Car, guitar, europe.

[br d]

Hello.
Time for another one of these.
Not sure how much interest there is for this but I would appreciate it if the mods didn't move it to "Holidays" or "Music" or something.
This thread normally stays in GG and it takes me a bit of effort to keep it going, thanks for listening. (I'm talking to you JAYB!)
Of course if nobody gives 2 fks then feel free to push me into the bushes.

There is some very PH related stuff going on here so for anyone who hasn't been around here long my apologies.

Let's get started.

[br d]

I'm in the 650S again. Sorry I haven't updated for a while but I should be in a 720S this time next year.

Here's the car:


I know that's from last year but I don't often get attractive women willing to pose for pictures. It's early days for this year's trip!

[br d]

Here's the guitar:


Now I need to tell the background story if this instrument, apologies to those who already know this.

[br d]

Around these parts we used to have a PH'er named driving_me_nuts.

Everyone who was here then will remember him as the most decent, helpful and honest PH'er they are ever interacted with.
His name was Russell.

He began a thread on here called "The waiting is the hardest part".
His beloved partner Lily had contracted throat cancer, you can read the thread if you want to know the story but it's very hard, very bad.

When Lily was in a Hospice he asked if some PH'ers would come down and make some noise. Lily loved loud cars.
PH did itself proud and many lovely people turned up and gave lily a day to remember. She died shortly after.

[br d]

I became friends with Russell through this event and after lily's death we stayed in touch.

We had very little in common to be honest. Russ was an intelligent and erudite man, all we shared was our love of cars.

I spent a few weekends with him during his grief (as did many other PH'ers, Ali Kat, Swerni, Council Baby to name a few, and many more besides).

One weekend after we had stayed up late talking he walked into the room and handed me the Ibanez.
"It was Lily's" he said, "I want you to have it" .

This was so typical of the man, so selfless.

I'm balling even writing this.

I argued of course but he insisted. "She would want it to be played, not to sit and rot"

So I accepted it.

Edited by br d on Saturday 10th June 20:13

[br d]

We became good friends.
We went on many PH runs together and along with many other PH'ers I came to see how wonderful a human being Russell was.

Look up his posts. They are all him helping people through tough times, all about others, never about himself, even though the man was torn apart he only cared for others.

He met a new lady, Jeanette, he was so happy. They arranged their wedding.
He asked me to be his best man and to my eternal shame I fked up the speech and couldn't get through it. We had been through much together and when I should have been there for him I lost it and couldn't manage.

I love him dearly and I know he forgave me for it.

[br d]

Then he had a massive heart attack.
When he should have been enjoying his second chance at life he had a fking heart attack.
We all thought he had got through it, we all thought that he would be fine, how could he not? He was the best human being we all knew.

He had a second heart attack and died.
The biggest loss to his family, friends and this community that you could possibly imagine.

So he's gone.

And I will be taking this guitar on a long trip around Europe and playing it at every stop in his memory.

I'm no great shakes as a musician but that's not the point. It's for Russell.

Back to the trip now. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to say along my way.

Thanks for reading.

[br d]

KevinCamaroSS said:

Worst 'I've got a McLaren' thread ever

Is that really what you took from that Kev?

See, I'd like to tell you you're a complete , but Russell wouldnt, he'd accept your ignorance as an opinion worth regarding.

But I wouldn't.

[br d]

Lovely hotel, looking over the fountains:

[br d]

Am I bad?
One plays against the other.

I have a room looking over the car park. People keep spotting the car and walking into the car park for pics.





So I hid behind the curtain.

A lady comes in. She is nervous, hesitant, unsure.
She leans over the front of the car. I hit the bonnet switch, she jumps out of her skin!

I feel bad.

An old guy looks around the car. Keeps nodding and scratching his chin.
He comes back with his family, 12 of them. He starts taking pics. I go down.
He used to be a racer, I can't quite get it due to language issues. His nephew says he used to race cars 40 years ago.
So I open the car, he gets in, I give him the fob so he can start it up. He loves it!
He says Jaguar.
I think he used to race jags.

[br d]

Nice Pork.

[br d]

[br d]

Hi everyone, thanks very much for the interest and apologies that I haven't got anything up yet.
It's not laziness, it's because these first couple of days I've just switched off, work was stupidly busy in the run up to this break and my guys that have been left behind to take care of things are really under the cosh.
So I'm both knackered and pre-occupied with things back home.

I try to get car relevant stuff in but haven't seen much of anything yet so I'll post up some maudling travel details and if it all becomes too boring then kick me to the curb!

[br d]

GuitarTech said:

If you're anywhere near Lübeck in north Germany on your travels, you're welcome to drop in for a chat and a coffee. I could service the Ibanez for you as well, as I'm a self-employed luthier and repair tech. Btw, in the picture it's upside down (unless you play like Jimmi Hendrix )

Edited by GuitarTech on Sunday 11th June 23:12

Hi GT. Fantastic offer. Just checked where you are and it is a pretty long stretch out of my way
My last couple of days I will be coming north and staying at Cologne, from there it's 4 hours back to calais for the return. Lubeck is basically 4.5 hours in the wrong direction, I just don't think I will have time to fit that in.
But never say never, it a very generous offer and still about 12 days between me and Cologne so let's see how things pan out.

Thank you.

And the guitar is regular strung, not sure why it's showing JH style to you!

[br d]

The Vambo said:

This might seem weird from an LGV driver who has done most of the ferries from the UK to Europe......

How do you deal with the language barrier in, say, Switzerland or Austria? The touristy bits?

With trucks the basics are obvious, the Zeebrugge ferry all speak English. I have always been weird about the shout at them until they understand thing.

I'm pretty laid back about it tbh Vambo. I have some very basic french but no German, Swiss or anything else. English is obviously very widespread on the continent but if I can't communicate I never get shouty or anything, just walk away and do something else. You do meet the occasional hostile local, especially in rural France but it's their country so not my place to start demanding anything.

Had a waitress today at a Chateaux cafe who basically treated me like st, lots of huffing and slamming stuff down even though I was doing my best to speak French, you have to just smile!

[br d]

Debaser said:

Have a great trip!

What route are you taking?

Started at Troyes, now in Beaune, Lake Aneccy tomorrow, then Mont Blanc, then straight through Switzerland to a beautiful hotel I stayed at last year in Baden-Baden. Then a really out of the way place in Bavaria where I'm staying for 4 days because it has great roads for driving and good countryside for mountain biking (I hire, I haven't got one strapped to the car!), then Cologne, then home.

[br d]

sc0tt said:

As always brad enjoy your threads. I remember that day in your ferrari with the santa outfit

There are very few pictures of me on the Internet Scott, and be thankful for that! There is one of that day but at least I'm disguised!

Loved that car, a fellow PH'er has it now and enjoys it to the full.

[br d]

lucido grigio said:

It's getting close to a year since we lost Russ btw.

Indeed, will be a sad remembrance for many.

lucido grigio said:

Enjoy your trip brd,these threads are what PH should be about....

Thanks.

These threads are hit and miss tbh, sometimes loads happens and sometimes nothing does. At the very least the guitar is getting played in places Russ would have loved.

[br d]

This is a Snickers Duo bought on the A26, that's smaller than a normal one used to be! I wouldn't mind but the French aren't even fat!



Lovely old Peugeot trike in a wine chateaux:



And an 11th century wine cellar apparently:

[br d]

I don't really get the shower in this hotel.



First you have to disconnect this bit:



Then connect it to this bit:



Then you lift this frame away from the wall and twiddle with the heads to get the direction you want:





And then, because it's a walk in shower and you're having so much fun pointing those things in all directions you completely flood the bathroom.

I didn't get a pic because it was about 2 inches deep and I didn't want to take my phone in there. Took bloody ages to push back down the plug hole.