Late night Parmo feast

Thursday 30th June

Up with the lark, then up and at them!! Couldn’t get the shower to work so ended up washing using the sink in the room. The cord for the light worked but try as I might I couldn’t get the second cord to work so the shower would fire up. Bloody English plumbing. In Australia we have a funny system, all you do is turn on the tap and water comes out the shower. Simple, easy to understand and practical. Downstairs for eight o’clock nosh up and then out the door to tackle the mysteries of another day. Fairly uneventful trip from Poole to London. Dave and I split up at the start because the train was fairly empty but as I filled up I gave up my seat so a woman and her children could sit together and wandered along a few rows to fill a vacant seat next to Dave. He had been busy entertaining two three gents from the south coast although I’m not sure the lady opposite Dave was all that thrilled with the laughter emanating from the four of them. About half way (Winchester maybe) one gent got off and the lady saw a spare seat elsewhere and she quickly scarpered. The spare seats were filled with a GP and her son who were on the way up to London. Nothing much got missed out, we talked about travel, flying, Australia, Euthanasia, the UK strike, pension plans, sport, Wimbledon, tennis, Walkabout Bars, speedway, retirement age, beer, sport and whatever else came our way. Quite eclectic characters we all were. In a way it was a shame the trip ended, they were good company.

From Waterloo it was out into the wilds of the Underground to find Kings Cross. We were lucky, one change needed at Oxford Circus and both times a train pulled up just as we arrived at the platform. Safely on to the train and as one of the first on we got a seat which was a nice change. The time flew and it seemed like in no time we had reached Northallerton which was where we changed trains. Caught the British equivalent of a red rattler and off to Redcar we went. Cab to the hotel; dump the bags and then another cab to the track. Super little set up Redcar has, since I was there last in 2008 they have added a small grandstand and a bar. This was to be the best atmosphere at any track so far (and it has set the standard). Lovely passionate Redcar crowd making plenty of noise with a delightful young lady equipped with a big drum doing her bit to contribute to the general din. We had some great company, two BSF speedway fans Drac (Redcar fan) and Bandits4life (Berwick fan) bantering away and both giving each other as good as they got. Both were sending comments to the speedway live updates results site and it was nice later on to read the contrasting points of view!! On track Redcar beat Berwick 46-43 and a nip and tuck meeting it was all along. Aussie Kozza Smith was superb for the visitors and wow is he a completely different rider from the one who used to look quite ragged when he first started. Now he is smooth and quick and looks like he is ready to take a step up to the next level. For Redcar the two “forty something” riders Jason Lyons and Gary Havelock both showed they have still got it. Havelock rolled back the years with a superb pass in heat 14 to seal a Redcar 5-1 to put the home side back in the lead after being 3 points down and the crowd went wild. Somehow my texted message to the updates side of “the crowd went ape droppings” got posted as “the crowd went mental”. Mitchell Davey needs a mention, last year he was down on confidence and riding badly, tonight he was heaps better and really got stuck in and fought hard for his point s. His 5+2 was well deserved.

We had been told in the bar “you must have a Parmo while you are in Redcar”. We got directions to a wonderful little establishment and at sometime after 10pm the “parmo” arrived. It’s a chicken parmagiana in Australian language and it was a super meal. Heaven only knows what we were thinking because it was a huge meal and totally the wrong thing to be eating just before bedtime but it came under the heading of either “who cares” or “you only live once”. As luck would have it some of the riders / mechanics / friends were at the same place so we had a bit of a chat with Aussies Robert Branford and dad “Chopper” plus Arlo Bugeja. It was a very full and tired little soldier who fell into bed sometime after midnight.