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...
Have just spent a spectacular morning at Vector Arena with our 7 year old watching even younger children (as young as 5!) blasting down an 8 metre start chute, pedaling madly over jumps and berms, and quite often each other, in a bid to take out a world championship.
Quite exciting to experience the atmosphere of an event where over 2000 competitors from 30 countries have congregated to race flat-out over a temporary racetrack modeled from over 60 truck loads of dirt inside a building usually hosting church groups and rock stars.
Thanks to Patrick Etienne from Paris who graciously took some time out to be sketched. Good luck in your qualifying race tonight!
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