand Prix of the year starts in Australia and I will be getting up at 2.30 am to watch the qualifying then again the next night, to watch the race! Happy days!




Can't actually remember where I got the photo. Think it was from the Honda racing site, but thanks to the original poster.