I'm Back!!!

I'm back and hopefully able to read all your fantastic blogs again, without the dreaded "about blank" tab popping up and throwing me off the net.. fingers crossed.

Well what a busy weekend i had last weekend.. I went on Saturday evening to watch my favourite ice hockey team The Hull Stingrays play at The Hull Arena. I've not been in almost a year as apart from the season ending, i've spent a lot of time out of town at my other halfs home.

It was great to catch up with my friends too and have a giggle with them.


Dez, Dave & Caroline been themselves!!! hahaha

I've been supporting Ice Hockey in Hull for almost 22 years now and last season was the first season i'd not been to every match. They beat Cardiff Devils 4-2 so it was a good game to watch with plenty of fights too!!

On Sunday i had a walk down to The Hull Marina to watch the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race set off on their 10 month voyage. What an amazing site to see the 10 yachts out on the River Humber ready to set sail on a voyage of a lifetime and so emotional too.

Sir Robin Knox-Johnston

Thousands turned up to watch the start of the race

This Sunday we're going to Rockingham in Northamptonshire to watch the BTCC and i can't wait. I'm a real sociable person and we've got so many friends we meet up with at the meets its fantastic.

Apart from all this excitement of been out and about i've also had a weird pain in my stomach. The only thing i can describe it as is like a period pain. But as i no longer have those ( Thank heavens) it most certainly aint that.. I'm not too worried though as i visit my Oncologist next month for my 6 month check up so he'll have a prod about and see whats what.

my life in the fast lane

Earlier in the year, Dave booked himself a place to go to the VXR owners evening especially for Vauxhall high performance cars.. Only VXR drivers could go plus a guest too.

Friday was the day…. We drove down to Rockingham in Northamptonshire to the circuit.

After a BBQ Dave and other owners had the chance to drive some of Vauxhall high performance cars. I was chief photographer for the evening. I could have driven them too but it wasn’t for me.. Instead I got to be a passenger in one driven by Matt Neal who is one of Vauxhalls BTCC drivers



Prior to been driven by him, we’d had a chat during the BBQ and I became a trollop and asked if I could have my photo taken with him, he laughed when I said the trollop word. Although I’m 5ft 6 and thought I was tall. Matt is 6ft 6 so I felt tiny!

Anyway, back to my drive round the track… As I was about to get into the car, all sexy in my crash helmet, the Vauxhall chief instructor asked me if I’d like a photo taken with Matt by the car, I explained I’d had pics taken earlier but he said you can have more here now then, and got Matt to climb out of his car and pose with me!! Not one other person got that service, made me feel special.


As I got into the car after the mini photo session, I turned to plug in my seat belt only to crash heads with Matt. He said “Oy you just nutted me” made me chuckle it did.
We set off round the twisty turny track with hairpin bends here and there at 115 MPH!! blooming marvellous it was, I couldn’t stop smiling.

As we came back to the pits, Matt asked if I’d enjoyed myself I turned to him and said he’d made my life! I told him about been diagnosed with cancer and that since finishing treatment 2 years ago I wanted to live and have fun.. He put his hand on my leg and said “ Aww bless you, you‘ve made my life telling me that” then said I’d been a pleasure to meet as I got out of the car.

One very happy bunny got out of the car and hasn't stopped smiling since.. i now have a need for speed

VXRacing VIP Hospitality

Yesterday we had the most fabulous day ever..

I’d booked an early Birthday present for Dave of a VXRacing VIP Hospitality day at the BTCC races at Croft circuit.
The envelope arrived with our VIP guest passes along with a special pass for us to park the car in a private car park and not with the other cars.

We arrived at the circuit just after 8am, parked the car right next to the hospitality marquee and let the people know we’d arrived.
Straight away we were served morning coffee and told that breakfast would be served between 9 and 10.30. and given a VXRacing baseball cap signed by Matt Neal, one of the drivers



We were directed to our table which had a name card with our names on already placed at our seats, the table looked really nice.

At 9am Breakfast was served and there was plenty to choose from
We could choose from the following:






Soft floured breakfast bap filled with the choice of smoked bacon or Cumberland sausage served with sauted mushrooms.
Pan au chocolate
Danish Pastries

Cold meats and cheeses including home cured gammon ham, Mortadella and Salami.
Austrian smoked mini edam, Danish blue & belle passe cheeses.

Freshly exotic fruit salad
Muesli and fresh milk
Selection of breakfast and herbal teas
Fine filtered Columbian coffee
Fruit juice.

After Breakfast a dinky little wagon thingy came to collect us to take us to the other side of the circuit for a garage tour.



We were taken inside the garages and told all about the cars and tyres and had the chance to get up close and personal with the racing cars.


Dave on our garage tour

After that we could have had a lift back to the marquee but decided as it was such a nice day that we’d walk and have a look at the other cars and side stalls etc.
Later in the morning we all had our photo’s taken with one of the Vauxhall VXR racing cars by a professional photographer. At noon the first of the BTCC races was on so we watched it from our private viewing area ( so posh hahaha)
Between 12.30 & 13.30 lunch was served. We had a choice of the following:

Cold Selection

Honey Roast Gammon
Roast Turkey Breast
Cured Meats

Ploughmans Pie
Roasted Mediterranean vegetable quiche

Peppered Smoked mackerel
Smoked salmon rosettes

Mixed Leaf & Herb salad
Tomato and red onion salad with balsamic vinegar
Waldorf salad
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hot Selection

21 day aged sirloin steak from BBQ
Baby back pork ribs in a sticky BBQ marinade
Scottish Salmon fillets seared and oven roasted served on a tomato and sweet pepper concasse
Herb buttered new potatoes, green beans and cauliflower florets
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dessert
Classic lemon tart with pouring cream
Summer berry cheesecake

The meal was absolutely gorgeous. Later in the afternoon after the second BTCC race it was time for afternoon tea which included homemade chocolate cookies and a selection of tray cakes



Then we had a visit from the 3 Vauxhall drivers, they gave us a little talk and signed autographs at the end before leaving in the little wagon for a lift to the garages and to start the final race.




We had an absolutely fantastic day even if it did rain by mid afternoon, it didn’t spoil a thing. Vauxhall most definately looked after us, even the mobile toilets were the best i've ever seen!!

What a wonderful week

Eeeeeekkk. I’ve been so busy, I forgot to blog!!

Last Sunday we were at Oulton Park for the British Touring Car Championships, and what a glorious hot summers day it was. Luckily I had thought in advance and decided to freeze some bottled water so it would be nice and cool for us to drink. Unfortunately at 11am it was still frozen so we had to drink the dribbles hahaha.We both woke on Monday morning very sun burnt.. Dave had legs like crispy bacon, and i had very sexy white circles round my eyes, where my sunglasses had been.






We met up with some of Dave’s friends from his car club and had a giggle with them too.



On Monday we picked up Bertie & Molly from the kennels and took them to The Humber Bridge Park where they had a 3 hour run round the woods and a lovely long swim in the lake.







On Thursday I had an appointment in the town and could really have done with not having to go but unfortunately I had to. I was having one of my dizzy days!! As we walked along the street I started veering right as the dizziness was making me go that way.. Weird feeling but I’m kind of getting used to it, although when I’m like this I never normally venture outside of my home.


This coming Sunday were going to the Performance Vauxhall Show
at Santa Pod. We’ve never been before and are really looking forward to it, even though the weather isn’t going to be too good we’ll catch up with some of last weeks friends and no doubt be giggling from us meeting up with them at about 5am!!

Brands Hatch BTCC

I’m shattered!
We set off to meet Dave’s VXR buddies at 2.15 yesterday morning. Basically, I woke at 8am on Saturday morning and tried to have an afternoon sleep but as I mentioned, I only managed an hour.

Dave had about 5 hours sleep and I woke him at 1.30am with a mug of coffee. I felt fine, I’d showered, washed and dried my hair and was all ready to play!

We met 2 of Dave’s friends at Sheffield, had a bit of a natter to them before setting off to the next meeting point. Us been the third car in the line. As we had almost got to Watford Gap something happened on the road, something blue shot past us and the next thing the other 2 cars started to pull in to a layby.

The first driver had hit a deer!! It was ok and had just stood there but it did quite a bit of damage to the front bumper, which had shot past us! We all got out of the cars and climbed the banks by the side of the road away from passing traffic, that were driving over the poor mans bumper and bits of it where flying all over the place.
He rang the AA who said they’d be with him in about an hour. There was oil coming out of his engine too so he wasn’t going anywhere! He told us he’d give the day a miss and that we should carry on, which we did.



After many stops at various motorway service stations, picking up more cars for the convoy, we eventually arrived at Brands Hatch.

The weather was lovely and sunny but the grandstand where we sat was very cold! It seemed quite surreal. We looked down and everyone was in summer clothes and we were wrapped up for winter!


Heres Me looking all windswept and Dave pulling a face as usual haha

Anyway, we had a great view of the circuit and had a really good day although by 4pm I was flagging and ready for my bed. The final race finished just before 6pm and we set off home.
I can’t sleep in a car unfortunately and by the time we got through my front door at 9.30pm I was whacked! I dumped my bag, had a quick wash and dived under the duvet. 3 ½ hours wasn’t too bad a time to get back but it seemed a lifetime as I was so tired. 37 ½ hours with no sleep is a definate first for me!

Need for Speed

Late on Thursday afternoon, we arrived back in Hull. We left Newcastle in glorious sunshine and as we hit the M62 it dropped 7 degrees in temperature! Also it was really misty too.. Typical Hull.
We decided we’d go to the Speedway in Scunthorpe on Friday evening,to watch the Scunthorpe Scorpions race against the Birmingham Bombers. Its only about ½ an hour away. We stopped off at a friends house and he came along too. We laughed all night at almost anything! We needed to do something as, although we were all well wrapped up, it was absolutely freezing. Oh and Scunthorpe won 53-40


Today we took Molly & Bertie to the kennels for the weekend, we call it their hotel. They have lots of fun there, barking at all the other dogs and getting spoilt by the kennel maids. As we handed them over to Laura, they trotted off and never even looked back!!
On the way to the kennels, we dropped in at The Hull Animal Welfare Trust

Both Molly & Bertie are rescue dogs and this is where they came from so we thought we’d let the staff see how well they both are. Its 3 years in September since I rescued Bertie and next month we’ll have had Molly for a year.


We had a look around the kennels and had a stroke of the dogs wanting a home.
While I was chatting to one of the volunteers, I noticed Dave on his knees talking to a German Shepherd called Benson.
Benson is a year old and is gorgeous. Here’s what they say about him





"Benson lived in rented accommodation until the landlord found out. In the past, probably when he was a young dog, he was attacked by another dog and his face was torn. The vet stitched him up but now one side of his face in slightly lop-sided. This doesn't distract from his good looks. The photo shows his 'good side' "




He has the most gorgeous eyes too and is so affectionate. As myself and the volunteer started to go outside, Dave started to follow us, he said if he stayed any longer Benson would be coming with us. I’ve honestly never seen Dave’s eyes go glassy before. It really touched me. Unfortunately we don’t have the room for a large dog as well as our 2. Here’s hoping Benson finds a loving owner.


After dropping Molly & Bertie off at the kennels, we came home and I did the sandwiches and things, ready for tomorrow. Then I had a bit of a sleep, I had hoped to have more than an hour but it just wasn’t meant to be.


We’re setting off at 2.30 in the morning, to head down to Brands Hatch for the BTCC racing. Dave is a special guest along with about 80 or so other VXR car owners who we’re meeting at various motorway service stations on the way.

Should be quite a sight, all those VXR’s convoying down there.