Ginger DJ Rob

Been planning to do this for years but I think Wireless Festival had always been on the same date. In comparison it was about the same price for entrance at £50 a ticket plus Goodwood FoS didn't specify what would be showing. It was also a chance for me to have some quality father-son time however when he turned up he was not alone! In fact he brought his new (since February) girlfriend along who he'd forgotten to mention...at all. Awkwardness ensued and luckily (for him) we were able to buy another ticket. We knew we had to get up early expecting some traffic (arriving about 9:30am) but really the queues for the car park wasn't too much to complain about. What we didn't expect was the time to walk and queue to the main entrance. It must have taken half an hour with no toilets along the way. You couldn't ignore the amount of helicopters flying in or out which I mistakenly took as a famous person taxi service. Alas it was just a pleasure flight, a very popular ...

I'd been praying for good weather all week for this and watching the forecasts like a hawk with a driving license. Luckily all that happened on the track was the odd flurry of drizzle. So after 2 and a bit hours of M25 and M3 traffic we made it to Thruxton , the other side of Andover to do my birthday present from Kerry. After a long briefing video, three of us were driven around the track in a Mazda 3MPS (hatchback) by an instructor who pointed out where to brake, accelerate, positioning of the track etc. The track had some useful cones to mark these useful points which were greatly appreciated later. Porsche Cayman The next bit was to drive myself in a Porsche Cayman with an instructor pointing out when to brake etc. Whilst I was driving he was marking me on my performance. The car itself was very smooth and quick but driving on a race track was so different to the road you almost lost the speed sensation. There were a few places where you couldn't really floor it like n...

Facebook has turned into my virtual mantle-piece with lots of mates wishing me a happy birthday - certainly brightened up an ordinary day at work on Friday. Kerry spoiled me again this year with another well chosen gift selection. The jaw-dropping, jewel-in-the-crown present was the Ferrari race day experience at Thruxton. As well as the F355, I'll be doing laps in a Maxda MX-3 (to get used to the track), Porsche Cayman, a couple of cars driven by an instructor and a go at a single seater Formula Renault - that's nearly 40 miles on probably the longest track in the UK. Not only that but they'll film me from the dashboard just like Top Gear for a take home DVD. The gift pack was the perfect marketing gimmick with the card-opening sound of a Ferrari starting up and driving off - music to my petrol-head ears. Santa begging James and Emma turned up a bit later for the weekend and before we headed out to the restaurant we heard some seasonal music outside. We opened the door to ...

Preparation With Pav's 40th birthday party themed as anything starting with the letter 'P' Kerry had the idea to go as Pav himself in face-mask form. Either everyone thought it was such a great idea or they were too lazy to get an outfit themselves so we made 7 masks on Friday night. Unfortunately I only had a couple of photos of Pav in high resolution so had to lift them from Facebook. We ended up with 6 identical DJ pose Pavs and one 'teethy goon' Pav. Kerry's printer served well with the output glued to cardboard then some chopsticks sawn in half taped to the back. Party Pav's party itself, hosted at the Clapham's Artesian Well was a great laugh. The birthday boy had punked himself up whereas there were a fair share of police, pirates, more punks, a Playboy bunny , a couple of priests (special mention to Jake for his Father Ted outfit), oh and a pimp. The winner of the competition was a Primadonna but slightly confused by Pav's speech to say ...