Very, very happy thank you. Just got home from an early evening ride. I am certain that I have made the right decision.
Whizzed around the Ring of Beara today, 200+km coz it was scorchio and coz I can . Then took SWMBO to see Downton Abbey, she fancies herself as Maggie Smith the Dowager Grantham. One of my views today below.
First prize goes to NZDave. It's a mussel farm. The mussel ropes are taken out to the mouth of the bay, into the open ocean, to seed. Little mussel 'seeds' floating about will attach to the ropes; after several weeks, the ropes are brought into a sheltered spot in the bay where there's good water flow but little chance of storm damage, roped together as you saw, and then left for a couple of years before harvesting.
Finally back from a long weekend in Rimini for the MotoGP at Misano. Flew to Ancona on Thursday morning - off the plane and out of the airport in under two minutes! - and picked up the hire car to saunter up the coast road to Rimini. We did the Ducati pit tour and Meet the Team on the Thursday night, spent the rest of the evening in hospitality. Then friday we picked up guest passes for KTM Red Bull (TRAITOR!) as we were guests for the weekend. Had a pit tour, met the riders, and generally drinking Red Bull and eating their food all weekend. Their hospitality is amazing, with a roof terrace on top! Saturday I bumped into a guy I knew in the paddock who was working for Gresini. Then I saw him again when I was having a beer in a bar outside our hotel after the day had finished and he gave us wristbands for the Gresini party that night on the beach across the road from the hotel. Saw Marco Melandri and his missus there. Really posh do! Managed to meet Rossi and got him to sign a cap for me. Mission Accomplished! Watched the races from the Ducati stand on sunday then drove back to Bologna to have dinner with friends after the traffic had calmed down. Spend monday in Bologna with friends and then flew back. Great weekend, Misano is awesome but I reckon that Mugello is the better experience.
You can go off people you know Seriously though, sounds like a weekend of a lifetime and I am definitely jealous Andy
It was a bit of a last-minute thing, hence flying via Ancona as everything else was booked, but it was awesome. I went to the Mugello GP earlier this year with the Clubs and it was awesome, so it really got me back into wanting to be at the tracks. I did Silverstone and stayed with the my mates from the factory who were over for the weekend, and decided that Misano would be good. So that makes it 3 rounds this year... I'm considering Valencia at the end of the season now...
On the road at 7am up to Tommy B and collected a 70mm system for my 1098 then back down to Desford and dropped off my air rifle for some fettling and sorting. Just back home with my feet up now for an hour or so before getting out and making most of the sunshine.
Only 2 rounds for us this year, Mugello and Silverstone but we did the Ducati UK sponsored MotoGP dinner on the Day of Champions in the BRDC club house. Probably going to do Le Mans next year but having been greedy with holidays this year, got to cut back next year. Andy
If only I’d known, you could have got us into team hospitality instead of us having to put up with the very average, over priced, Dorna facilities Andy
