Our Mature Gap Year Continues on Two Fronts Melbourne (and the F1GP) and Ulladulla

Alan’s Tale - Sunday 29th March 2009

Today is Grand Prix day and I am very excited. So much so I am up early and walking into St Kilda for a nice breakfast, enjoying the sunshine. Having suffered in the heat yesterday and also being very aware of needing to find a good vantage point and keep it I remembered to get my self two bottles of water to take in, there are plenty of places to get drinks inside but I want to be able to find a spot and stick with it, the only reason to move will be calls of nature. I  applied plenty of sun cream and found a good position for viewing the race.

Then it was time to wait, frankly none of the support races or events interested me, the big Aussie V8 races were OK but that type of race works best on an Oval with much closer racing and a better track view. Five plus hours of anticipation slowly crawled on and the sun shone down hard and bright.

When the race finally did start Jenson Button rocked the place, he set off at a mighty pace and even when the safety car deployed which cut a big swath into his lead he was still supreme.

Once the race was finished I headed over to the stage where The Who would soon be playing.

The support band Dallas Crane burst into their first song just as the screen was about to show live the after race interview with the drivers. Why the F could they not wait for five minutes so that all the race fans could see the final part of the story that had developed ever since Brawn GP was launched from the ashes of the Honda team.

Did anybody who organised this GP consider that the people were there for the racing and the rest (like the F14 yesterday) was just peripheral, what a load of bollocks, who runs these events, in two days some of the most important parts of race build up and race day had been spoilt by the bloody support program.

The Who should have been amazing, I am a big fan, but frankly by the time they hit the stage I was already wilting from being stood up all day. The music was very good and the stage show with the videos was great however Pete Townsend is a twat, first he described Australia as ‘shit’ before obviously backtracking and, then later he called Jenson Button a ‘Twat’ for no apparent reason, at about that stage I joined a stream of people leaving the old bastard to carry on mumbling to himself. What an asshole.

I actually felt rather dirty watching Pete Townsend doing the same moves he has done for forty plus years, just looked like ‘dad dancing’  you Pete Townsend looked like a sad twat.

Jenson Button ruled the day, congrats to him and Brawn GP. I have waited a long time to watch my first GP and to have Jenson my favorite current day racing driver back in a decent car, showing people what he can do was awesome.

Sofia’s Tale – Comings and Goings In Ulladulla

Nicky had to work on a Body Shop party so the rest of us got up late for breakfast. and  I chatted to Glen for ages. Nicky eventually returned.

Jack is still very poorly. Charlotte is at work ,so Nicky and I sat and watched the other film we got “The Women’ pretty good and no men at all in it.

Lockie came back as we planned to get Chinese takeaway and we did not want to leave Jack alone while ill in bed. So when Charlotte also got back we went into town, taking back the DVD’s, swapped the game and went to get the Chinese. Nicky got in before me and paid for the takeaway while I was still looking for a parking space.

We all had a good meal and the girls took themselves back out to play again. Basty’s game did not work and poor Jack only managed a spoonful of ice cream. Once again it’s waiting till 2:30am for the girls to get back.

Lot’s of laughter today, good for the soul.

Beautiful Blue Melbourne Skies Host The F1 GP