I have the rest already~

I cleaned the windows of the dirtiest house I have ever seen in my entire life yesterday, inside and out, it was like something out of a horror movie. Kage said they were the dirtiest windows he had ever cleaned, and he's been doing the job for six years, they actually reckon none of the windows had been touched in at least 20 years.
This was a level of unclean you had to see to behold, this was no simple dirt that you would be familiar with. If you were to throw a bucket of mud at a window it wouldn't be anywhere near as dirty as the windows we had to clean, a layer of mud can just been wiped off, but these windows had decades of grime, grease and dust building up on top of eachother, compacting down and solidifying itself for longer than I've been alive. Even after going over the same pane a third time the water would still ooze off it completely black, it made me appreciate every other window I clean for the incredible level of immaculacy that they all hold.

Outside of work I've been looking at joining the TA again, but won't be seriously thinking about it until I've got my licence and sorted out if I'm buying a car or not. Hopefully I'll be motivated to make this endeavor go a little bit better than the last three failed attempts, even though two of those weren't my fault. I am especially committed this time as I don't give a damn about anyone or anything in my life aside from driving, with no distractions I just want to do it and occupy myself completely with it.

In other free time distractions I briefly contemplated the purchase of the 360 Arcade game Triggerheart Exelica. I feel the same inexplicable attraction to vertical scrolling shooters as the next otaku, but the problem is that I'm simply terrible at them. I tried the demo and quite enjoyed it, I would've bought it straight away if it wasn't for the crippling anchor system.
The anchor attack grabs enemy ships and allows you to spin them around and throw them across the screen, this removes most of the shooting and dodging that genre defining games like Touhou have become cult classics because of. I think that damn anchor alone made the crucial difference in this sale.

If I thought Initial D Eurobeat was fantastic music to start with, I didn't truly understand how good it really is. I have a favorite selection from the three main Initial D D Selection albums copied onto my iPod and these are pretty much the only tracks I ever listen to, but to mix it up a bit yesterday I put on some of the tracks I don't really listen to, and some that I had never even heard once before, it absolutely cheered me up to the maximum. Spark in the Dark, My Only Star, Love & Money, Lost into the Night, I can sit back and sing along to these tunes at the top of my voice for hours, they're simply such fantastic songs. I had two lines from Za-Za - Love & Money stuck in my head today, I don't know the song well enough to remember the rest of it so I just had that short snippet going round in my head all through work, and because it's not in my favorite selection yet I didn't have it on my iPod to listen to, making it incredibly frustrating in a strangely good way.
They're such great songs though, I can't wait to have my licence and be able to drive places singing along to them as loud as I can, the simple thought of that is the blissful dream that gets me through the degradation each day provides me.

Dead Men

I sat down to The Place Promised in Our Early Days yesterday, not expecting greats things after the last disappointment, but I was far more than pleasantly surprised. The artistry and direction was almost as perfect as 5 Centimetres Per Second, but where it really came out on top was the story, exactly what 5 Centimetres was lacking. It now definitively holds a position as one of my favorite anime films, it certainly wasn't as epic as anything like Akira or Ghost in the Shell, but it was so brilliantly faultless in every respect that I can't see why anyone wouldn't enjoy it. Definitely a title I'd think of showing anyone that hasn't seen any anime before, and by anime I don't mean Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z.

Today I've been playing Kane & Lynch, borrowed from my brother. It's alright, definitely a very borrowable game, not something I'd pay for but I'm enjoying it enough. The main problem -which you will see from watching any video of the game- is the desperately bland level design and very unsatisfying physics. On top of that the entire game (of which I have completed two thirds of on the hardest setting since getting home from work today) basically consists of running places and shooting people. Its saving grace is the direction, fantastically scripted and excellently acted it keeps you interested on the constantly moving story. I'll be done with it in the next couple of days though.
What I'm really interested in getting is the Orange Box for 360. Even though I do of course have it on the PC, I just want to play it again, which will be about my sixth run through for Half-Life 2. I would also quite like to have the completionist nature with which I played it on the PC recorded with achievements, and I'm sure I'd play Team Fortress 2 a lot more online on the 360. I don't regret getting it for PC at all though, not one bit, as such a glorious game as Half-Life unquestionably needs to be played with a keyboard and mouse first time through. But as I do have it already I don't particularly want to pay over £15 for it on eBay, as the cheapest I could get it new for is £32. Most of them seem to be going for £20, but if I persevere I should get lucky sooner or later.
Added bonus that I'll be able to lend it to Bertie and Andrew, finally getting those knuckle heads to see what they've been missing out on.

I found myself in a severely annoying situation last night with my mother. I told her that I was thinking about buying some wheels and she took it very badly, going off on how it was the most 'foolish' thing I could possibly do. She started going on about how I couldn't possibly pay for it, when I am working five days a week. The most ridiculous thing is how she can't even begin to understand why I would possibly want a car, all she sees cars as are an unfortunately necessary tool you use to get from A to B, she can't even begin to comprehend that I actually have an interest in cars, driving and motorsports as something that entertains me.
She also doesn't understand the freedom it would give me. All the things I want to do this year need a car to get me there, not to mention that all the little things that my friends have been doing for years and take for granted are still completely out of my reach purely because I don't have my own car. It's definitely not something that can be explained to her logically, if she doesn't even begin to understand any possible reason why I would benefit from owning car under her own steam, logical explanation certainly isn't going to do anything for her.
One of the main reasons I don't think she can understand is because she never experienced it. When she was my age she would never have even considered owning a car, and by the time she could drive and did buy a car she was already married and settled down.
But it doesn't matter in the end, as she rightly said "I can't stop you." And then she had the audacity to say "It's up to you to make your own mistakes." which actually scared me. Honest to god I am actually scared that she is quite seriously that stupid to make such an absurdly retarded comment such as that, it just highlights how she has no fucking clue what I would gain from it.
It's shit I just don't need really. Just as I was beginning to cheer up and get excited about passing my theory and going off to do the intensive course she's gotta be a massive lulz killer and bring me right back down. Fucking annoying.

A blog post

I watched Voices of a Distant Star last night, and it wasn't all that great. Everything was well drawn and animated apart from the characters, who looked incredibly amateur. I almost ditched it alltogether after two minutes, but as it was only twenty five minutes long I decided to sit it out. It was alright, but I won't be going back to it any time soon. Or ever.

I also downloaded the first episode of the Japanese drama Akihabara@DEEP and sat down to that yesterday. It sounded good on paper, following the adventures of a bunch of otaku in Akiba. But it was so desperately over the top that it was rather painful to watch, but as it's so lauded I've decided to stick with it and see where it goes, hopefully it at least doesn't get any worse, not that I actually think that's possible.

At least my driving lesson today was shit hot, I drove like a god damn... person with a driving licence. I was matching the revs bang on with every gear change and pulling away at the busiest of roundabouts beautifully, the whole drive was brilliantly smooth and controlled. With that sorted out I'm totally prepared to piss off to this intensive course in Blackpool as soon as I've passed my theory.
Those five days away is the oasis in the desert that is my calendar. Occupied all day with driving, with nothing but the beach and a book to distract me in the evening, it sounds like absolute bliss.

Everyone sulks

I got Burnout on Thursday, he had sent it out next day delivery which was rather nice of him, and that's taken up all of my free time since then. After getting back from work on Thursday I spent up until dinner doing two player challenges with Falco, and after dinner 'till about 10pm doing three player challenges with the addition of Nimmo, it was fantastic.
Yesterday we finished off the last of the challenges before I headed off to my brother's place for the weekly bud club. Lost was its usual self, the rest of the time was just spent hanging out, which was cool. When I got home it was about 11, I was so tired I just wanted to crash out, but once I hooked my Xbox back up I ended up playing Burnout again 'till about 3am.
Today I've been playing it almost non-stop since I got up, setting times on every single street and unlocking as many cars as I can.

I stopped about an hour ago to play CoD with the guys, with the unusual presence of Swifty, home from uni. Half way through I decided to take the plunge and start Prestige Mode, in the first game with nothing but the default Assault class M16 I managed to get 58 kills and 18 deaths, ranking up six times in that one game alone. It isn't as bad as I thought it'd be, I might be without my favorite weapons and perks but I can clearly do a lot of damage with the other guns, and I'm living without the perks alright.

One thing that made me chuckle hard recently was Loeb on the second day of the Swedish WRC. Racing under the restart rules he could compete without having his time count towards scoring any points. He was nothing but sour and was reported to have said he'd "rather be at home", and then on the way back from a stage he was stopped for speeding, then once back at the service park he retired from the rally completely until Mexico. Boo-hoo for the world champion.

Unaddressed text messages

I finished watching 5 Centimetres Per Second last night, brilliant stuff. The second part was just as good as the first, but the third was a bit vague and spent most of it showing clips of the main characters doing stuff with a song playing over the top. Granted the song wasn't bad, but it felt like a bit of a let down after the fantastic first two parts.
I looked up the director -Makoto Shinkai- to see if he had any other good stuff and found two previous works listed, artwork from latter of which coincidentally serves as my current wallpaper, downloaded both on the phat pipe and will watch them soon.

I watched Once Upon a Time in Mexico today, which is truly a film from a better era. It has some of the best action scenes I've seen in a long time, good classic shooting people and jumping over stuff, none of this special effects showcasing you get with modern films like Die Hard 4. And while it is an action film it still has a lot of decent comedy without becoming slapstick and stupid.
The leading Antonio Banderas puts on a rather uninspired performance, but Johnny Depp picks it up brilliantly and keeps things going. Danny Trejo even got a chuckle once, and that lurch is the last person in the world I would want to meet down a dark alley.

I emailed the guy I bought Burnout off of today, as I still don't have it. He sent me an indescribably poorly written email back (I mean seriously, I've seen six year olds with infinitely better English comprehension than that email displayed) telling me something about his computer not working, and that he'd send it out to me with more expensive delivery to make sure it got to me as soon as possible. If it's true and I get it by Friday I won't have to break anyone's fingers.

Heresy

I remember when I was a very young child I met an Iranian family, the father of the family was an exuberant character and got on great with my own Dad. The thing that really struck me about the family is how they would unquestionably do anything for the people they respected, it went far beyond any simple level of generosity I have seen in any British or American family, the way they would selflessly treat the people they respect like they are the closest members of their own family really stuck with me, and since then I have always tried to emulate that.
I can't claim to be anything like they were, but I have occasionally made sure my friends were aware that I absolutely had their backs whenever they needed it, I even had to support those words with actions a couple of times before I moved to Stanborough school.
I think I realize now that my downfall has often been forgetting that other people don't feel the same way, to many friendship is a fickle and disposable thing, something you employ with a lot of people only when you want something from them, something you act to their face while you make snide remarks behind their back. And I am thinking of specific people when I say that, fortunately most of them have gone to uni and are no longer in contact, yet I still have to remind myself that some people are just straight up assholes whose words hold as much weight as a sinking ship. Of course I'm not perfect, but I've always been up front about my opinions and let people know exactly where I stand.
I feel like honour is looked at as an old fashioned concept, with trust and respect thrown around so much they hold very little meaning anymore. But they're just as important as they always have been, and people quickly gain my respect when I see that they hold similar values.
I still feel that way with the people I respect, that I've got their back and would be there for them when they need it, not that they particularly need to know it until the times comes. But I could count the people I truly trust on one hand, with room to spare, and that's the unfortunate thing.
Edit: Thinking about it, I believe that not only do they all read my blog, but are the only people that do, thankfully. Thanks guys.

Anyway, work today was manageable. I was working for the first time with Gareth today, for the most part is was just us and I quite enjoyed his company. He is a complete geezer, so much so that he has actually served two prison terms, one for beating someone up, but I found myself happily chatting and getting on rather well with him towards the end of the day. It was the first time I've really been able to happily relax and smile for a long time as we sat having a brew in someone's garden, him telling me why women are no good with stories of his ex-wife's treachery. I could happily talk to him about the crap I went through because he knew none of the background to it, so I think I'm starting to get over Nicola alright. Even though I'd take her back in a shot, at least I can talk about her without feeling like shit. But that's just one of my many, many stupid problems I obsess over, so I'm not out of the woods yet.
I think most of my relatively good mood today was from having a chat and catching up with a couple of people last night, which I found rather enjoyable, alleviating a bit of stress. One person's apparent concern in particular made me feel a lot better, but through association with someone else I don't feel I can trust her at all, so after a bit of debate I decided I'd keep that to myself.
If someone in the street gave me crap I'd still flip out, scratch their eyes out and use their desecrated body to build a chaotic demon of flesh and steel to lay waste to the cities of mankind, with which I would add to my immortal festering army of undead wretches with each new conquest, eventually creating such a testament to Khorne that it would bring about the end of all existence in this universe. But at least now I wouldn't particularly enjoy it.

And torn up letters

I got around to watching the first day of the Swedish WRC stage today. Being the only snow stage this year it was set to be an interesting watch from the word go, it supported that by retiring champion Loeb into a snow drift and giving Latvala first place with a 48 second lead on Hirvonen in second. The day ended with the top four positions filled with Focuses, with five in the top eight overall. Just have to hope that the BP Ford team managed to keep those top two positions through Saturday and Sunday.

I finished watching Planetes today, it was a good series with a satisfying ending. Some of the characters grated on my nerves a bit but overall it was enjoyable.

Last night I watched the first part of the three part film 5 Centimetres Per Second, it is a truly amazing film that flawlessly reminds me why I like anime. The artistry and animation is on such a level of perfection that you could pause it at just about any random moment and be left with a fantastic piece of art, it is simply such a beautiful thing to watch that it completely revises your standards for all film making.
The story is so far a very by the books romance, but while it was unoriginal it did it in such a way that you couldn't really criticize it for doing anything wrong. The excellent voice acting gave it that absolutely necessary element of brilliance that made the entire thing an instant classic. It certainly was a tear jerker and had me welling up a couple of times, exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see and I am eagerly anticipating the second part tonight.

I think it was Nicola's final chapter today. I tried to call her just to chat and see how her day has been but she refuses to talk to me through anything but msn, and I am not going to lower our relationship to that of a twelve year olds. In her text messages she really is adamant that it is completely over, all because of her distressingly naive ideas about how relationships work.
It's hard to talk about her without using the phrase 'cold hearted bitch', because I love her to bits and would do anything for her even now after she broke my heart, but when you care about someone that much and they won't even talk to you with the slightest ounce of maturity on the god damn phone about what they've been up to, it kind of tests your faith. And how absurdly reminiscent that is.
So that's that, once again I get fucked over for trusting someone. It took a good long while for me to let my guard down, but once I did she swooped down and cut me in the face with no remorse. Reminding me once again that intentionally or unintentionally, everyone you ever meet can and will stab you in the back.

Sick days

I got a text from Nicola yesterday stating that she does in fact still care about me and is sorry 'things didn't work out', I inquired as to what the god damn problem was if she does want to be with me. It turns out she seems to think she can't be in a relationship and have an education at the same time, which is of course absolutely flat out wrong. Trying to convince her otherwise was an incredibly frustrating uphill struggle that proved to be an exercise in futility.

ANYWAY.
I booked my theory test not long ago too. The morning of the day I did it I had a look online and saw tests available next Tuesday and the Tuesday after that, I couldn't book either of them at the time however as I needed my mother's Visa to pay for it. Looking again later that day with card in hand I found both of those tests had been taken and now I have to wait until the 6th of March for my test, which is slightly irksome.

I started chatting yesterday to some online chick I met in a roundabout fashion through 4chan and whom lives not so far away in Colchester, she has a pretty cool taste in anime and studies English in 6th form, but the really crazy thing about it is that she and her friends made a load of Gurren Dan flags and just so happened to be right near us in the queue at MCM. What a coincidence.
She linked me to a list of stuff she'd seen, which prompted me to make My own Anime List. I know I'm missing a few things but most of the stuff's there, and it's quite shocking to see just how much stuff I've actually sat through.

Just before writing this I won a bid on Burnout for £26, just as I was beginning to lose patience and start thinking about buying it from a retailer. The p&p's a mighty £3, so I better bloody well get it on Monday.

To one and all

Have a happy fucking Valentines Day.

What is your profession?

Been ill off work the last couple of days, watching films to pass the time.
Watched Shooter yesterday, stereotypical characters, Mark Wahlberg was alright.
Then Borat, made me laugh a few times.
Today I watched The Bourne Ultimatum, very dry and tried too hard.

I made an eBay account yesterday and started trying to get Burnout for £30, not gone too well so far as I've lost about four bids.

I missed out on Project Chanology's London protest last Sunday, and while I do have a dismissive nature for nonviolent protests -as in this day and age they do absolutely nothing- I will be going to the next one on March 15th, just for what looks like a rather fun Anonymous gathering.

Ronery drivur

Looks like I'm single again. Was all set to see Nicola today when I get a text giving me the whole 'just want to be friends' bullshit. It's funny (I don't actually find this funny at all) because I said this exact thing would happen weeks ago, I said that if I didn't see her for a while she'd get bored and dump me. When we were going out she'd text me every day and keep saying 'I love you more' and was nothing but enthusiastic, but after not having seen her for over a week the text messages trail off, she's less enthusiastic, and then bang, we pass the point of no return and she can't be bothered any more. I guess it's my fault for forgetting that most teenage girls have the emotional stability of a biscuit.
All I want is someone to love, nothing more, someone I can dote on, take out to nice places, have a fun time with. I would've done anything for her, but apparently that's not good enough, I'm not good enough.
The first thing I actually did when I found out was post on /b/ that I'd just been dumped, the hilarity of their suggestions got me through the first few moments rather nicely.
So here I am, flying solo again. Let's take bets on how long for, six months, a year, two years? I'm betting on not getting another girlfriend before I'm 20 years old.

Nothing but wheels

I picked up NFS: Carbon from Bertie yesterday and have been playing that for quite a bit since then, it is a greatly flawed game but enjoyable enough for £13. I had almost completed it on the PC long ago, but have bought it again now to play it with Bertie, Andrew, Paul and Sam, and would be doing so if the online multiplayer system didn't take a dump on itself the very day I got my hands on my copy. I can only hope that it decides to fix itself as soon as possible, because this will have been a rather depressing purchase if it doesn't.

We had a bit of a gaming night with Alex and Dave at my brother's place last night, I got to try out Burnout Paradise and was highly impressed. Everything about it seems to be very well designed and implemented, discarding much of the absurd speeds and motion blurring from the previous games giving me little reason not to find this a very appealing game. The main problem is the price tag hanging at 40 bones, I've spent enough money as it is over the last month and have a busy week ahead of me, so I'll take another look at it in a week or so.

Today was quite exciting, I went for a driving lesson that ended up taking me all the way to Stevenage via Hertford, reaching a new high speed of 53 mph as I did it. The highly unfamiliar roads and extremely busy roundabouts gave me massive amounts of confidence and experience, exactly what I need. What I didn't need however was some lady smashing into the back of me as I stalled at a roundabout. I've still got that stalling problem whenever things get busy at a roundabout, and as I did it for a second time she shunted me very heavily up the backside. We pulled over to the side and fortunately neither of our cars had so much as a scratch on them, despite the force at which she hit me. We were both profusely apologetic about the whole situation before going our seperate ways, so no harm done.
Excluding that one mishap I found it to be a very good lesson, I might be having another tomorrow and if things keep going this well I might look at booking my intensive driving course some time after next weekend.

Disconsolate

I'm texting Nicola when I ask how the coursework's going, she tells me badly, so badly that she is thinking of dropping out and getting a full time job.
Fair enough.
And going to live near her Dad...
So of course my first question is, 'Where does your Dad live?'
'Cumbria. x' she says.
Since the first moment I met her I have been prepared for this day. I didn't think we'd get into any sort of relationship at first, but when we did I knew it was just too good to be true and it wouldn't be long until something jumped out of the shadows and took me out at the kneecaps.
Apparently she's already applied for a live-in job at a hotel, and she really wants to be near her family up there so she has a lot of motivation to move.
Not really much more I can say about this, pretty massive downer for me, and that's that.
Of course I want her to do what she wants to do, but at the same time if she does go it'll break my precious little heart, I've already been through that with one person and I really don't want to go through it all again. She might not even go, it all depends on if they even offer her the job or not, but waiting to find out is something I can look forward to running through my mind every day at work, so it'll be just like the warehouse trauma all over again.
All I can do is make the most of it while I can, the days or weeks that it may be. She's got half term next week and I'm going to see her as much as I can during that, especially as it's been so long since I last got to properly hang out with her.
Goddamn this kills me inside, just as things were starting to really look awesome I am smote by the Emperor, Allah, Shiva or whoever the hell is enjoying tormenting me like this.
Fuck.

the lulz mobile approaches

Yesterday I had a game of chess with my old man for the first time since Lisbon many years ago, we played it on a worn wooden board that had belonged to his grandfather who had used it in the trenches. I won with an assured victory, but as he was badly distracted by an injured knee he has had recently operated on, it was a hollow victory.

I've been looking at taking an intensive driving course in the next couple of months, as soon as I've had enough practice to be fairly confident in myself I'm going to be straight on it. For £445 I'll get four days of comprehensive lessons with a test at the end, with accommodation and breakfast included in the price. For that money I will be getting more tuition than if I had normal lessons with an instructor here, and with consecutive lessons I will learn a lot more efficiently. As an added bonus if I fail the test I'll get five hours of lessons and another test for free, and if I fail that I get the same again. So it's basically assured that for £445 I will be getting my licence, because there's no way in hell I am going to fail three times.
It's so close now I can taste it. I can't wait to finally be able to drive, to take Nicola out to restaurants and cinemas, to go and visit Harry and Daniel at uni, to go to all those racing events. The time is finally nigh.

Are they still alive?

Do I still care? Not really.
I watched the first episode of series four of Lost today and I'm finding it hard to be enthusiastic about it anymore. Many of the actors feel wooden as they almost rush to cram in as many of their character's mannerisms and traits in what little screen time they have, and the blinding stupidity of some of them after everything they have seen and experienced is simply exasperating.
My main problem with Lost is the format of the show, there's only so long I can hold my interest in a conspiracy series. Considering that I'm not one of the sort of people that goes onto the forums and dissects each episode frame by frame exploring every conceivable (and often completely retarded) possibility, devouring all the spoilers and theories, I'm beginning to find the drip feed of a plot tiresome.
Each episode consists of long boring scenes in an attempt to build anticipation before dropping a line or glance of a person at the end foretelling the forthcoming story, and after each one I can almost hear the Lost fanatics clambering over eachother with their trousers around their ankles to get to their keyboards and praise it as the mastery of storytelling that the plot hole ridden bandwagon is not.
Still, the sparse moments where it does actually have plot developments is good, but I mostly watch it out of pure curiosity of wanting see what happens next, just like all those absolutely shite anime series that I couldn't bring myself to delete.

I also experienced a couple of gaming failures with the Turning Point: Fall of Liberty and Devil May Cry 4 demos.
The former was painfully cheap in every respect, if you told me it was made for the Playstation 2 six years ago I would've believed you. The atrocious visuals simply shocked me and I can't remember playing many games to have such dire physics and handling in this century.
I started the latter expecting a very different game, after not having played it through so many years of hype and acclaim I thought it was about time I gave it a try. The drudgery of hack 'n' slash games make me cry a little inside and this was no different. You would also expect some of the little things like not having an infuriating and utterly unnecessary three second long cut scene for every single time an impassable barrier appears and disappears to have been achieved long before the fourth installment of the series.

Excluding my driving lesson it was a day of failures, but I persevere with Eternal Sonata bringing a little warmth and enjoyment to my free time. Now it's back to mundane Monday, let the drudgery commence.

'The red Fiesta, again?'

I had to get up at 4:30 today to make it to Dave's for 6, we then took until 7 to load the track car onto the trailer and be off. When we arrived I was immediately struck by the caliber of cars present, rolling along on other trailers were some incredibly serious looking machines, covered in sponsors and manufacturers decals, and sitting in the car park waiting to go were a plethora of Porsches and Ferraris.
When we got out to unload the Fiesta we were first introduced to the cold, despite the diabolical weather up north we were blessed with absolutely flawless skies, yet the wind flew across the plains and hit with an absurdly biting cold that lasted relentlessly the entire day.
I'll take this opportunity to describe the Fiesta XR2i, on the exterior were a fair few decals with two of the four headlights removed and the others taped over, along with OZ racing wheels there was no mistaking this as a track car when you saw it. The interior was completely stripped and left only with two bucket seats and their racing harnesses, and a full roll cage which I found intensely reassuring. Tech wise all I knew they had done was fit a new induction kit and exhaust system, an intercooler and new springs.
After unloading the Fiesta we quickly found things were not well, the front left wheel was making a scraping noise once every rotation that needed immediate attention, after some investigation we found that the wheel was rubbing against the strut. We dashed into Bedford for a jack and wheel spacers as the convoy of cars (lead by an Evo VIII) headed towards the pits, after we bought the goods we headed back and fit them without incident, which was when we found problem number 2. A much louder and far more alarming scraping noise started from the rear left wheel, after taking it off we found that the wheel was scraping against the brake cable, a quick kicking in and we were good to roll.
And roll we did, very fast, and sometimes sideways. I went out first with Alex and was amazed at how good he is, his lines were mostly really good and I often found myself thinking that I would've taken them very differently when he nailed them. Going around a track is so much more intense than you imagine, you push it to the absolute limit on every corner and are always an inch from losing control and at best flying across the grass at 30mph, at worse flying into a tyre wall at over 100. It's like a roller coaster, only a million times better as a roller coaster is exactly the same thing every time and you're always completely and utterly safe, but on the track each time you take the same corners differently and are anything but safe.
As Dave demonstrated on his second lap, four corners from the pits he spun out doing between 60 and 70, we spun 360 degrees and the driver of the car behind saw the whites of our eyes before he had to go wide and bail onto the grass to avoid us. It was a close call, but we had a laugh about it with the people in the car behind once safely back in the pits. But that wasn't the last spin as after lunch I headed back out with Dave, I thought he was cutting the first chicane too much as he heavily mounted the rumble strips, and on the third lap he lost it over them and spun off to the side.
Back in the pits I had the opportunity to look at some of the other cars on display, I even got talking to an R32 owner who said he also owns an AE86 with the engine swapped out for an S200 lump. Most of the people were really cool, but there were some -like the Evo club and a couple of young hotshots- that thought the track belonged to them and kept undertaking people and acting like arrogant twats in the pits.
With an hour or so left of the day I headed out with Alex, a couple of laps in we approached the same corner that Dave first spun out on when I heard something quite heavy tinker away under the car, dismissing it as a part from someone else's car we turned into the next corner and completely lost it, it felt as if the front right tyre had burst, but when getting out and inspecting it we found the the spacer had sheared the bolts and completely removed the wheel. Quite ironic that the same item that allowed us to race was the item that would end our day. I got a lift back to the pits in one of the safety cars and got Dave to drive over with the trailer, and that was the end of our day.
Now back home, truly tired after a long day of excitement I am ready to hit the sack and clock out. That was my first racing event of the year, and it was absolutely brilliant.