I finished off Sunday by going to the Italian restaurant in a little arcade down Parliament Street. I had an Inferno pizza. Salami and pepperoni with chillies. Not your common old jalapeno though but a fiery red sauce. Can’t say it was the best pizza I’ve ever had but it filled a gap and options for eating out every night are rather limited in Ramsey. I washed it down with a bottle of Peroni Red, my first alcohol on the island.
Had decided I’d go up to watch at The Gooseneck today, so was up fairly early and had sausage sarnie for brekkie. Matty, he’s a star when it comes to the brekkies, did two rounds though, too much for me to manage in one sitting, so Candy wrapped the second up for my lunch.
I was early enough at the corner to get a decent viewpoint and right by the loudspeaker, so no problems with keeping tabs on the race commentary. It was a bit chilly but I was prepared, with fleecy jumper and neck warmer on. It was fairly bright though and I lay down to await the first race, the Supersport 600 race. The race was about a lap and a half old when it was red flagged. We later learnt that someone had died in a high speed accident. A rather unpleasant start to the day but one of those things you have to accept is possible if you come to race and spectate. There was a long delay before the race was rerun and the day’s schedule was altered as a result. Following that race, there was a sidecar practice session, a Subaru demonstration lap and then the electric bike practice. The Superstock race, originally planned for 15:15 was put back to 18:30, so I decided to head back into Ramsey and watch that from the square.
I hadn’t realised how sunny it had been during the day, until, that was, till I got home and saw my face in the mirror. Beetroot red cheeks and white panda eyes from my sunglasses. Nice!
I thought it was probably about time I tried some Manx ale, so when I went back out, I headed for The Swan pub. You can sit in the garden and get a couple of different views of the circuit, so you can imagine, it’s a popular spot. At the bar I got chatting to this bloke. I then noticed Matty sitting at a table with some people, one I recognised as his sister. As I walked over to him, the other guy walked to that table too. Turns out he’s a friend. We watched racing together from the pub and when the racing was over, they invited me back to their place for a B-B-Q. This didn’t seem very practical, given the time, so Chinese takeaway was ordered instead and back we went to the house of one girls mum, who was also at the pub.
The evening was quite unlike anything I’ve experienced. They were so hospitable to this stranger in their midst, but aside from their friendliness, I was shown round the house (part of), which includes a medieval styled dining room and the garage, where sit a tiny Honda 125 Dream racer and a 1917 Model T Speedster. I had seen the latter on the road on Sunday and now I was given the chance to sit on it, complete with goggles, furry hat and long elbow gloves! Quite amazing. I have some pictures of me on the car, if I can ever get them uploaded to flickr. Having sat down to watch the day’s highlights on ITV4, I bid them farewell but not before they invited me to a B-B-Q on Friday, Senior race day, at another of their houses, right on the course, just after May Hill. I’ve not made any other plans yet as to where I’ll watch from, so I may take them up on their offer, especially if it means free grub ;-)
Bedtime now, it’s already Tuesday. No plans yet made for tomorrow. I think the forecast is rain, so need to think carefully before going out on the bike.
That’s all for now.
Great pix bruv.
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