Catch up

For starters, a quick recap. October had not been the Purple fest I'd been both envisioning and looking forward to, but still offered a couple of gems. The main attraction was a Grand Prix in karting with a sadly lacking abundance of drivers from work. I'd been promised at least 8 people who had shown interest but it was only Neil Smith and his son who ended up donning their overalls. Apart from the odd dodgy kart and even dodgier tactics by a couple of mates on what sounded like their own purple book-esque month together, the day was a good one, ending in a classic final race which started sat on the grid with Fleetwood's Mac's famous tune 'The Chain' playing before the lights went green.

The little gem and true entry for October was the Conker tournament. Weirdly enough, for someone who loves Autumn as much as I do i've never taken on the season's famous past-time until the night I went with the two old ones and the crew from Denefield to a delightfully small and random pub in town for a conker tournament. 'The Retreat' is hidden away in a side street on Queens road and the back room was to be ours for the night. Hosted by the all entertaining Pip Shaw, the whole evening was delightfully chilled out. While the competitors were hard at it, the jukebox was playing some fantastic music and the whole evening just seemed so low key. I was half expecting Bob Dylan to come in at one point and play an unplugged gig it was that sort of atmosphere.

While me and mum crashed an burned in the first round, dad had his game face on and made it to the semi's (never one to be beaten easily that one.) So while it would go down as an epic experience like some of the others, it was still a new experience and one which was thoroughly enjoyed and so deserving of it's place in print on this here page.

Rossifer x