More Moto GP pictures

The grid

The Grid

Colin Edwards

The grid

Big Hair!

Dovi

Dani Pedrosa

Jorge Lorenzo on pole

Valentino Rossi on the grid

Jorge Lorenzo arriving in Parc Ferm

Casey Stoner on the grid

MotoGP Estoril Round 2010

Scott Redding

Moto 2 podium

Moto GP podium


125 Podium



Colin Edwards




Nicky Hayden

Ben Spies

Randy De Puniet pit box

Nicky Hayden's side of the garage

Jorge Lorenzo's mechanics working on his bike

Dovi's pit

Suzuki

Pramac Ducati Pits

Factory Ducati pits

Friday morning came pretty quick after being in Portugal for 4 days prior. Those 4 days the weather was beautiful. The sun was out; it was dry with a light wind and very much t-shirt weather. However when I woke up on Friday morning it was dark and grey. By the time we made our way to the track (we were staying about 40mins away) it had started to rain. Half way to the track and it was bad that we could hardly see the road and were driving – like the other cars – with hazards on. When we finally got to Estoril and found the track the 125’s and Moto GP had already finished the first session and it was on to Moto 2. Outside the grandstand was the very small amount of rider and factory merchandise. I can now see why most of the crowd is always yellow for Rossi. There was about 5 Valentino Rossi merch stalls! They all sold the same things which were anything from t-shirts and hats to underwear! There was only 1 Lorenzo and Pedrosa stall even though Repsol did have their own stall which had nothing racer in it. The other rider stall was for Bautist, there was also a very rubbish Ducati stall and another one selling Estoril tops, which the girl ones were quite ugly. The rain had eased up but the wind was still strong and nearly all the fans in our grandstand (A-opposite the pits) hid at the top where there was a little more shelter from the wind. However once the bikes were on the track and you had officially been made deaf you could ignore it. Well until a gust of wind would near send you flying off the grandstand...

The highlight of Friday must have been the pit walk which took place after all the sessions were over. I had searched all over the internet soon after I found out I was going to Estoril and found no information about a pit walk. It was quite a nice surprise to say the least. The pit walk was open to all ticket holders and was 45mins long. We had to line up under the grandstand A and then went through a tunnel under the track to where the pits and everything was. It started off with the Moto GP pits, then Moto 2 and finally 125. The way they ushered you around so that you did not go into areas that were for “VIP’s” was a bit like how you get farm animals from one place to another. To start with most of the garages were open however there were no racers around. I hung around the Ducati pit for a while before everyone else said they were not going to come out and went off to the Yamaha garages. They were handing out posters at Valentino and Jorge’s garages and I have never seen people act like animals as much as they were for those posters (which weren’t signed). My poor 11 year old brother tried to get one but was squashed by fully grown males all dying to get their hands one. I managed to get him a Jorge Lorenzo poster before deciding that breathing was better than waiting for him to come out and sign it. It was impossible to even try and get near to Valentino Rossi’s pit so we moved onto the tech 3 pits. Ben Spies was the first racer to come out and he signed the posters, didn’t really say much or really smile before going back into the pit and talking to him team. I found him a bit moody, my Dad thought that he was probably “thinking” and my brother is a Spies fan so the fact we had got close to him was enough. Colin Edwards came out not too long later and exactly like the Colin you see on TV. He was joking around with the fans, signing pictures and even stopped to have a few photos, my brother and I lucky enough to get a photo with him. At this point I really wanted to go back to the Ducati garages to see if Nicky or Casey had come out. It was pretty empty down by the Ducati pits apart from a small crowd. I managed to walk up to slightly right of Nicky Hayden’s pit and get a poster off a woman who was handing them out. Then the man himself came out! He signed a few posters further up and there quite a lot of Portuguese fans shouting “Nicky” to which he was replying “Hello.” He finally got down to where we were standing and signed our 2 posters. I thanked him while he signed my brother’s poster and then we had a very small conversation but it made my day, probably because we were the only English speaking in the crowd maybe? He walked down a little when my Dad came up behind me and said “why don’t you have a picture” Nicky walked back a few moments later and I managed to get 2 pictures with him. After that I was pretty happy, I tried not to be smug but it was hard! We walked down to the Moto 2 and 125 pits before getting kicked out and it was pretty quite. I felt a bit sorry for them as everyone walked past the Moto GP pits first they don’t really get much further to the racers who are standing outside their pits with only a few fans at max.

If I thought the weather was bad on Friday it was only going to get worse on Saturday. There had been a massive storm where we had been staying during the night. The rain drops were massive and there was a lot of thunder and lighting. The morning was pretty grey to say the least. The rain held off getting to the track however shortly after the rain came. It was a lot worse than Friday and seemed to only be stopping for short time periods. By the time qualifying came around the sky had turned very grey and the wind had really picked up. I had taken to sitting behind a wall while the bikes weren’t out as it stopped the wind a little but I was still freezing in a t-shirt, thick jumper and aviator jacket. The rain just continued to fall and where as on the Friday there would be a lighter patch of sky not too far away that you knew would blow over in a matter of 30 minutes today the sky just stayed dark grey. In the end qualifying was cancelled and we had to leave. I was pretty disappointed especially as there the track commentator only spoke Portuguese and the two TV’s opposite our grandstand were so far away you could watch the bikes but couldn’t see the writing at all so we had no idea where people had qualified.

The track’s car park is about a 10 minute work out of the grandstand in which we got completely soaked. I don’t mean a little, when I got home every single layer I was wearing was soaked. It was pretty torrential. When we finally got to the car park it had turned into a giant beige colour puddle where the dirt had mixed with the water and just became like some sort of paste. My poor boots and rental car. It was pretty dirty after that to say the least!

The weekend had gone pretty quickly but Sunday was the first day when I woke up and it wasn’t really grey. On the way to the track we actually saw some blue sky and the light of the sun! Moto 2 warm started at 9.05am and we got to the track at 8.15am. Pretty early you might think but the grandstand was already filling up. The previous two days it had been pretty empty however today the grandstand filled up. By the time the 125 warm up had ended there was a real buzz going through the grandstand. Yes it was still a bit windy but it wasn’t raining and the sun was starting to shine. Quite a few of the people had already started to drink. In Portugal it is a little different to England in the fact that if you didn’t want a coke with your Mc Donald’s you could have a beer! Before the racers come to the grid the organisers put the racers numbers down in which grid position they were in which was helpful in telling us where people had qualified! The safety car would then go out and then after the bell is rung the riders can make their way to the grid. What I noticed was that some of the racers would go out and then come back in, some changed bikes and then they would go out again to the grid. The amount of noise the guys in the crowds made when the grid girls came out though made me remember why a lot of guys are pigs! I won’t talk much about the races apart from how brilliant all of them where. In each of the classes there were some good passes and some very good battles. When they weren’t going up and down the straight we could watch them on the TV opposite. Something I had found quite interesting the whole weekend was looking at the racers pit boards. During the practises a lot of the teams tell the riders when to come in and they often have information about other riders on. Where we were sitting meant that we were right opposite parc ferme and the podium. The Moto 2 guys got on the podium very quickly where as the Moto GP guys took forever (guessing more interviews were being taken) and the 125 boys were pretty slow too. The crowd were a really good sport for all of the racers apart from Jorge Lorenzo. It could have been that he was taking so long to get to parc ferme that it starting to annoy some of the already annoyed Rossi fans or the more drunk fans in the crowd but they were proper booing him when he got his trophy. There was also a “Rossi” chant slowly happening by the drunk guys next to us who also fell off the wall and started to tackle each other. They were nice though so I am not being mean! It is unfair that he was booed so much when he had rode so well and won fair and square. I also think it is unfair that I had to stand next to the only kid in the whole grandstand with a horn who was a Pedrosa fan and constantly blew it for the man! He was lucky I didn’t throw the horn off the grandstand...

As soon as the race team have finished their race they started to pack up and once the 125 boys were off the podium people were started to leave. However two random guys with 2 cars, 2 quads and a motorbike came out and started to do stunts. Even some of the teams who were packing up stopped to stare. They were really good to start with but after 15mins they started to get a bit dull. So we left and went back to the car to leave Estoril after what can only be described as one of the best weekends even with the horrid weather!

J.x

Portugal has happened!

And what an amazing time it was :] I will try and tell you what I remember but I think pictures are better than words.

Day 1, Monday 25th October:

Pretty uneventful. Went to the airport, got a plane, got off the plane and got into a car, got out the car and into a villa, got out the villa and into the pool, bed time!

Day 2, Tuesday 26th October:

We were staying in an area called Torres Vedra which is quite hilly and very rural. It has not yet been filled with all the tourist of the Algarve but you can see it become more like that in a few years. There are lots of amazing views and little villages so we spent the day driving around and getting to know the place. We also went to the local beach Santa Cruz and walked up along the cliffs and then down by the beach watching the surfers. I want to learn to surf!

Day 3, Wednesday 27th October:

Today we decided to travel 30km up the A8 (the main motorway in portugal) to a small town or maybe you could call it a village called Obidos. When we were in Portugal over the summer we had been staying further up the A8 and on the way to Lisbon airport home we spotted Obidos from the window. It is a village on a hill (like soooo many in Portugal) however this one has a big old wall protecting it dating back to donkey years ago and it also has a big castle. It was a very sweet place with little stalls selling fruit and jam! It had small little cobbled roads to walk down and had a lot of history. The views were also amazing. You are able to climb the walls of the Obidos too. It is pretty scary though as the walls are quite thin, uneven, high and don't have any rails at all. Health and safety would have had a field day!

Day 4, Thursday 28th October:

This was our religious day. To be honest I am not much of a religious person but I actually found it really interesting, shocking I know! We left really early to travel about an hour and a half up the A8 to Fatima. I think now is the right time to say that my gosh the Portugesse are MENTAL drivers, yes they drive motorways well. As in they use the lanes well not the speeding and tailgating you to move bit. Yet the way that they drive every other way is fast and slight suicidal. Also tolls are a rip off! There are so many of them out there that you need to make sure you have 10 euros in your pocket if you just want to go for a drive on the motorway. Anyway back to Fatima. It is one of the most religious places in Portugal and there are kinda 2 bits. The first bit (or at least the first bit we went to) is a small village which some children saw some angels about 3 or 4 times. They have some statues for where the children saw the angels and also you can look in the houses of the children. We then went onto the church of Fatima which is huge! I think it is quite a modern looking building but interesting.

We later went on to Tomar which is home of the Knights Templar. We went to the castle where they stayed and got to look around it. It was huge but really amazing. We also got to walk the walls of the castle. A bit like Obidos...

Day 5, 6, and 7 were spent in Estoril for MotoGP read my next post for that!

Day 8, Monday 1st November:

We spent this day mainly exploring the area near the villa again. Not much really happened but I did get some Pizza :]

Day 9, Tuesday 2nd November:

Our last day in Portugal :[ Our flight was not until 7pm and we had to be out the villa at 10am so we decided to spend the day in Lisbon. After finally finding a park, it is all very confusing with one way roads around there. We were on one of those tourist buses and looked around the whole city. It is quite a beautiful city and I saw things I might not have seen if we had just walked around. After the bus ride we got some cake and then headed to the airport to catch the flight back to London :[

The pictures are in reverse day order, J.x

Tis the season to start knitting... lalalala

The cold weather is being the knitting granny out of me! I use to be rubbish (anyone from my AS textiles class would remember) but last year after making countless scarfs I have discovered the knack :] Now time to knit more scarfs, flowers and cupcakes! I have found the coolest patterns on the internet.

Also.... under 2 weeks, near the under a week until PORTUGAL!

My excitement is amense.

J.x

Monday nights are drawing naked people nights.

Even though I am planning to do a degree in fashion and did art for about 4 years. I still can't really draw people. Hands and feet are normally blocks while bodys usually look like the work of a 4 year old, it is just all very hard. However I have decided that I am going to improve my skills and join a life drawing class. To be honest I need to turn up to uni to be able to draw people and not just trace them using a light box. I found a course on at my local college and roped in my Mum to come along with me. My sixth form ran one last Christmas and I attended for a while but it was full of people and really boring. This one was a lot different. There was less people and the teacher was really helpful. He gave good comments and actually knew what he was talking about. He also does these little doddles to help you out and they amazing, he manages to draw a person perfectly without even trying. Unfair! So my Monday nights until Christmas will be drawing naked people!

I have also made a mental note to blog a bit more. I have been slacking a bit as I have been working in central London quite a bit and the hour long journeys kill me. My new store opens on Thursday though :)

For now,

J.x

You wait for a bus for ages and then two come along at once!

The last time I blogged - I really need to start checking in a little bit more - I was about to go for my Hobbs interview. So I went to the interview and met the women I had been speaking on the phone to and who also got to hear all about passport gate, more about that in a bit. She was really lovely and all my nervous went away when I got there. The interview didn't feel too much like an interview, more like an informal chat. We spoke a bit and talked about where I wanted to go in my career, I told her about how much I want to go in the fashion industry and she said that she would look into getting me some work experience up in the design bits! The interview only lasted 20 minutes and she told me that she would call me the next day and arrange to do a trial in a store. The next day came and she actually offered me the job, 16 hour contract, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays. After I got off the phone I did the "yay I got a job dance." I had my induction today and met my team who all seem nice. At last I have a job and it is a pretty good one at that :]

Now onto an update and probably the final update on passport gate. I called up Lipsy the following day and to be honest the women really didn't seem bothered. I was getting more and more angry about how unbothered she seemed over the fact that they had given my passport to a stranger that I said I would make a complain to which she answered and what would you want me to do about it? She tracked down my passport though and I met the girl who had mine and gave her hers back. Drama over. 2 days ago Lipsy called and started to talk about shifts, I told her that I don't think I want a job with a company that lose passports and then don't care. What would they do if they had my bank details?

The final bus now is called Camp America. I had sent it off ages ago and the interviewer never got back to me. I decided to choose another interview as this one didn't care. I found out later on that if they didn't contact you in 5 days then you should contact them. Whoops. I gave the new interviewer 5 days and when they didn't contact me after I sent them an e-mail introducing myself. I choose my third interviewer, third time lucky eh? And that evening I got an e-mail from my new interview with my interview date and time :] It is a few days after I come back from Portugal in a coffee shop.

The wheels keep turning....

J.x

Lipsy

I had a group interview with Lipsy last week and to be honest I wasn't really blown away. The company and people seemed alright but they shared all the back of house and having done the same when I worked for Debenhams as a concession I kinda wanted to work in a solo store. I decided that a job would be a job though and wait to see if I got offered anything. I am suppose to find out this week.
I have another job interview tomorrow for a company that I am actually really interested in. I spoke to the women again today and she sent me an e-mail telling me what to bring and where to go. My passport was one of these things. So I went to the place my parents keep our passports and pulled out the one on the top. I opened it up and looked at the picture. It wasn't me...or my Mum...or my Dad....or my brother...not even the cat! At first I had no idea who this person was and was wondering why we had their passport. Then I looked more closely and realised it was one of the girls who was in the Lipsy interview with me. The women gave me the wrong passport. Simple mistake if she had a lot of passports in her hand but she was doing them one after each other! She saw the picture and name and still handed it to me with a name tag on! To say I went mad is a slight understandment. I called up Lipsy but obviously everyone in head office had gone home so someone should be calling me back tomorrow. One formal complaint is coming your way! I also called the passport office who told me to report it as lost/stolen first thing in the morning and apply for a new one. However for my job interview I am going to have to use my birth certificate and drivers license *shakes head* How can some people be so stupid AND be a manager of a store?! Hmm saying that I really don't want the lipsy job now!

On a positive note I am going to Portugal at the end of next month....if my passport comes in time. It is a family trip and we are going to Lisbon, Fatima and some of the areas we went to in the summer to do a bit of sight seeing in the cooler weather. We also most importantly are going to see Moto GP in Estoril! This shall be the highlight of my holiday. If I meet a racer I might even pass out!

I also have finally got and uploaded my Camp America references. Travelling is off to a good start....finally!!