The weekend started with Emma arriving back home. We had some food, a cheeky glass of wine and watched Hudson Hawk and The Station Agent. Went to bed fairly early as both of us were feeling the ills of a hectic and stressful week.
Woke up bright and refreshed on Saturday, quickly packed my suit and some changes of clothing, and headed off to the train station. I was off to join Si, Alex, Mike (Cornes), Mike (Burgess) and Jersey for Si’s stag do. The train to Bristol was on time and offered exactly zero excitement. I spent the time hacking on a more optimised and flexible runtime for ferite. Upon arrival I checked in and went for some beverages with the guys. We then headed over to the The Raceway Bristol for some karting action.
Short version: sick time and I came second overall.
Long version: we turned up and got briefed. We were 6 of 23 people and would be competing in tournament style driving extravaganza. Four heats each with your position being converted into points. The points you earned then dictated where you started on one of the four semi-finals which everyone took part in. Winner of each semi-final + 2 fastest would be in the final. I started off poor coming a lowly 4th. Managed to bring it back with a run of two 1sts and finishing my final heat in 2nd. Was really loving the driving and could feel it becoming better. The other guys were doing well (except Simon who managed to get dis-qualified on one of his heats). The semi-final came along and I had a messy start but managed to pull it back and come first putting me through to the final. In the final I was joined with three randoms, Si and Jersey. It was a savage 7 laps. The guy who took first place had clearly driven there before and drove like a legend. 2nd place was where the battle was with 4 of us pushing for it. In the end the better drive won 2nd 
Afterwards, there was a podium with Jersey joining me with 3rd place. All in all, a really good session and I would definitely be up for heading back again at some point. Certainly all those hours “wasted” on Project Gotham and Gran Turismo have been reclaimed several times over.
The trophy:
We headed back to the hotel, had a drink then got ready to head out. Simon had various punishments inflicted (last on the points table and a disqualification) and it was decided he should do a tequila. He didn’t really want to and looked rather scared:
In the end it was traded for a pint and transferred to me. For being the fastest driver out of us lot. Very fair. After a good meal in Las Iguanas we went to a few bars of which one was Vodka Revolution. Si was fed an evenings worth of abuse from a random lady for being the worse stag she has ever met.
More here.
We then made our way to a Casino. I decided at this point to halt the drinking and invest heavily in a few pints of icy tap water. The morning proved this a good and solid investment. We went and had breakfast at Weatherspoons near the hotel and then head off on our separate directions. The journey back was mostly spend sorting out some finances, sorting out wedding related items and sleeping. The later forming a good solid chunk of the journey. Emma picked me up from the station. I ummed and arred about going for the pre-arranged bike ride with Karl (I felt knackered). In the end I went and it was worth it. After a cheeky inner tube replacement, we headed off up to Mill Hill. We were gone for about 2.5 hours in total and was a nice little leg stretcher for a Sunday afternoon. We also got to witness an epic sunset.
More here.
In the evening Emma and I went out for a very nice curry at the local curry house Zamdini. It was then an evening of Buffy and another early night. The one bomb shell Emma dropped was that she has never seen Karate Kid. Nor Rocky. Fortunately Captain LoveFilm.com will come to the rescue.
All in all it was a great weekend.
This evening I am off to a circuit training evening then to the pub for the Second Brighton MMO meet which should be good for a proper geek out session! This week I’ve got a number of things to sort out: put SPD pedals from Mike+Helen on bike, obtain SPD shoes, obtain tyres from Pod, sort out parking permit, sort out car insurance and get some good work done. Should be fun.
