For What’s the Story? 5th Aug 2013 I’ve picked the following photograph taken on a foggy morning in June at Silverstone, home of the British Formula One Grand Prix.
I’m a big Formula One fan, and a massive Ferrari fan; before my son arrived I’d regularly get up at silly o’clock and head to Silverstone each morning for 3 days to watch qualifying and the race day of the British Grand Prix with my brother. My Dad is a big fan, so we spent a lot of time at Brands Hatch and Silverstone as children – my first big hero was James Hunt as I mentioned in a previous post a while ago.
Anyway, one of my sacrifices since having my son and giving up work was that I could no longer afford to go to the Grand Prix, so I’ve had to watch it on TV for the last few years. It’s not the same, but I’ve lived with it. My son is more important.
Well, this year, blogging has opened my eyes to the power of Twitter, and I entered a competition to win tickets to the Grand Prix, not expecting to stand a chance in hell. I’d been at a pre-school fund-raising meeting on Wednesday 26th June, noticed that a courier company had started to follow me, strange. Came out of the meeting, checked my phone and screamed, ran into the local shop where a friend was buying something and started blabbering at her. Came out of the shop, rang my brother and blabbered at him.
Came off the phone, I was shaking. I’d only gone and won tickets to the Grand Prix! Well, of course, my life is never that simple. I couldn’t go on Friday as we had a pre-school trip booked for the day, couldn’t go on Saturday as OH working and my son had a party to go to (so some of my brother’s friends used them) and my OH couldn’t come with me on Sunday as we had no one to have my son for the day. I gave the other ticket to my SIL as my brother and nephew were going anyway.
But, all of that aside, I got to get up at silly o’clock on 30th June 2013, go to Silverstone in the fog, and watch a brilliant race in the sunshine. I also got my Ferrari top signed by Felipe Massa – but that’s a whole different post!
that looks like a fun day and i bet totally worth the early start. i have driven round the Silverstone track was a lot of fun
It was brilliant, especially as I really had no plans to go and no expectations. I’ve driven aorund it myself, but only in a normal saloon car.
Wowzers what an amazing story. It must have been so hard to stop going to the Grand Prix when you had Monkey but oh my goodness how very special to win a tickets. And to get your top signed by Massa, that’s just incredible!!! Thank you so much for sharing with #whatsthestory
Thank you, I did have a cry when I calmed down, it was such an amazing thing to win
Well done you! Shame you couldn’t go to the full thing but I bet it was still a great day when you did get to go.
It was wonderful, made my year!
Well done you winning the tickets! What a great memory to have, even if you did have to get up at silly o’clock.
Hopping over from What’s The Story.
It was wonderful
How exciting to win something! … especially something that you used to love doing before your little monkey arrived. Congratulations! =)
Thanks, it was wonderful
That’s such a typically British photo – exactly the weather you’d expect whenever you go to watch something that takes place about 1/2 a mile away! 😀
Too true! It was even thicker fog driving to my brother’s house, he thought I was barking when I talked about fog, and then as we arrived at the circuit so did the fog! At least it burnt off and we had a sunny day. We’ve been soaked to the skin before.
What a thrilling story! It’s moments like that which make all the hard work worth while isn’t it! It’s great that a true fan like yourself got to the face. Shame that Button or Hamilton didn’t cross the line first, but it looked a great occasion!
For me I’d rather it was a shiny red Ferrari as the winner, but a home winner is always special too. It was a great race, the last 10 laps were amazingly tense!