Club Arnage

I'm warm again!! 
Trip back was a trifle moist on Sunday evening.
Home after a great race and a great week.
Great to see everyone and hope you all returned without mishap.

I'm clean again.  :-\ :-\

Ian delivered home.  Many thanks to Laura for the Breakfast.
Phil delivered to Lymington as requested.  Thanks to Margaret for the Roll and Tea.
Still need to get rid of Doris.  (She's now clean too!!! ) To either Wokingham or LHR.

Great to see everyone again.  Let's doit again next year.


t.

LHR please driver so I can find out what's happening about this bloody ash cloud...

One last beer first though I think.   ;D

Dx

Thanks for the transport Tom, and the company of Doris and Phil, sorry i lived upto my snoring name. All Presure washed  down, a weeks growth shaved, scared my self on bike to work, arrived at 10am, just got to get through to 6.30 before home and real sleep.

bugger  :'(

I missed dx :(



Next year?

b

Just got back and now smell nice, going to now have a beerio and watch highlights on the box...

Arrived back at High Wycombe this evening, after stopping off near Rouen last night, and had a good run back today - lovely to pass and wave at Big Irtha making stately progress up the autoroute yesterday towards Rouen.

A grand race and a grand week away with friends; as usual, nice to see and catch up with all I met, The Brethren and DFH were their marvellously hospitable selves, and there was the particularly nice surprise of Doris making it over this year. 

Roll on next year....

MG Mark

Not long back home after a relatively relaxed trip back. Fantastic race with all the emotions - the McNish and Rockenfeller shunts were truly disturbing, their survival a testament to modern safety technology. An excellent race where we really didn't know who would prevail even after 23 hours plus, and in all classes. No work later today, giving a bit of time to return to normality.

Nice to share a bit of time with old (and not so old) friends.

Accommodation booked for next year, now all we need is for the ACO to sort out the ticketing to take out some of the uncertainty.

Here's to next year. What price a larger contingent of Aston fans after they surprise us all and make a silk purse out of a sow's ear??

Back home yesterday but too tired to even look at a computer. Great to meet up with Ade, Wishy, Ollie and Neil and sorry I missed you Debs, you weren't there on the couple of times I came over.
I'd like to pay tribute to the doctors and paramedics on the circuit who looked after my son after he suffered a huge fit and spasm on the edge of MB on Friday afternoon. Ade and Kev, you were diamond fellas and thanks for your help, and to Mike thanks for driving me to and from the hospital. Also to the nurse who was camping on MB and who helped fantastically. I think I sensed an Australian or New Zealand accent so if that's you, thank you.
He was taken by ambulance to the drivers emergency unit on the circuit and stabilised before crashing again and being taken into the intensive care unit there. After an hour he was taken by ambulance to the large hospital in Le Mans where they looked after him in the emergency unit. The staff both on the circuit and in the hospital were brilliant and I can't thank them enough.
Got him home now and he's going for tests to find out what caused the problem but as you can imagine the weekend was a little more subdued than previous visits.
We returned with a planning list for next year though!

Steve, that sounds a truly terrible experience, I hope the lad's okay and makes a full recovery. Somebody said Wishy was taken unwell too, anyone know what happened?

It would also explain why I failed to track you down on MB on saturday morning when I was on MB cruising around for my Monster Munch breakfast. Please don't feel bad, I was delighted to find the Liverpool Boys had bought a giant box with them.

It terrible struggle of driving home from Pompey last night.

Steve, best of luck with your son, what an awful time.
Lovely time had with our group.
Hi to all we met and do i feel better after a good nights sleep.

Jeebus Steve that was your son? I remember walking by a guy in a hefty spasm, but as he was attended to and I didn't see familiar faces, I walked on. I hope he is ok now.

Flamin nora Steve, :o

As previous said, hope your son makes a full recovery. Glad to see help was on hand both for you and yr lad.

Andy Z - no issues with Wishy, just checked with my lot who were camped with him.

best wishes,
Jules

First and foremost, Steve, I hope your son makes a full recovery.

Had a great time apart from my alternator (I think) failing 50 miles from Calais. Got home 3:30pm yesterday with car arriving 4 hours later. Hope I can reclaim the €212 it cost to recover my car from the peage and transport it about 1 mile  :o. Another 800 metres and I would have made the exit.

Nice to see Brian, Ian and Jimmy Liverpool make returns this year. Great to see all the regulars and share a beer or 2 with them. Roll on next year. Off to fix car  ;D

phew must have been a massive scare Steve

hope the doctors find out what is causing this as soon as possible to prevent any further issues

good to hear that emergency crews around the track are so capable and helpful, big compliment to them

Thanks Jules, glad to hear Wishy was okay.

Andy told me it was Wishy on the boat home, but that was probably the old "send four and six, we're going to a dance" routine. It must have been Steve's lad...

well im back in Norway now, but not with everything i set out with, the Audi is still in Germany where it had a major malfunction.
Arrived a few days later than planned but was never going to give up on getting there. Had a fantastic time with the return of a full contingent of Liverpool boys, Stu,Mr Kerr and the 2 virgins Glen and John but not John (Roar)

Have to thank Roar for being a fantastic companion while braking down in Germany never got stressed and kept me saine ;D

will post the full Norse Saga when i get the time to write it

Thanks for all your replies and wishes guys. Jonathan is getting checked out on Thursday and I'll let you know if we find out more. I'm hoping it's been a one-off incident but it was very very scary at the time.
Thanks again

Steve

Hi All,

Arrived home safely at around 11:15 last night after queuing for an hour to get off the ferry.

Had a really good time, apart from feeling crap for the first 3 days...I guess I can no longer cope with sleep depravation and trying to be a "Beer Monster" as in previous years...Oh and forgetting to take my nightime medication on a couple of occasions brought on by drinking a tad more than I should have. ;D ;D

Thanks for the concern everybody, but now having had some sleep I feel much better than I did.

It was nice to see a few of our fellow members .....but I just did not feel well enough to visit BN over the week...so sorry to those of you who I missed,but hopefully will catch up with some of you in September at Silverstone.

And Steve I hope your lad is feeling a bit better than when I saw him!!!!

Anyone know if Doris got off OK? 

Steve, sorry to hear about your son being taken ill, hope it was a one off and he's ok.

Thanks to everyone again for making it another great year...  Especially The Brethren and Zarses.  Shame I didn't get to see more of DFH and some others...  Steve Brown?  Nopanic?  Wishy?  Did we meet through the course of the weekend?

Hope everyone had a good trip back.  I'm already thinking about next year, although I'm hoping that it doesn't fly by as quickly as the my time in France this year.  I can't actually believe it's all over again for another year.

QVx

Hi ,

Steve, hope your son wil recover soon.

Thanks all on BN for the party on friday.( Brethren / Werner )

Neil, Thanks for the F1 on telly sundaynight.



Mayby till Spa otherwise see you all next year again.


Hope to see more groups on MB then.


.

Yea we are back

Got back at 11.00pm after stopping at Ikea, Birmingham, to use their nice fresh clean bogs and eat some meatballs. But as the resturant is closed for 6 wks, we decided to to a Le Mans special and cook SPAM sandwiches in their car park  ;D

So after 1200 round trip in my monster, it was faultless, went really well (except up some big long hills) and a bit thirsty (20mpg  :-X ). Its now safe on the drive done this afternoon as only have 4-6in either side when going past the chimney stack).

A big thanks to everyone, for being so great and welcoming my son (Sam) into the mad house of LM. To many to list and it would be rude to miss a name , so BIG thanks to ALL.

And sorry for missing meeting up with other people, time hust seem to runaway

Also big thanks for the other dutch guy on the camp pitch down from the DFH group who set up my SAT box up in 5mins, when Sam and me had spent over an hour - really goes to show must RTFM next time.



So a big CHEERS to all. How long till next year?

Too long for those that were at home >:(

Neil I'll pop round and pick the gear up tomorrow if that's OK and collect the deposit money for next year;)

As many others have said Steve I hope all is ok with your son.

I have to say a big thanks to Bob U for collecting my camping pass, The Le Mans zone guys for such great hospitality over the weekend & of course the Brethren for the entertainment Friday night into saturday morning.

All in all another great weekend at the best event in the world  :)

If anyone finds my memory can they let me know please?

Last seen Friday night/Saturday morning at The Brethren party.

We arrived already a little worse for wear after an afternoon watching the Driver's Parade & then a steak frites washed down with red wine.

I remember taking the chilli challenge & the hiccoughs afterwards.  Various people slapped me [hard!] on the back and I believe that Andy supplied milk to try & help.

God only knows when I left & how I found my way back to my tent.

Rather surprisingly I didn't feel too bad in the morning.

Still, that all pails in to insignificance against the news of Steve's son.  Can I add my best wishes for a speedy diagnosis/recovery & hope that the experience hasn't put him off.

Thanks to everyone I met.  It was a shame that we were stuck some distance away and that we weren't able to be a sociable as last year.  Well there's always 2012 I guess?

Big thanks to Barry who got me in to all of this in 2008, and to Andy for knowledge & experience.  Thanks also to my other travelling companions from the UK & Luxembourg - Mr Motivator, Tramboy, Seasick Steve, BenInLux, Robin Hod.

Paul/Landman

I would like to echo Landmans post, with my best wishes for Steve and his son.

A massive thanks to everyone for being so friendly and hospitable again this year. First time I've met the Liverpool Boys who showed a spirit of generous hospitality (hic), DfH and The Brethren (great tunes Rusty). I never did find out who you were "holding that beer" for Lawnmowerman  ;D

Shame I didnt catch up with Bob U and Snoring Rhino more – I meant to.

This all wouldnt have happened for me (again) if it wasnt for Landman. Thank you.

Big thank yous to Barry and Andy for their hospitality and kindness, Robin Hod for getting me up into Trib 34 for the first time (oxygen and crampons req), Seasick Steve for the lift on the UK leg, LuxExPat for being very generous and satisfying my whisky craving, and BenInLux for a great chilli and a highly entertaining lift back from Pistonheads on Friday afternoon.

The contrast with last year racewise couldnt be more pronounced, which made it even more fascinating.

Glad to hear everyone got back in one piece, - we even made it back with some oil in the sump!

Thanks to The Brethren for Friday night, - although we didn't get there till about 2 or 3 am, after a long and vigorous session on the Nigerian in the Village. Everyone was looking a bit worse for wear, which was just as well, as we were also down to the canvas. Great work from Doris, getting to her local race again. It was daylight when we got back to our tent, - sadly no milkman to greet though.

Bumped into Steve B in a bar behind the paddock on Friday afternoon (as we were on our way to Nigerian oblivion), and he looked very comfortable, like he'd been sitting there for about 11 months. Also chatted to two immaculately turned out blue alien ladies, and I was surprised to see them again later at the Brethrens, - I have to say it looked as if there might have been a few errors in the transporters software, - they looked as if they hadn't beamed down in quite the same condition I'd seen them in earlier.

Once again it was tempus fugit, - it was great to bump into those we did, and sadly missed those we didn't.

Steve, - that's a horror story, I hope the boy's ok.

If anyone came down via the tunnel, a guy was taking photos of every british car on Thursday and Friday, and his gallery is here:
http://www.net-carpictures.com/portail/
We made pic no 770 out of 787!
H

I never saw you H, I had no idea you were even there, though clearly I was as I'm (obviously) right there in your photo.

The lad on the right catching Canary Hand is, i think, BobU's son and it looks as if he's trying to mimic his old man's friday night behaviour some years ago.

Well, as I say, it was getting a little late. In fact, I think I too must have been beamed down incorrectly as Tom the Lawnmower asked me several times who I was. That's Little H you're chatting to.

Here's another pic, it reminds me somehow of Stanley Kubricks work, I can just hear Thus Spake Zarathustra....

H

She did, just chatted with her on fb, waiting for the final flight in the return trip. Not to happy the bars not open, at 5.30 am local time.

While I am back in NZ I'm not going to count my chickens until I'm back in The Bay having a lovely soak in the bath.  The ash cloud is causing pockets of chaos down here.  They've just closed Christchurch airport because of it so all I can do is hope the airspace I need to travel to / through remains clear because I'd rather have an hour on a plane than several on the loser cruiser.

As much as I'm not happy the bar is closed it's not a huge deal.  I mean breakfast cidre in NZ is just not the same as breakfast cidre at Le Mans.    ;)

Dx

Doris, I can't believe you're not home yet you must be hanging!

H, that's not me chatting to your son, I've no idea who it is but he has far less hair than me. I'm the fop in the corner of the tent, standing behind the alien from Galaxy Quest, nattering to Elton John. Anyway, I remember talking to your son, and to be honest he wasn't making a great deal of sense by that stage of the evening. Last time I saw him was at Silverstone in '04 and he was a tongue-tied teenager who couldn't bear to take his hands out of his pockets for more than five minutes. I don't know if you're aware but the lad is a drunkard.

Hmmm, that explains a few things then Andy, - I had to do a double take when you said you were in the pic, - but now I know that it was you in the corner, in the spotlight, I can see why I didn't recognise you either now or on the night.

Alcohol is, in turns, a truly wonderful and very terrible thing.

Yes, well, what can I say......

Cadillac had a major barf on the M20 at Brands Hatch on the way down on Wednesday.  The old girl chucked 8 litres of water out of the rad.  Thankfully, Henri Pescarollo was on hand in Dover to provide support via a VW white van.

After reconvening the following day, the run down to LM in aforementioned white van was relatively painless.

Thursday was spent in Houx realigning our chackras thanks to a healthy portion of Adnams finest.  A trip to the Stella bar was met by live Euro trash metal and Hoegaarden - no Leffe in sight!

Therefore, a late start on Friday in the pits was followed by a chance encounter with two blue extra terrestrials and copious Restaurant du Paddock style Stella.  This close encounter was stemmed by further Adnams on Friday pm and hence, no further play was available.

So, to the race; which was viewed from the Terrase du Jardin du Coube de Razorlight le Tertre Rouge sur Mer.  Some cars came past, smashed in to each other and disappeared towards the Virage du Mulsanne, closely followed by a jet powered Coupe De Ville.

As you can see, our 2011 experience was limited to Broadside, Spitfire and Old Speckled Hen due to the draconian beer ban and, thus, we were limited to the extent in which we could range far and wide from the safe confines on the third row of trees by the squat karsies in Houx campsite.

To that end, the only forms of human stlyie CA life we encountered were a man with a lawnmower, a bewildered gentleman from the White House, two blue aliens and a couple of termites.  To protect our sensitivities, we quickly retreated to the confines of the Sole Bay Brewery for some more euro trash metal.

Our retreat via Neufchatel was shattered by the appearance of a red eyed Frog called Sprite.

Apologies to those who I have not libelled here, we were in mourning for the demise of an incontinent old lady  :'(

Hope with a bit of tender lovng care she will be back at the Classic next year.

Steve - yea we missed you at Le mans as well, as my son knows you as "the egg man"

The strange bit is we did see the old Cadillac on the back of a recovery lorry, going the wrong way up the M11 on the Wen.

Hope she is not too terminal and she does make it back one day

No, the one on the left with blue jacket and beer in hand is Dom U. Surely you can see he is my son by how handsome he is.

Jesus H Christ with a strimmer Bob!!
This alcohol thing is worse than I thought. It seems I've been feeding, watering and generally sponsoring your lad for the past 21 years. Can you please forward on your address so I can send you the the f*cking bill?
Warmly,
H

Holy sh*t. On closer inspection I've decided to get my peepers tested. Same hair colour and style, same jacket and about the same age. Simple mistake at a glance but God only knows what the consequences would have been had I been present in the drunken state I was in on Friday night. H, have you ever met my wife or are we breeding a nation of clones?
 And as for Zarse thinking the one on the right was my son, how f**k*ng old do you think I am?

I think it's less a question of age Bob, and more one of genetics. Looking at the photograph of both your offspring, and also of photo 770 of 787 of H driving the Jag - which appears to show his son's head being at least 90 degress out of goose relative to his shoulders - I'm minded to think that Dr Mengele and his fruit bats got it all wrong. I'm in dread of what the Storche will bring me on 26th September...

what ...more sausages Mr.Z ??

 :D

Very sorry to hear what happened Lord Steve - I hope everything goes well for Jonathan today. My best wishes. Simon

Andy, I'm a bit out of touch and I'm not sure what or who you're expecting in September, but if Josef Mengele, The Angel of Death, has been involved then I'd suggest it's probably worth reaquainting yourself with David Lynch's masterpiece - "Eraserhead". Or at the very least, "Escape to Victory".

I'm hoping to God you meant Gregor Mendel of birds and the bees fame, in which case getting outside of a few quarts of trappist beer whould be a better bet.

As for the head and neck arrangement, you're not far wrong, I think we both got out of the car looking like we were auditioning for the part of the Bug Guy in Men in Black. Not having any wing mirrors does that to you...

H

Gregor Mental, that's the bloke.

Eraserhead is a great film which I remain utterly baffled by. Rather like a long afternoon spent at the old LM champagne bar, I lose a grip of what's going on when those funny roast chicken things start appearing.

If all goes according to plan, September should see me become a father, if only in the genetic sense. A frightening prospect, not least for the poor infant. I wonder if in twenty years time I too will be stood at a friday party on BN taking photos of gurning young drunkards?

Better hope its a boy then, taking photos of drunken 20 year girls by a 60ish year old bloke may bring all sorts of attention!

The irony being that you're only just making the transition from Gurning young drunkard, to miserable bugger drunkard now.....

Fortunately, your son will, by the time he attends his first Le-Mans, be able to handle his drink.....if not Leighs bottom burps....

To all of you who have very kindly posted messages I'm bloody chuffed to report that Jonathan has been given a clean bill of health by Leeds Hospital and is cleared by the relevant authorities (Me and his girlfriend) to go to Le Mans again next year. Not so sure his mother will be that impressed at the idea though!

Anyway, he's fine but he's been seriously advised to consider, ahem, a change of lifestyle.......

Thanks again to all of you

Steve

That's great news Steve

Indeed that is great and welcome news!

MG Mark

Glad to hear that Steve.

good news!!

Nah don't be daft

no bugger ever noticed me doing "stuff like that"

I am very glad your lad is A O K Steve hope to see him (and you) when I get Sartheside next year

Looks as if I missed another fine affair (Blue aliens! What's the world coming to?)


Glad you are all home, it's been a sod here without you all :)

Steve good to hear things are OK with your lad.

I saw Canada Phil on Friday to reunite him with his Jacket He left Blight for Canada this morning I believe so we should get something from him in the not too distant future.

I am just left a hat from Ian and Fleece from Doris to find home for now. :-)

t.

Hi and thank you to all my friends here at Club Arnage. Another great year. To those i missed...sorry. Lord Steve glad to hear your son is OK. now know why I could not find you. KPY hope you are over the shingles. i set out twice to see you and must have been distracted..... i blame the beer.
Wishy i nebver found you either.
Good times were had on BN with Werner and his followers the Bretheren and Big Irta and ofcourse the Liverpool Boys. nice to finally meet Dottore.
Excellent day out with Garyfrogeye and MGMark and crew.
Oh the racing was very good too ::)
Big thanks to Lawnmower Man for his kind hospitality and laying on Transport.  Snoring Rhino for taking some of the heat of the snoring ;D and his conducted tour of the new forest and environs while i was visiting Lymington. The fish dinner really was the best I have tasted.
 Phil

Now that the dust has settled on your son's mystery illness Steve, would it be tactless of me to ask what became of my bloody Monster Munch?

That'll explain the mystery illness, he's obviously ate the Monster Munch  :P :P ;D ;D

I hope to God you're wrong Stu.

I have to report that the Monster Munch weren't to blame Andy.
I've got to be honest now - it's just as well you didn't pop round for the formal presentation of the tasty corn based snack as, after I got back from the hospital on Friday night, and after a significant quantity of Merlot / 1664 I couldn't find the little foil bag. A thorough search of the car boot and tent revealed a complete absence of the curly little blighters and I had to cope with the potential "Zarse lack of snack crisis" by indulging in more of the aforementioned drink combination complete with an overload of Marlboro Lights!

I'll bring more to Silverstone.
Be there.

Steve 

We did supply him with some out of Norway Nick's pickled onion box full along with some Double deckers. Fair swap for some lush pork bangers I may add.

Posh bangers!!!!

And he still has my vintage collectors item - 60's sunglasses - Mr Z , ur such a doggey gezzer !!

So what you're saying Steve is that you ate f**k*rs! :) don't think I'll be at Sillystone sadly, the sprog is due September.
(http://s2.b3ta.com/host/creative/83818/1308249243/thumb.Monsterjaws1.jpg)

I've still got your specs Neil, I've taken to wearing them under my motorbike helmet, I cut quite a dash at Box Hill on Sunday.  

just adding my bit to this thread as i didnt go to Lemans, i was watching / listening to it from the side of the nordschleife then i did some touring around north france the following week. Did over 2500 miles without 1 issue, i get home after a onslaught of rain late friday night, get up saturday and on the next road from mine some plonker decides to park his Cmax in the side of my Vectra  ::)

Touch and go if it would be a write off but was collected to be fixed yesterday............... should be ready for Lemans 2012. I really missed it this year and my mates where there without me. Not happening again