Been a bit hectic the last couple of days, hence the delayed update to the blog.
Yes, on Friday I was certainly wishing I had been lucky with the weather. A promising start soon clouded over. My tummy filled with another cooked brekkie and having said my goodbye to Eric, whom I probably wouldn’t see again before I left, I decided to stay local and watch from the park a little way down from the bus station. Candy said I could go to her mum’s place to watch and join their b-b-q if I liked. I left the invitation open. It was much appreciated but I was a little hesitant at encroaching on a family occasion.
Can you believe it, Senior TT day is a bank holiday in IOM. I can’t imagine anywhere else where they would give people a day off, just for a bike race. Excellent! Anyway, I got my stuff together and walked the five minutes or so to the park. I found a spot on the fence near a couple with two young kids from Aberdeen. They had a radio, which I’ve discovered is a must to get the full enjoyment out of the occasion, so I was sorted. The programme was supposed to be (as of Thursday), Yamaha parade, Senior TT, Subaru lap and Centenary celebration lap. The commentary from the Grandstand in Douglas was winding up to the parade starting, in glorious sunshine, whilst at Ramsey we were staring up at some ominous black clouds. Within minutes, the rain started. I popped out my brolly (99p and still not totally broken!) and waited for the shower to pass. Needless to say, the parade lap was postponed, even though just 15 or so miles away over the mountain, it was brilliant sunshine. It became quite chilly where I was but at least the rain had stopped. I decided to go back and put some more clothes on and get my waterproof jacket. This was, least I thought, where the now detached spike on my brolly would come into its own. I stuck the spike in the ground and popped my rucksack underneath, in case it rained again. Well of course it did. I got back to the digs and put on my two thin jumpers. I already had the fleecy one on, so that went back on over the top. Whilst this was taking place it decided to pour again. Waterproof jacket on I headed back to the park, only to find the wind had got underneath the brolly tipping it over and leaving my rucksack, with camera inside, to get soaked. Thanks must go to the Scottish couple (not those with the kids, they’d gone) who stood by and watched my stuff getting wet.
Wasn’t long before the rain started again and they postponed the race till 15:30. In the meantime The Yamaha parade lap took place, the Subaru lap and the celebration lap, all on drying roads. The sun had finally decided to show its face. By this time I’d left the park and was wondering where I should watch the race from. I knew Candy’s mum lived on a fast part of the circuit but I figured I’d not get anywhere to stand on a slower part of the course at this late juncture. And so, I made my way round there.
When I arrived, the ‘party’ was in full swing. Once again I was made to feel welcome by everyone. That really helps when undertaking a trip like this on your own, so I thank them for that. It wasn’t long before the racing got underway. I’d positioned my Gopro just on the edge of the driveway and started it as they began leaving the grandstand. Less than 10 minutes later we were all hanging over the garden wall watching McGuinness flash past, no more than 6 feet away. I’m guessing they are travelling at about 130mph at that point. It’s quite exhilarating I must say and you feel a strong blast of air as they whizz by. My camera shutter was going ten to the dozen to try and capture them. It was a perfect end to an up and down (weather wise) racing week. The race finally took place in perfect weather conditions and John McGuinness took his 17th TT victory. Guy Martin pushed hard for another rostrum in second and Bruce Anstey grabbed the final step of the podium.
Racing over, thoughts turned to food and the b-b-q was lit. It seemed to take forever to get anything cooked on it, by which time the sun had long since gone behind the trees and the chill had set in again. In the end as the food came off the barbie, it was transferred to the oven indoors. I had to keep an eye on the time as I still had my packing to do and was anxious about not getting away too late but also about just yaffling down some food and then doing a runner. I didn’t eat a lot, couple of pieces of chicken, a pork chop and a burger in a bap but that was all I needed after the breakfast I’d had. In fact that was the case most days. I was usually too full to eat lunch!
My ferry was at 8:45 Saturday. For reasons known only to the Steampacket company, you have to check in at 6:15. That meant I’d probably need to leave about 5:30 to allow for holdups/diversions, which in turn meant getting up about 4:45. So, I said my goodbyes to Candy, Matty, Casey and the rest of the clan and made my way back to the digs. Packing, bar the last minute items was completed by 23:30 and I snuggled down under Casey’s duvet one last time. There would barely be time to nod off before I was getting up again.
And so to my last day on the island………..
