Recent Adventures, part 2

My adventures resumed last weekend with a meal out with the girls on Friday night to celebrate my friend X's forthcoming nuptials: Hen Do! We continues the next day with a day out in London to watch the Red Bull Air Race Qualifying round. So about 12:30 I found myself sitting down with my companions with the O2 arena behind me facing the River Thames and some inflatable pylons and discovered a whole load of metal in front of me. I felt a wee bit stupid because it took someone to point out to me that there was a figure inside what was becoming obvious to me to be a sculpture. Then I felt really stupid because after following CheshireCheese's recent adventures you would think I would recognise an Anthony Gormley :

Anyway the show started with some amazing demonstrations of aerial demonstrations from the Army and the Navy. One of them made me feel quite queezy as it involved rolling about at all kinds of angles in a specially adapted helicopter. Very impressed. But as I get sick as a parrot (think its my tinnutis) just going on the lamest of roller coasters, I think I would give that kind of ride a miss (although I am an excellent traveller on land, sea or air).

As the weather had been so bad the day before we got treated to extra warm up from the pilots (although there were some serious gusts of wind which put paid to a lot of pylons). After a nutrious luncheon of pie, chips and beer the qualifying then began in earnest. Pictured below is (I think) Paul Bonhomme, the British favourite, performing the top qualifying time of the day:


Unfortunately I gather this was not transferred into a win the next day as he hit a pylon (a costly 10 second penalty). We were mainly supporting the Austrian pilot Hannes Arch in honour of our Austrian bride, and had nothing to do with the fact that he was, ermmmm, the cutest pilot ;-)
Still Paul Bonhomme is still leading the title race with Hannes tied for 2nd place with the London winner Kirby Chambliss (who made up for a stinker of a qualifying day).

Despite coming home at 2am in the morning (the rest of the day consisted of a meal off The Strand, a merry-go-round ride on the South Bank and FINALLY a last drink before the train home) I still went out for cycle ride in the country.

Whilst I had spent the day away, M in a fit of domescticity and all round super humaness had tidied the house and devised a crash fitness plan for the big cycle in September (which I don't have enough time to prep. for but when I start whingeing within 1 hour they will be sorry). The route chosen took in one of the many killer hills which I will be cycling walking up. Unfortunately part of the ride had been completely slaughtered by pesky motorcyclists and was well nigh impossible to push through, let alone cycle. I did acheive another fall but this time onto my rear end which got a generous coating of mud. Still, it ended well with M being able to cycle all the way to the top of Salt Hill, before returning to the car which was at Butser Hill (but I remember more as Turtle Hill). We then drove over to the QEP cafe for a bacon and egg roll. M then spent a really pleasant afternoon washing our bicycles off.

Disclaimer: I am sorry to P & Mrs T for mentioning the time when M and I walked the SDW in 2005, but I was pretty certain you never listen to a word I say.