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Stacey

Race family

Today sees the end of the 2015 Isle of Man TT, with the prestigious Senior Superbike race.

The Isle of Man Senior TT is the most awe-inspiring, heart-in-the-mouth motorcyle race in the world, but this year was a little bit more special because the team we used to work with won 2 races. Team Traction Control won the two Supersport races with Ian Hutchinson onboard, the first time Hutchy has won TT races since returning from the accident that nearly caused him to lose a leg.

While listening to the race on the radio, I got to thinking a bit about the fun times we had a couple of years ago in the team.

For 2.5 years we worked with Keith Flint’s Team Traction Control, when we were a club-racing based team. In that time we went on to win the Clubman Endrance Championship, followed directly by the National Endurance Championship. During those years we had a brilliant time, travelling the country for races, spending a lot of time standing in the rain and making some great new friends. Probably the best thing that came out of the whole experience was the new friends we made, a lot of who we still see, but the whole thing was pretty special. It felt a bit like a family, which is where being called ‘race mum’ by the team came from.

Endurance racing ran over a 3-hour period, with 2 riders and 2 bikes. The riders for the National Championship were Steve Mercer (also competing this week in the IOM) and Ben Neeves, and mine and Madge’s role was to set the strategy for the race and manage the timings – not as easy as it sounds when just anything can happen – including rain, safety cars, crashes and breakdowns. Sometimes all in the same 3-hours! Every two weeks, throughout two and a half summers, I experienced the most stressful 3 hours of my life, and have never been so wet! No one wants to be responsible for the decisions that could cost the team the race or make a mistake and get us a penalty, so it was maximum concentration at all times. I learned a lot from how the team functioned and the trust the riders place in the contact they have with the pitwall – the ‘ship to shore’. When you are part of a team like that everyone has to absolutely trust eachother, as one slip could at minimum lose you the race/championship and at worse, be a lot worse – and you all have to pull together and be solid in front of the other teams.

We were super-organised, even having our timing sheets pre-printed and spending ages working out different scenarios, which we ran through at the team meeting ahead of the race. Even though we were an amateur team we all took it very seriously, not least because it cost a lot of money, but because we had a massive amount of pride. It really was a case of ‘if you’re going to do something, do it properly’. But in the end, you can’t predict what’s likely to happen on track and any of the many variables could play a part. Best-laid plans quite often get scuppered! There were moments of hilarity but also moments of high-drama and protest and I do miss the team spirit. The work on the day was serious, but there were quite a lot of classic moments outside of that, that will have to stay with the ‘what goes on tour…’ ethic!

Part-way through the National season we also had a little trip over to Northern Ireland for Steve to compete in the NW200 – though unfortunately the weather once again stepped in and there was a lot more drinking than there was racing!

Following winning the National Endurance Championship the team has gone off in a different direction, now competing professionally in BSB and of course, at the Isle of Man. And life got in the way a bit, so we haven’t been around race bikes so much this year. But we still feel a small part of the team and always follow TTC on the BSB card, and this week on Manx Radio and the ITV4 coverage. At some point we’ll get down to a BSB race, but part of me is quite enjoying watching the racing from the warmth (and dryness) of my own home 🙂

Most of the fantastic photos in this set are by Jordan McLachlan. Tea-making and stand-in riding honors often went to Michael Neeves and the glamour (and Pot Noodles) of the team was regularly brought by Emily Riches. Paul Berryman gets the ~~blame~~ credit for getting me into it in the first place. Happy times 🙂

12th June 2015

Live

Harrods Haul

Forgot I bought some new cosmetics when I was a Harrods, so looking forward to sorting out my manky make up bag this weekend. I love having a clean new bag and new things to try. I tend to always buy Clinique for the skin products – moisturiser and foundation and their new chubby lipstick pencils are great.

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11th June 2015

Live

Summer toes

On the final day of my crazy week I met my Mum at Harrods for a Birthday treat of a pedicure at the lovely Urban Retreat spa. After a really tough few weeks Mum needed to relax and have some fun, and it was the perfect way to end the week.

We do this about once or twice a year, and it was fab to sit back and relax in the big comfy chairs, drinking tea and chatting. At Urban Retreat they do the best pedicure ever. It lasts a full hour, and they take so much care over every aspect of it.

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9th June 2015

Eat

60th Birthday celebrations at Cafe Murano

The crazy week didn’t show any signs of slowing down come the weekend. We had a family dinner planned at Cafe Maurano in St James’ on Saturday evening, with cocktails first at Coya, a peruvian basement bar and restaurant on Picadilly. Both venues had been chosen by Madge’s mum, and we’d not been to either so were looking forward to it.

The Cosmo at Coya was lovely, if a bit sweeter than I prefer, but it took forever for the drinks to come, and when they did our round arrived without two of them. The bar is very lively, with a good atmosphere, but you probably need to order two drinks at a time, especially as the first one usually goes down quite quickly!

From Coya we headed to Cafe Maurano. I’ve been to the main Maurano restaurant in Mayfair before for lunch, so was really happy to know we were going to try this less formal sister restaurant.

It didn’t disapoint. The dining room has a lovely long bar along one side of the first half of the room, with chairs at the bar (fave thing!). The noise level and decor was perfect – informally classy – enough to know you are somewhere nice, without feeling stuffy or formal.

The menu starts with a selection of nibbles and runs to 5 courses if you want it to. I tried some of the anchovies as a nibble (lovely) but saved myself for the 3-course spectacular, starting with the dish of the night, which was succulent sweet roasted peppers with homemade ricotta. I followed this with squid ink tagliolini, crab and radicchio – which was also awesome. The main course was a chicken milanese with salad – which was lovely, though I couldn’t finish it, which was a shame. I was waaaay too stuffed to even consider a dessert.

The restaurant was very, very good and I would definitely go back. It was also really good value, not too expensive at all, and the staff were great – attentive without being overbearing. The ideal place for a family celebration – in our case a 60th Birthday.

Like an utter idiot I didn’t take any pictures of the whole evening – so you’ll have to imagine how lovely it was 🙂

8th June 2015

Live

Crazy 3 days

Start of the week, start of June.

The week started sensibly, and on Tuesday evening we stopped off after a bad day at work for a cheeky cocktail and some tapas at Iberica in Farringdon. They do a nice Cosmopolitan, though the tapas is not the best I’ve ever had. However, it does slightly make up for it by being able to sit at the bar and eat, which is my favourite thing. After a few drinks and nibbles we headed off home and got in at a sensible time.

Photo from the Iberica website

By Wednesday there were client drinks to attend, and while I only intended to stay for one, the sun was shining and a couple turned into (quite) a few. Rather than being good and going home, we stayed out drinking with friends and booked into The Zetter Hotel in Farrindgon. I’ve eaten there and had a drink in the bar, as well as staying previously at The Townhouse, I’ve never actually stayed in the Zetter itself. The room was very nice, though it was a brief stay, as I was up and out for a breakfast meeting at Smiths. Amazingly I had no ill effects from the night before and the meeting went well.

Friday morning saw me back at Smiths for another breakfast – I could get used to a cooked breakfast every day!

On Friday evening we had planned to go home early, but with everyone going to the pub for leaving and birthday drinks, we thought we’d stop off for one. One became man, then cocktails at The Hospital Club and an after-show party at the extremely un-partylike venue of The Easy Hotel. It was an absolute riot, and great, great fun. But what a hectic week!

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7th June 2015

Live

The end of May

The weather is still a bit chilly and rainy – we haven’t had a proper sunny warm day yet. Not a full-on t-shirt day anyway, though the sun is starting to poke through here and there. It’s been a pretty busy week in work and out of it, and I seem to have done a lot more than I was planning to this time last week.

We had an unexpected visit to Nobu in Old Park Lane with our friends Ben and Emily. They were in London and texted to see if we were around, on the off-chance on Wednesday.

The cocktails and food were amazing, as usual for Nobu. We normally go to the one in Berkeley Square but they were full so we went to the Old Park Lane restaurant. I think I prefer it actually, with its views over Hyde Park. For a Wednesday night it was really busy, but because we were early we still managed to order the Bento boxes. Apparently they usually stop at 6.45pm but they made an exception, which was ace as they are the best thing on the menu – though I’m probably biased because I like having lots of different things to taste and try, without the effort of working out what to order.

We ordered two of the deluxe and two of the regular boxes, with a side order of the signature black cod. The black cod and the rock shrimp tempura were gorgeous, as were the Cosmopolitans. The puddings were also amazing, though without a doubt a step too far! I ordered the Fuji Apple Crumble to share, which was seared fuji apple with sesame oil, miso salt, toffee, peanut ice cream and coconut crumble and we couldn’t finish it, even though it was delish.

I was stuffed when we left, and practically waddled to the cab rank. Definitely a nice way to spend a Wednesday evening!

I also got to do a flying visit to Reigate on the way back from a meeting this week and have a quick cup of coffee with my friend Katie, and I’ve carried on listing more unwanted clutter on ebay, including fat jeans – as an incentive not to put weight on again, and some old books and Apple accessories. Still have loads more to list, and loads to sell at a car boot, but I learned from last time that if you have everything finish on ebay at the same time and it all sells then you have a mountain of packing and posting to do.

Yesterday was my Mum’s Birthday so I was up and out early to buy a cake and flowers – her real present is when we go to Urban Retreat next Sunday – so I just got her a little gift to open. It was only when I got the candles out that I realised I was missing a ‘D’. Luckily it didn’t matter, and the raspberry and coconut cake was yummy.

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31st May 2015

Live

Doing nothing…eek!

I love this talk and the points raised by Andy Puddicombe.

When is the last time you did absolutely nothing for 10 whole minutes? Not texting, talking or even thinking? Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe describes the transformative power of doing just that: Refreshing your mind for 10 minutes a day, simply by being mindful and experiencing the present moment.

I love what he says about the present moment being underrated. As he says, ‘It sounds so ordinary, and yet we spend so little time in the present moment that it’s anything but ordinary. There was a research paper that came out of Harvard, just recently, that said on average, our minds are lost in thought almost 47 percent of the time. At the same time, this sort of constant mind-wandering is also a direct cause of unhappiness. To spend almost half of our life lost in thought and potentially quite unhappy just kind of seems tragic, especially when there’s something we can do about it, when there’s a positive, practical, achievable, scientifically proven technique which allows our mind to be more healthy, to be more mindful and less distracted.’

I am certainly very, very guilty of never doing nothing (bad grammar!) and often not living in the present moment, as I’m always thinking of the next thing to do, or the next thing that needs attention. I have a job that pretty much demands I am always living in the future, planning what might happen tomorrow, next week, next month – worrying about the ‘thing’ later or the next day. Constantly on email, phone, Skype, HipChat, text, Twitter, blah blah… So, I find it really hard to even conceive of doing nothing – for me, the time when you’re not doing something is when you read a magazine or a book or look at the internet for fun or see friends. Doing nothing is a pretty scary idea actually, so for me, I think this is almost a case of brain re-training…not sure I can do it but I might try 🙂

27th May 2015

Live

It’s new handbag day!

Attempting to ditch the well-worn rucksack and find a bag that will fit my laptop and all the rest of my rubbish, without giving me chronic backache.

This bag, from Mary Portas, is nice and roomy and structured. Let’s see if it works out, or whether I’m back in the rucksack within the week 🙂

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27th May 2015

Live

Middle-aged pursuits

In the old days (ie, Easter weekend, about a month ago), a Bank Holiday weekend meant an extra hangover day. But this weekend I was extra good and used the long weekend to actually do stuff.

The weather was nice on Sunday so I decided it was time to start The Garden Project. The first thing to do was actually try and see the grass for the, err, grass. At least 3 ft high, the meadow masquerading as a lawn was the first thing to tackle. We’ve only got a very small, not very powerful lawn mower, so it took quite a lot of effort to get through it. It also became pretty obvious pretty quickly that the grass was actually quite a lot of weed.

Oh, and we found a visitor in the undergrowth.

Mowing the grass was pretty hard work, so I left that to himself, while I focused on the bindweed and the patio weeds, along with clearing out and preparing pots, ready for new flowers. There is much more work to do on the patios, just to get the rest of the moss off and jetwash them again, but for now it was more a case of making the garden presentable than anything else.

After a couple of hours we whizzed off to the garden centre and decided to buy some herbs to start a small kitchen garden, along with some tomatoes and peppers. We bought tarragon, thyme and mint, to go with the rosemary and sage we still had from last year. We also bought a few little flowers, as these are supposed to encourage the hover flies, which eat the nasty bugs that eat the plants. That’s the theory anyway. You can tell I’ve read up on this – not!

So we got back, in proud possession of a rake and about fifty quid’s worth of plants, but which time we were pretty knackered. So we finished off the grass, collecting eight bags of cuttings in the process – which is pretty amazing considering how small it is, and planted our tomatoes and herbs.

I finished off the planting on Monday morning, and did a heroic trip to the tip with the garden rubbish. Along with most of Sussex it seems – clearly the hot weekend attraction round these parts.

So, providing I remember to actually water the plants we bought, I’m hoping this is the start of a very small, but productive kitchen garden. Next time I shall do the patios and perhaps cut the overgrown bushes back. It’s nice to see the garden looking better, for sure, and the aching muscles from a bit of hard work is quite nice too.

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26th May 2015

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