James Stephenson

The last few days have been fairly regular, Yesterday we went for a drive in Penny (and she is going beautifully well) and saw our friend Mr Julian Ghosh. Passports are getting picked up very soon for our final visa’s.

The English weather has been traditionally less then optimal with rain, rain, and a little bit more rain.

With some of our free time, I spent the other day in London and my good friend Rowan showed me around and ‘culturalised’ me some. I went to the Natural History Museum, we made some home made Mulled Wine and went in to Trafalgor Square to listen to some christmas carols. The festiveness of everyone is infectious. Even though Christmas is away from home, it will still be one i will never forget. Hopefully it snows!!!!

James

We have been in england now for a week, and i can certainly say that the climate here is nothing to that of a December back in Brisbane. 2 Days ago we had a bit of a snow fall, and all the lakes and puddles are starting to crust over with ice. The wet roads are ridiculously slippery in the mornings with black ice on the tarmac. And nothing ever dries out, if it rained today (which it did) and it didnt rain any more, the roads would still be a drifting track in 2 days time.

All the fiddling about and last minute adjustments and preperations on Penny are done….. and in two weeks time right now we will be taking off from the start line at the House of Lords in central london, bound for almost all-night driving and time trails through the Kent forests before heading to the Dover ferry for 4AM departure to France.

So, me and dad have been in england for a few days now and our rally is getting close and closer. All year long January the 1st seemed so so far away, but after spending a few days doing some last minute tinkering and preperation on our old girl, the realisation has set in: it’s not long now at all. In a few days time it will be christmas, and a few more we will be sitting down having our last dinner at the Brooklands Motor Museum Hotel with the rest of the rally mob – unable to contain our nerves and oncoming excitement.