Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
We had a great time in the weekend visiting the Viaduct Events Centre to check out the rally cars as they came in each evening. Those that can, drive in muddy and bashed up, bits of bodywork missing, and bits of vegetation sticking out here and there while some arrive on trailers.
I find the service as much fun to watch as the racing (a bonus being that they stand still almost long enough for me to draw them), each car allowed a 45 minute service before being locked up for the evening. In that time we saw complete front panels replaced, smashed windscreens and shock absorbers replaced and on the Ketomaa Fiesta a complete gearbox removed, and a new one installed. All done under the watchful eyes of hundreds of spectators and a scrutineer who checks and notes down the tags on each replacement part.
If only it was that quick and easy to service the Honda!
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