The Mighty Shrews

Hope House

Adam — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 19:18:10 +0000

Hi all,

With your support we have managed to raise almost £1,300 so far but we’re quite a way off our target of £2,000.

So if you haven’t got your card out and visited www.justgiving.com/themightyshrews yet, please please do!

If you have, THANK YOU!

Rome!!!

Adam — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:01:48 +0000

We made it!
Got here 6:30 last night, and met up with the girls at the hotel. Headed over to Piazza Navona to join the Home2Romers for the closing speeches. Ridiculous rain set in as we were halfway from hotel to P. Navona.
After a fairly shambolic set of speeches & awards we five said our goodbyes & went into the backstreets to find a restaurant that didn’t require a mortgage for beers!
- The Mad Hatters won 1st prize.

- Last & Furious Flaming Hot came 2nd.

- Beauty & the Beast won Best Banger / Best Bodge.

We celebrated our personal triumph (i.e. making it to Rome in one piece!) over dinner with a bottle of prosecco, opened by Captain Cubbin

Lovely lie-in this morning, followed by a relaxed breakfast on the terrace. Making plans, taking our time, unwinding, etc…

Dave is flying home tonight, taking Giselle the Gazelle with him. They will both be missed x

Will go in search of wifi café today so I can upload some pics.

Physical abuse

Adam — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:59:13 +0000

Brain & stomach both exceedingly angry with me this morning. Last nights “post-driving wind down” drinks became a horrendous cocktail of red wine, beer, vodka & limoncello.
Also smoked several marlboro lights.
Grim.

Rod drove us out of Sottomarina around 12:10, heading southwest in gorgeous sunshine towards Bologna, Florence, then Rome (where the lovely Joy & Christina are probably enjoying free drinks from ball-scratching, corner-lurking, purse-grabbing, scooter-driving Romans).

Note: the views expressed here are not necessarily representative of all Mighty Shrews ;o)

Nuns, monsoons, and Venice

Adam — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:54:29 +0000

Spent the afternoon traipsing around Venice in search of groups of people to pose with for… Yep, you guessed it… another photo challenge!
Max points for groups of over 11 people not including us (or other teams). 5 photos, potential 15 points…
We parked in Mestre (during a bizarre monsoon/hurricane) & took train over to Venice. Took shelter out front of the station, and saw a bloke being chased out by two cops. Looked like he was selling umbrellas & things, because after running down the steps he went flying and merchandise spilled across the floor. With the cops advancing, he legged it, leaving his bag and goods behind. The cops came down the steps and gathered up the stuff, but one brolly was a few feet further on, which was clearly too much effort for the cops because they left it. Before I could say “go go go!”, Dave had bounced down the steps and swooped it up, crossing himself as he did
With our divine protection from the storm secured, we sallied forth to hunt down the photos. As you can imagine, it was not a whole heap of fun to be dressed only in a thin nun’s habit during the heaviest rain we’d ever encountered! Three cold and soggy nuns took the vaporetto (water bus) back from Piazza San Marco back to the train station, and our beautifully warm and comfy car.
I’m blogging from our room in Hotel Tegnue, Sottomarina – lying in damp shorts, waiting for Dave to finish showering (in fairness, I’m blogging & did say he could go next!)

Weather!!

Adam — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:46:02 +0000

We’re driving down to Venice (A22), and it is absolutely HOOFING it down! Small lakes have formed and Dave wants to trade our car in for a boat. Impressive sheet lightning is making us go “ooh” and “aah” from time to time.
Dave’s decided to back off a bit, so we’re only doing 60 now

Day 3 (Wednesday)

Adam — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:16:54 +0000

Day started in Menton, beautiful sunny morning. Dave took a run to Italy while Rod & I sorted our lives out and hit the breakfast room.
After loading up, we grabbed the challenge and headed east along the Côte d’Azure. Lovely!
Rod felt that it was unreasonably hot & was most vocal on this point.
The challenge was another photo challenge (sigh) to take photos of 7 cars, and the colour of the car dictated it’s point score: pink 7, brown 6, yellow 5, green 4, blue 3, black 2.
We found a couple of pinks, the rest were browns. Rod got the landspeed record chasing a brown BMW X5. One for the team for captain slow
Later in the day, wanting to push on, I managed to overheat our reliable girl we took a short break while I let her blow off steam (literally) and give her a nice drink of cool water (about 5 litres, LOL!).
We took a nice rest on the shore of Lake Como in a little place called Lierna nr Bellano. We all had a swim and a muckabout with Rod’s 50p football. After a sunbathe, Dave & I swam out to some rocks while Rod foraged for food & drink.
We arrived at the foot of the Passa dello Stelvio around 8:15 with Rod at the wheel. What a road! (pics & video to follow when I connect to hotel wifi).
Rod handed over to Dave around 70% of the way up & Dave kindly let me bring her up the last few awesome corners.
Settled into the hotel room (Perego, nice place) & showered, etc. before sorting out challenge photos and the question sheet from day 1.
Met up with the rest of the teams down at the Albergo Folgore. Handed in the challenges & took our rest among the beverages…
Later on, back in our room, Rod & Dave felt that their water pistols required testing in advance of the impending water fight on morning of Day 4. Needless to say, this ended with a wet hotel room, one popped light in the bathroom, and much hilarity. I have video footage & will consider releasing it for a fee…

WordPress iPhone app swings into action!

Adam — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:14:12 +0000

In the face of increasing support for our trip, as well as more frequent updates, I have activated data roaming and will start using the blog app to talk to you all

The trip anthem

Adam — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:08:31 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuXdhow3uqQ

Day 2 (Tuesday)

Adam — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:51:32 +0000

After all three of us slept through our 07:00 alarms, I woke up at 09:10 with a tiny headache. I gently woke Dave and Rod, then suggested that we should probably get up quite quickly and go get the challenge sheet for the day. Both gentlemen agreed that this would in fact be a wonderful idea and swiftly dressed and went off to execute said task.

Hmmm.. yeah well, you get the idea

Within minutes of their departure I was phoned by Radio Shropshire asking if I could update Eric with our progress. Man, talk about timing… I said yes, then spent 4 minutes listening for my cue (on my mobile) while downing copious amounts of orange juice and strong coffee. I may have been gibbering, and have yet to hear how it went…

UPDATE: sounded fine if a bit giggly

Having ensured that we had ordered breakfast, I harvested three helpings of everything and set it out for me Rod and Dave so they wouldn’t miss out (brekkers stopped at 09:30 and they only left for the challenge at 09:15)…

Japs Eye Motorsport stayed at the same hotel (Etap) and sadly had a spot of bad luck with their Rover Sterling limousine, which simply would not spark up despite plenty of electricity and fuel. After trying to help them for some time, we left them talking to a local mechanic and head off into the hills.

And WOW, what hills! B-E-A-utiful!

Day 1 (Monday)

Adam — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:00:01 +0000

Long haul day today, from Calais to Montelimar (around 600 miles). Breakfast issues (i.e. not ordered the previous night) we quietly and quickly resolved by Mr C when Nun Shall Pass gained a tray and milk jug, along with coffees and pain-au-chocolat. Result!

Captain Cubbin drove us away at 09:00 from the Grand Depart, where all entrants filed out to the long road ahead. Dave and I videoed much of this, check our FB page for photo and video gallery.

Challenge 1 was to head down to Reims Grand Prix circuit (now derelict). It was a photo challenge, to document the buildings photographically so we could answer questions that were to be given to us later that day. Needless to say, Rod Dave and I went camera crazy and documented it all in ridiculous detail. Newbie nerds or what?!

After Reims, it was a steady pile down “les péages” (HOW MUCH?!) to our destination for the day. Despite rain, bad French drivers, hunger, thirst, fatigue and being enclosed in a box with wierdos, we arrived in one piece and to glorious sunshine.

After checking in and showering we set off to the Hotel des Pins in a very swish VW taxivan. Horribly, a very short journey cost us €25.40! (Needless to say, we walked home…).

On that note, our walk home was (a) very late, (b) rather messy (in a good way), (c) a bit random and directionally challenged, and (d) assisted by a nice French Algerian lad who literally walked us the 3km back to where we almost made it to before we went horribly wrong

Bed at some very small hour in the morning, potentially very early the next day… Terrible form!