What a messed up weekend... really. I am writing it all down now, but i felt like splitting it up by each day.

Today involved some well deserved sleeping in, with the blinds pulled so it was still dark enough in here! After that it was a room clean, and actually finally getting around to entering all the information about my ever growing Nine Inch Nails collection. Head here to see it.

Well after a lie in to recover from Friday's affair, We (Scott, his gf and i) wandered into town for the annual street party! It's basically a lot of kiosks and marquees that get set up with people selling crap. There are lots of beer tents and a couple of stages set up for live music as well. After some wandering, we pick up Fabio and Mathias and go to the local Kart track to watch some racing. It was great! i haven't been to a kart track in years!! we stayed about 2 hours and then the gf had to go to work. The rest of us fell asleep on the couch watching bad movies! We wake up about 9pm, and head back to the street party, because at night is when it is really kicking!

It was pretty good. Met up with some friends and co-workers (the whole town is there!) had a few drinks, danced a bit. We tried to keep it low key after last night!

Sadly, i started to fade and ended up back at the flat about 1:30am or so.. no big deal, i had a good time. Next weekend is the street party from the neighboring town, Biel. Their party is called Braderie, and it is huge!! Looking forward to it. They always have some name brand band playing. :)

Will let you know!!

So... i had a day off today, which is rare, but welcome! Was unable to sleep in a lot (damn routine body clock..) but i managed to get a few things ticked off my list at least. i wrote a couple of letters (actual handwriting!), one postcard, bought some chocolate, and sent off the care packs to certain people. (Hope they arrive safe!!) After all that, Me Scott and Mathais set off for Neuchatel to meet Sylvan for a BBQ by the lake. Honestly, i thought there would be more people, but it was just the four of us (from our party) there was another table of about 15, so we went and introduced ourselves... after food and enough alcohol!

The BBQ was great.. it's been a while since the last one. We cooke, played some catch with an (American) football, some baseball, had an iPod and speakers for a while (till the battery died at least!). After all was said and done, the 4 of us were to head to the old town of Neuchatel for some clubs. We pick up Sylvan's friend on the way, find a parking spot and head to the town.

Now, things change... Sylvan and friend leave us for a bit. The 3 of us have never been out in Neuchatel before. We have a couple of drinks, not that many, chat to some people, and dance like muppets on the dance floor.

A bit of history - Scott *sometimes* get into trouble at the clubs.. not sure why. Perhaps topic for other post..

Well, he starts talking with some people, guys and girls, and guy is quite focused on him (language barrier, perhaps...) i'm 'dancing' (use the term lightly) and guy slaps Scott (who slaps now-a-days??). Slap back, push, shove.. yadda yadda. all is calm for a bit then bouncer kicks EVERYONE out. I've worked in enough bars and clubs to know that you DO NOT do that. So the three of us start running because we know what is next - the 12 guys from 'the other side' are after us. We run into a crowd that is watching some outdoor performance, hoping to lose them. Scott gets kicked to the ground, Mathias and i do our best to help him out, the pack starts to chase us, and it leap frogs from there: I'm down, they help, Mathias is down, we help, etc etc.

At one point Scott was ahead of me, i try to fool the mob by running at the same pace as them, catch up to Scott on the ground and adrenaline fueled, i throw a flying elbow (seemed like a good idea at the time) but the guy i hit; his 5 friends didn't think so. Lost my glasses from the punches (found them after and not fucked up!!) and suddenly it all stopped.. Have no idea why.. there were no cops on the scene, no strangers were helping.. it just stopped (we ain't complaining!!)

Find our cars again, luckily Sylvan's is unlocked, i grab my bag that has our keys in it, and head home for a shower and try to sleep.

After thoughts:
-my elbow still hurts.. never realized how solid the temple is...
-the mind really narrows up - all my (limited) kick-boxing skills and training were not brought to the surface
-it's hard to stop 12 angry people when you have no idea what the problem is.
-adrenaline is a great drug - felt no pain until Saturday!

Disclaimer: I mentioned before, this happens to Scott a few times. I don't get involved, you never know who he is fighting or how many there are. However, we were strangers in a strange land, and if Mathias and i didn't help, then 12 on 1 is a lot worse than 12 on 3. To use a bad quote here 'you gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them.' Every other time i just let Scott sort it out, but this time it all felt different.

Or pretty close to that really... 394 CHF (Swiss Francs). Scott and i went to Zurich to meet some friends and have some beers. it's a 1.5 hour train ride for beers, but hey, a road trip is healthy sometimes. however, the good times were rolling, and even though we knew when the last train was, we chose to ignore it... There was one more train, that takes us near home, but not all the way, however, it only runs late Fri night and late Sat night... this was Sun night.

Now, i've slept on the platform in Zurich before, it's not so bad. (in fact i have slept on a few platforms in my history.... odd) but Scott wasn't too keen on the idea. In reality, we would have had a shitty sleep, got the 5:15 am train, rush home, change and go to work. ugg. So we opted to barter with a cabbie. Managed to get him to 350 CHF from the train station to our door. which is high, but it is 130 km away. But late in the drive, he claimed we said Bern and not Lyss.. (yea, they sound SO much alike...) and he wanted 50 more Francs for that. All we could manage was 44 and sent him on his way. Asshole.

It wasn't until the morning that i remembered we drove to the train station in Lyss, so now i had to walk over and get it, just to drive back and get Scott for work! *sigh* THEN around lunch, we both realized that Martin, who works with us, lives in Zurich, is always home on the weekends, and drives back to Lyss on Monday mornings... Fuck. Could have crashed at his place.

To put it in perspective, 200 CHF (half the cab ride) could get me to Amsterdam by train.. AND BACK. One way is about 10 times the distance that the cab drove!!

In case people want to see what i am talking about some of the time, go here.

Well, we have had race two now, and we are still very busy catching and fixing problems. How was my weekend (well, week actually)? well.
-I destroyed the chassis loom, and had one hour to change it before the next session
-had the engine off 4 times in 2 days to fix the new oil system problems
-my driver had only 12 laps of practice on a new (to him) circuit, but managed to qualify 16th still
-finished 11th in race one.
-was in 9th with a few laps to go in race 2, and got crashed out
-had a tool box (big one!) fall on my leg during the unload back at the shop

As for the team:
-Team owner got arrested on Sat morning, didn't see him again till 7 that night.
-actually made the day go smoother without him!! :)
-one car finished 4th and 2nd, so that was all good
-other car was in 2nd on Sunday, when the engine blew up, proceeded to catch fire, then to top it off, as the marshals are trying to move the car, they somehow managed to flip it over?!?! Yes, the car was upside down. Still haven't sorted out how they managed this.

The only good news is that the testing that was scheduled to happen before the next race has been cancelled, which means we now have 8 days in the workshop, and not 4. That will help a bit.

August can't come fast enough... (there is a fair sized break in Aug!)

BT