Nordschleife

In theory, there was no real prep to do: I'd booked my flight, guesthouse and the Ringhaus Styker months ago, and all my driving kit was already at the Ringhaus. All I had to do was book a cheap rental from the airport, throw the usual clothes and gadget collection into a bag and walk out the door.

The first slight hitch in this plan was my work schedule. If anyone ever mentions the freedom of Global Sales in front of me, they will have to excuse the hollow laughter - or, at the moment, hostile stare.

After some very high level meetings last week I was left with a significant amount of proposal writing which kind of set my plans back getting some serious track time in.

I knew this was going to leave me rather knackered by Friday , so rather than having to drive to the Ring at 11pm after a very long day's work, I decided Plan A was to try to bum a lift with someone. It was the last Ryanair flight into Hahn that night, so it seemed likely that other Ringers would be on it. Except this time, it seemed.

Having done some good laps I went out for 2 laps with Freakboy as passenger. The first was pretty decent, the second started well but ended badly. Schwedenkreuz went nicely, about as good as it gets with my rather large margin (about 170km/h indicated, accelerating through the turn to about 180), on a good line into the braking zone for Aremberg, hit the brakes, pedal goes down about the same amount as it always does (with the same pushing effort), but only delivers about 30 to 40% retardation. Release pedal, brake again, same story, pushing harder doesn't help much.

At this point we're about 20m from the turn-in point, and I tell Freakboy that the brakes are gone. By then he had that one figured out for himself, I think. Speed at the turn-in point is probably about 30 or 40 km/h more than normal :(

I figured there were 2 options: either say "to hell with braking, let's turn in anyway" or go straight, try to reduce as much speed as possible and try to turn to the right a bit.

I didn't really think of it at the time, but went for option 2, as option 1 in a Seven would automatically result in a total loss of control for me. Losing control at that point of the track would probably have resulted in going sideways into the gravel, and I didn't much fancy rolling the car at 100+ km/h, or going backwards into the armco at that kind of speed.

Option 2 worked reasonably well: the gravel didn't slow us down as much as I had hoped (Freakboy told me later that he was already bracing for a head-on impact with the armco), but I did manage to alter course slightly. The grass verge between the gravel and the armco was almost wide enough and provided enough grip to get away with it without hitting anything. Keyword being "almost". We hit the armco with the left rear, but somehow I managed to avoid hitting the armco with the left front. Came to a stop about 40m after hitting the armco. Got out, examined the car, left rear bumper section FUBAR, center section looked pretty bad, right section fouls the exhaust, tiny armco mark on the left rear quarter panel, gravel marks on left side skirt, but no dents in the bodywork, seams around the rear lid not distorted, engine still running, nothing leaking out, didn't hit the left rear wheel, just the bumper.

The boys at Ring Racing did a quick repair by straightening things, allowing me to drive back to base without melting the bumper.

On Safari at SABI SABI

Highlights of the Safari:
• Bush Coffee, some hot water, a stick of dark roast instant coffee and a mini bottle of Amarula. Of course the view makes it that much sweeter.
• Hearing Lions call in the camp at about 1 am. Adds new meaning to the feeling of scared.
• Seeing Wild Dog, two on top of that. Only 2000 left in the world.
• Being surrounded by a herd of Elephant.
• Learning I can make a toothbrush out of a plant stick.
• Seeing a Pigmy Kingfisher, very rare.
• Having not one but three male lions walk by the Rover and each one make contact with your eyes.
• Seeing the Big Five.
• South African Red and White wines.
• Realizing that I had to watch every step on the way to my lodge at night. Cobras, Mambas and Pythons are regular visitors.
• The entire staff at Sabi Sabi Lodge.

Sabi Sabi Private Game Lodge

We're now enjoying the South African Luxury Safari, Sabi Sabi Private Game Lodge. Voted the world's best hotel by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler, Sabi Sabi is a peerless experience.

Our group arrived yesterday in time for a spectacular lunch. We ate outdoors, overlooking the Savanah. Sabi Sabi includes all meals and drinks in the rates, and any guest who can make it through a stay here without overindulging either has vast reserves of will power or else simply doesn't care a whit about wonderful cooking.

Words fail in adequately describing the joy of a visit here: the beauty of Sabi Sabi's land; the magnificent animals; the unbelievably luxurious accommodations... it's all wonderfully over-the-top.

Yesterday, we watched a family of elephants foraging in the brush for tender shoots. Among the group was an enchanting baby, still of suckling age and always close by its mother, which practiced waggling its ears to cool down.

Norway Kick Off 06

Las Vegas USA Kick Off

Selling in HONG KONG

Bangkok

Bangkok is sweltering hot and unbelievably humid. I love it here! The city pulsates with energy and bodies in a thick cloud of fumes and smells both fragrant and putrid. People are awake all day and night and the only respite comes from back alley guesthouses tucked away neatly from the busy streets. The transgendered population so hotly discussed lives normal accepted lives here. The Thai mindset seems very open minded and very friendly in general. It does take some patients to navigate the touristed streets amongst the touts and touk touk drivers.

After a long day navigating the endless stalls at the Chatuchak Market, I am looking forward to a night out in the Patpong or Red Light District. The market itself has an extraordinary amount of goods from orchids to the trendiest hipster t-shirts. The isles are endless and heavily trafficed by Thais and foreigners alike looking for the perfect dress or perfectly grilled fish balls.

The historical parts of Bangkok are intensely gaudy but nonetheless extremely beautiful. The Emerald Buddha itself is beautiful but the wat in which it resides it overwhelming. Heat, howoever, is a major obstacle to taking your time and enjoying a slow meandering walk.

Yet another high class hotel

My ride home

The Joys of business travel!

Around 25mins before departure time we got called over to the Customer Service desk and were handed our boarding cards. 44J.

We went and stood in the queue for boarding and in within 10 minutes I was on the plane, greeted yet again by a smiling cabin crew member and the CSD. It was a long walk down to the back of the plane and the Club world cabin again looked fantastic with its nice pristine white seats. I passed through Club World and then through World Traveller Plus which was quite full which is very unusual as it's normally quite empty on the flights ive been on.


I got to my row and their was someone sitting in the aisle seat. It was also very hot and within minutes I was sweating my plums off. Everyone was complaining about the heat and there was a girl in seat 43H who wasnt felling to well because of it. A cabin crew member came over and asked her if she was ok and I heard him consulting with the Purser to see if they should discuss offloading her. To be honest she didnt look too well and she filled 4 sick bags before we even began push back.




The meal service started and I opted for the Chicken with rice which also contained cous cousand green beans and some disgusting sauce. I ate the chicken and headed straight for the stella I hadn't yet opened. I decided to watch Ali with Will Smith in which was very good and passed a couple hours of flying time.
My only problem is I always want to look at the moving map when Im watching a film.

After the film finshed I started to listen to one of the CD's available,I cant remember what it was now but it helped me on my way to La La Land..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I woke up about 3 hours later when we hit a bit of moderate chop and it must be a reflex action now, I switched on the moving map

I started to watch Family Guy and couldnt stop laughing at it. I actually got stared at by some woman sitting in a window seat to my left as I think I woke her up. Ooops

The cabin crew soon came around with breakfast which not a lot of people took from them. Needless to say I took mine and finished the lot along with a black coffee.
The next hour passed like minutes and we were circling over London awaiting clearence to land at the centre of the universe, LHR (only kidding)
Our descent was a kind one with no bumps or side winds and we landed smoothly around 10mins early.
What I couldnt believe was that as we ended our taxi we were going to be at a remote gate.

Dallas Airport......Waiting for a plane

I seem to spend a large proportion of my working life waiting airports.... this has to be one of the most annoying things about business travel. Waiting in the departure lounge has an air of incarceration about it, as you can't really escape or go for a walk you are stuck. Waiting for a plane is particularly annoying if you have just come off an equally annoying experience the long-haul flight.

Cannes

I had to present to some senior telecommunication people at a conference and for once it was in a beautiful place.....Cannes you can forget in Las Vegas et al this is where the real money hangs out. You get the feeling by looking at the yachts and cars around that being a millionaire here is nowhere near enough. I would say this is firmly billionaire country.

FIRE !

Travelling home from the airport one night I turned the corner into my street to find one of my next-door neighbours house on fire in a big way. It was certainly one of the biggest fires I've ever seen. It was interesting how matter-of-fact the firemen were with such a massive fire.

BASEL

What a boring place

After being urgently called from England to Switzerland for a meeting with the CEO of a major drug company I was told by his people to wait in my hotel until I was called....... they made me wait for two days before I was allowed to see this VIP.

This took the theory around "the customer is always right" to breaking point.

My advice don't go to BASEL unless you absolutely have to.........