Sandlesracing Blog

Audi Exclusive Tour

Last weekend I had a day out courtesy of Audi, at the Pau circuit in the south of France. I had a whole day driving all kinds of Audis on track and on the road.

First up we had a “workshop” on the Audi R8 Le Mans car, the petrol version, with photos sitting in it, pressing all the buttons and trying to reach the pedals! Then it was the RS4 on track, with a french formula renault champion whose name I can’t remember. That was a nice car to drive!

Then it was out on the road in a Q7, A5, TT 2.0L turbo and finally the S5. Then it was back to the circuit for lunch and a free massage. Then we had some track time in the S3, then onto a slalom course with a 3.0L quattro TT, then offroad in the Q7, and finally a passenger ride in the new R8 with a Le Mans driver taking me round…… very fast.

After all that, I went to Biarritz (or nearby) to stay with Row one night as he was working down there. The following day I did a bit of body boarding in Biarritz, which was a really nice place with a really nice beach for surfing, and there were a lot of surfers out there. Then it was back home to coding again! But it was a good weekend, I think i’ve been sold on Audi’s for the time being.

Check out the photos here.

When fish attack!

I read a while back about jumping sturgeon in the states, that had injured a jetskier. In fact I think it knocked him out as he was riding fast on his jetski, when a large strugeon (i’m guessing more than 10 pounds), jumped out of the water and hit him in the face.

I was a bit sceptical to start with, but then I found this video of jumping carp (again in the states). No wonder he was knocked out! Check out this video of jumping asian carp.

Ski hol in Val Thorens

We went to Val Thorens in January with a load of people Row has skied with before (I only knew 2 people), and we had a great time. The snow wasn’t great at the beginning of the week, but it snowed on the 3rd day and we had 2 great powder days. I even managed to lose both my skis for 10 minutes in snow that was up to my waist!

Anyway, the point of this story is really for the guys and gals that went on the holiday with us. I made a video of our antics because…. well, I like doing it.

So here it is, sorry if I’ve left anyone out, I didn’t have footage of everyone. Best to download and save to your hard drive, then you can watch over and over again (works well in Windows Media Player 11 by the way).

Download Val Thorens ski holiday video

Fixing cars, curry and fireworks!

We went to a bonfire night at some friends house on the 5th for fireworks and a meal. They’re really friends of our parents, but we didn’t have much else to do that Sunday evening so we went.

There were quite a few people there, mainly english people over 55, some french with kids and us. One of the english guys is a judge called John, and the first time we met him was at the same friends house a few months ago. He came to this particular party in his vintage 2CV. When it came time to go home, he was a bit too drunk, and tried to talking franglais to Row, like this:

John: Ah, bonjoor, voose et ici pour fixer mon vwachoor? (just in case this means hello, are you here to fix my car?)

Row (looking a bit perplexed wondering why he’s speaking in french): Oui.

John: Vouse parlay onglay? (Do you speak english?)

Row: yes

John: vouse parlay onglay beeyan? (do you speak good english?)

Row: yes quite well actually

David (another english friend): he’s english John.

John: ah yes ok, vouse prefuray je parler fronsay (would you prefer I speak french).

Row: we can speak english if you want, I’m english.

John: ah yes, I’m english too, so you speak english quite well.

Row and David: yes I’m english.

John: oh, you’re english, well that makes things easier.

Meanwhile, me, my dad and Wayne (whose house it is) are falling around laughing. Row starts to work on John’s “car”, the whole time he’s in and out, talking jibberish and repeating it as well, mixing in the odd wet fart here and there, and not batting an eyelid.

We decide the car wasn’t repairable there and then, which was just as well because he wanted to drive home, he could hardly walk!

We had a curry party last night at some other friends house, where John was once again a guest, but wasn’t drunk. It’s a shame really coz when he’s sober he’s sooooo boring. I was losing the will to live listening to him and his wife talk about rescuing bikes and padlocks from the river outside their house! I have to say though, the curry was quite hot and the dogs fur looks a bit singed now after the amount of farting that’s been going on in our house!

Website design and me

You may be aware (or maybe not) that I’m starting out on a web design career path. This very website is my own handy work (although this blog is powered by Wordpress), and I’ve got a few others already under my belt for friends and a couple of clients (links are at the end of this article).

I decided on web design as I’d always dabbled with it at work, doing the company website, but I never really got into the technical side of things, you just write and put pictures in so it looks nice then load it to the web. Row’s mate Rob got me interested, and showed me how html and css worked (I was surprised how quickly I picked up this geeky code stuff), and then I taught myself some php and sql. And that’s how I’ve got to where I am now, offering my services to anyone who’s willing to pay me.

So if you know someone who wants a site revamp or a whole new site, maybe you could recommend me. Who knows, maybe I’ll give you a ride round on my super orange superjet one day.

DJ Doors and Electrical Services – www.djdoors.co.uk
Jebs Performance Engine Tuning – www.jebsuk.com
Jonathan Evered – www.jonathanevered.com