Brighton to London Eco Rally 2009
I popped down to the sea front on Monday as I’d heard there would be a few very inovative vehicles, driven by celebs, heading off to London. The 3rd Annual “Eco Rally”.
There were some very impressive cars there including the gorgeous Tesla, a Lotus Elise made of hemp and a car that ran on methane. All very impressive. Even some vans too. There was a smattering of celebs including Robert Llewellyn, Quentin Wilson and local boy Paul Zenon.
Unfortunately i couldn’t hitch a ride with one of them up to London to catch the entire event but here’s a quick video of what was happening. Also available in HD!
Our Big Adventure Plans
September 20th 2009. The day that everything changes. Ok that’s slightly over dramatic but never-the-less accurate. Our plans for the “Big Adventure” are coming together and picking up pace.
For those of you that don’t know, my wife and I are planning to travel extensively through South-East Asia for around 3 months before moving to Sydney, Australia for a while.
So here’s a rough itinerary, I’ll spare you the impressively in-depth version my wife has created. In 3 months traveling there’s hardly a day when we’re not booked to do something or travel somewhere!
September
20th – Fly from Heathrow, England to Changi, Singapore
27th – Watch the Singapore F1 Grand Prix with friends
October
Fly to Hanoi, Vietnam and spend a few days there as well as 3 days in Sa pa, treking & home stay and 3 days at Halong Bay.
Vist Hue City, Da nang and market town of Hoi An. Also the costal town of Nha Trang where there’s amazing beaches and sea corals.
On to Ho Chi Ming City, visit the famous Tay Ninh and Cu Chi tunnels. Cai Be on the Mekong Delta for a home stay.
Cambodia
21st – Boat and bus to Phnom Penh for a few days
Visit Kampot and Bokor Mountain National Park. Then to Battambang for a village home stay.
A boat to Siem Reap for Angkor Wat. Hopefully be there for sunset one day and revisit for sunrise the next day.
November
1st – Bus and train to Bangkok, Thailand
A few days in Bangkok before we go to Ayutthaya and then on to Chiang Mai visiting the sticky rice factory and do a bicycle tour.
On to Chiang Rai and possible home stay before a hill-tribe trek.
An overnight train back to Bangkok before heading on to Kanchanaburi. Visit the Bridge over the River Kwai.
December
On to Ko Tao for a few days before hoping over to the islands of Phuket and Phi Phi for a week or two.
On to Krabi and Hat Yai before crossing the border into Malaysia
Visit Penang and Butterworth then train to Kuala Lumpur.
Train back to Singapore then fly on to Sydney, Australia around the 19th. Spend a couple of weeks enjoying Christmas while looking for a more permanent accommodation.
Flexible plans
Obviously these plans might change. That’s the wonderful thing about backpacking and traveling for extended periods of time. You can be flexible with your plans and get a chance to go off the beaten path. I’m really looking forward to the home stays and visiting a few sites and towns you wouldn’t normally go to. The flights are booked as are the Grand Prix tickets so it’ll be a fantastic start to the journey!
I will as ever be blogging throughout our travels. More progress reports on our plans as they are confirmed. If you have been to any of these countries please do leave a comment. I’d love to hear any recommendations on places to go, hidden gems, etc.
Vettel’s weekend!
You know it’s going to be a good race when someone that’s not really into the sport said “I quite enjoyed watching the chinese grand prix”.
And so it was. Another very entertaining qualifying session on the saturday where the pole-sitter only did one flying lap in the last qualifying section. You need to have nerves of steel to do that! But Sebastian Vettel did it with consummate ease.
Then on race day an unexpected and relentless shower dampened the track and caused the race to start under a safety car. Not the best way to start a race but at least we got full race distance unlike Malaysia 2 weeks before. I was surprised how few cars went off the track too. It seems when it’s wet enough for full wet weather tyres the cars stick to the road relatively well. It’s when the track is damp or drying and intermediates are needed then it turns into an ice rink.
Never-the-less a great result and Red Bull’s first win.. And a 1-2 to boot! 4 years in the making. Better late than never and in a car without the controversial split-level diffuser.
Wet weather is often a leveller, helping guys in bad cars keep up with those in good. While it may not have been Jenson Button’s day, 3rd is still a good haul of points. Still leading the championship and still most definitely a title contender. It’s great to see the Red Bulls snapping at their heels.
It’s going to be a very entertaining year in F1.
Chinese F1 Grand Prix Preview
Been really busy of late so not had a chance to even write a post-malaysian F1 blog!
Needless to say F1 has been all over the news of late what with “liargate” and “diffusergate”. Ever get the feeling the whole “gate” thing is overused!?
But that’s all behind us now. Well Diffuser-gate is anyway.Brawn GP Toyota and Williams can go about their business while the other teams frantically try and catch up! The biggest issue for them is that you can’t just bolt on a split-level diffuser and off you go. The air flow to the diffuser has to be just right or it’ll make the car slower, not faster!
So there’s some serious work to be done by them. Don’t expect those teams that moaned the loudest to be fighting for wins just yet. Not from a new diffuser anyway. It’s fair to say Red Bull and McLaren seem to be making headway without the new diffuser, while Ferrari just seem to be going backwards. They’ve removed KERS from both of their cars and without the go-faster-diffuser there’s not much they can do to catch up.
It should be a good race. Although we actually only had the last Chinese grand prix 6 months ago! Expect Brawn up the front with Toyota and Williams snapping at their heels. With the possible surprise from Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber. Expect Alonso to be grumpy and somewhere at the back!
Malaysian F1 Grand Prix Preview
It seems a week in F1 is a long time. With the first race of the season less than a week ago and the almost Hollywood movie like start to the season for Brawn GP and Jenson button, we’re gearing up to Race 2 in Malaysia.
The hours following the Australian Grand Prix seem to be the biggest story at the moment. First announcing hours later than Jarno Trulli didn’t in fact get 3rd place as he had overtaken Lewis Hamilton under safety car conditions (when overtaking is not allowed). During the week it transpired that Lewis had spoken to the American TV network “Speed TV” claiming he’d been given orders to let Trulli pass him. An hour he was summoned in front of the FIA to explain his actions alongside Trulli. Subsequently Trulli lost his 3rd place, demoted 25 seconds, handing 3rd to Lewis.
But it appears the information Lewis gave to the officials was not the same as that given to the TV network. Trulli and Hamilton were once again in front of the FIA on Thursday in Malaysia to explain this discrepancy. Hours later the FIA announced that Lewis Hamilton had indeed “misled” the FIA with the information he gave them and was disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix, Losing the 6 points he had been given, putting Trulli back in 3rd once again.
Usually race events that are investigated can be grey areas. Analysing events that happen on track. Who moved where and when. But this time it was purely down to what Lewis had said. Telling the FIA he had not received any orders to let Trulli pass him, the radio conversations between pit and car proved otherwise, clearing being given 2 orders to let him pass. There’s no denying Lewis lied to the FIA. It’s as simple as that. Check out the full FIA statement and audio segments here.
Jenson Button had to get used to being a dominant winner in Australia very quickly. There’s very little time to celebrate in F1. All the equipment has to be off site by the end of race day. Packed on to planes and cargo ships, the 100 or staff for each team on a plane to Malaysia on the Monday.
Considering Jenson’s lack of a competitive car for over 2 years some may find it surprising how relaxed he is about suddenly having a blisteringly fast car. Almost all F1 drivers have won other championships, it’s in their blood. Even if they start 15th they’re still fighting to win. So it’s no surprise he’s feeling happy and content with his new found status.
The weather forcasters say there’s a 60% chance of rain this weekend. That’s pretty much normal for Malaysia this time of year. The humidity levels are more of a worry to drivers than rain. It’s rarely lower than 70%. If it does rain during the race the Brawn team are yet again in the best position. Both Jenson Button and Reubens Barichello have proved themselves as worthy drivers in the wet. They’re also likely to be at the front of the grid after qualifying, the best place to be if it rains, out of the way of less skilled wet weather drivers who may crash in to you!
This Malaysian grand prix is looking like a classic already. A new dominant team. McLaren and Ferrari on the back foot with much to prove after a dismal Australian grand prix.
Your predictions and opinions are of course welcome. My money’s on Jenson!
