Gran Premio de Belgica

Now you see it.

Back on call up.

No Permit to Blat

Received today from one of the regulars : 'I can't get the car out of the garage!'

His Blat licence is under serious review.

Simple Pleasures

A daytime blat - some miles - lunch - some more miles - rain - tea - home...and then a night time run

Wednesday: mid week blues, but met check seems OK... anyone fancy a cheeky blat?

Most seem to have their work/life balance all out of kilter, but Rob W with fresh MOT and ink barely dry on the tax disc was up for it and keen to scrub in the new tyres. Paul C rearranged his life's responsibilities to join us and a plan was set: Hayling Island for a big plate of whatever we fancy at Delia's Diner.

Hayling Island remains a destination only for a specific few types: by reducing the average age considerably with each of our visits alludes to one, and by being considered 'more local' than most would indicate another. A destination yes, but for a holiday? If it's better than where they spend the rest of their time, I really have sympathy and won't be visiting.

By contrast the run down to the coast is superb, traffic not withstanding, we leap-frogged our way down the Meon Valley, across the downs overlooking Portsmouth...

...and dropped into Cosham for fuel, only to loose Paul.We watched as he circled the roundabout and explored the various exits whilst we topped up.

He'd ordered his pasta lunch and was sitting with coffee by the time we'd given up waiting and decided to head for Delia's.

Food was good ;-)

Whilst the clouds gathered....

Paul finished his pasta just as we started our lunch, he wished he'd had some of mine instead ,of which he then did, that completed, he realised that his responsibilities were waiting for him at home...in half an hour! He left in a hurry.

And the clouds gathered some more whilst the holiday makers tried to make holiday. Rob and I soon left them too it, the island's Scarecrow festival did little to encourage us to stay, many of the unknowing exhibits were particularly convincing as they idled by the pirate amusement arcade...mmm.

The Sussex countryside was soon welcome relief, the freshly gravelled roads less so (another key road struck off the blat list for a few weeks) and , with a few more miles in amongst the South Downs, a retreat was called when the gathering clouds delivered their promise. A quick '180' and the welcome lure of more tea and a piece of cake saw the rain storm through.

A time check confirmed that we'd manage to lose a whole afternoon, this blat route is usually completed in three hours including the breakfast stop, today it would conclude at close to 6 hours!! Analysis showed that 3 hours of it were taken in sitting and eating and drinking, half an hour meeting up for the blat and another half an hour filling up with fuel and looking for the missing man! Which is how we now managed to find ourselves amongst the reality of rush hour at this point, not that this quiet corner of the county had given any hint as to the time, decade or era.

With the tea shop closing around us and the roads now dry, a modified 'return to reality route' avoiding the worst of the traffic was planned. The old A3 going north is nice these days, everyone's on the big A3, so this is a good stretch... shame about the cones on one stretch of the dual carriageway bits. Thing is they're spaced just perfectly for a 7 slalom course, and with no sign of works or any possible reason for their placement...well, it was just too tempting!

Rob headed off North to his territory and I too returned home for a change of clothes, more food, fuel and enough time to turn around and head out again for the ReHab 7 club meeting over in Heckfield, Hampshire way. We stood in the pub car park and talked about the day, and many days like it, looked at cars like ours and tried to spot a constellation resembling a number 7 . To no avail, but I did spot an outline of Hayling Island, it went unmentioned.

The 30 mile return run (should have been longer) with an i-Pod soundtrack (something obvious usually suits) and cool clear air, all rounded off an unexpected day of 7evening. A few gallons of petrol, a few £ on sustenance and a handful of hours poured into the selfish cup were taken with pleasure.Could do with a few more days like that...

Simple.