Fly Like An Eagle

First vist in a long while to Manchester Apollo saw the Pieman and Mark Shed watch the most excellent Steve Miller Band in concert. A rare performer on these shores it was great to catch this gig supporting the release of his first studio album in 17 years, Bingo!

The venue was ok, a bit tatty but the sound was good. No support but that didn't matter. Five piece band including Mr Miller himself with no dedicated Bassist. Right from the start to the finish it was excellent with a variety of material from the new album and plenty of the "old" stuff including Take The Money and Run, Wild Mountain Honey, Swingtown, RockNMe, Fly Like and Eagle, Jungle Love, The Joker, Seasons........... 

Mr Miller was superb with more guitar changes than I have ever seen well supported by an excellent band with Mr Sonny Charles singing and dancing, not too dissimilar to the Pieman at times. Many thanks to Mark Shed for making it a brilliant night out. 

Spa Part 2

After leaving Spa we headed back to Brussels and swiftly got a taxi into town. We headed for the Grand Place which has more waffle, chocolate and kebab emporiums that the Pieman has eaten Pies. An excellent evening was had with a light show on the Grand Place to finish followed by the fastest taxi ride ever, back to Hotel....for no apparent reason!

Race day dawned again with a blue sky and again the rain clouds appeared as we headed to Spa. At the track we headed straight to Pouhon complex as the crowds are a lot bigger to claim a spot. The rain comes down, the sun comes out, the wind begins to blow changing all the time. We find ourselves surrounded by beer swilling dutchies and settle in for the next few hours before the race starts.

Whilst the support race take place including GP2 and the Porsche supercup. The race is preceded by the parade of drivers but not on the back of a truck this time but individual sports cars for each driver. This is then followed by the biggest cheer of the day as the parade is followed by one of the support vehicles the dump truck. Yes the effluent man has joined the parade!

An explosion of sound signals the start of the race and we hear 24 thunderous engines at the limit roar up Eau Rouge and onto Les Combes before turning and dropping down hill to us. Lewis leads oh happy days. It's hard at times keeping up with what's happening but the result is excellent a win for Lewis and big disappointment for Jenson through no fault of his own.

After the race we have our own race to get back to the coach in time and take a short cut through the forest along with several thousand others. The journey back to Brussels is a bit of a nightmare and takes nearly four hours. Food and sustenance is immediately required and we head off for a strange Turkish experience!!

Spa Part 1

August Bank Holiday the Pieman and Giorgio Dragonslayer headed by coach to the tropical rain forest of Spa for 2010 Formula 1 Grand Prix. Happy days, bring on the pies. A long leg numbing journey followed before our arrival at the hotel on the outskirts of Brussels, our home for three nights. It is the noisest and quietest hotel being next to Brussels International Airport and Brussels grand cemetery.

After a Laffe or two or three our spirits are  revived and the search for Pie begins. Unfortunately we have to settle for a Calzone (Looks like a pasty) in the land of waffles, fries and strong beer. Qualifying day arrives with blue skies all around. As we travel early morning the hills and woods of the ardennes appear above the flat lands of Belgium shrouded in mist, cloud and Raiiiinnnnnnnnn!!!!!! The circuit is fantastic from the the first view as we enter the circuit at les combes with the vista of the circuit spread out below carved out of the rain soaked trees and hills of the Ardennes forest.

Our first stop is the chemical toilets. Better than Monza but breath through your mouth, not your nose and don't look down!! Next stop the waffle stand for the slightly fragile dragonslayer who needs a sugar boost. It is so hilly and steep the TV pictures just do not convey. We head slowly down the hill to the top of eau rouge and claim a spot to watch the 3rd practice session.

The thundering noise which reverberates against your chest and your internal organs, the smell of burnt fuel, the speed as they fly up and over eau rouge its intoxicating. At the end of the day your foot/muscles sore, sweat soaked,  rain soaked, sun burnt and leg cramped but who cares after watching formula 1 cars in the flesh.

Practice finishes and we wander on through to the F1 village and admire the view of Eau rouge from the bottom up. Wow tarmac and sky is all you see as you look up your driving blind its that steep!! We wander further checking out potential spots for race day as the crowds will be bigger than today and finding/keeping a  spot will be of utmost importance tomorrow. The crowd is a much more cosmopolitan group than Monza with a strong German, French, Polish, Scandinavian, British and of course those quiet self effacing Dutchmen.

Eventually we cross underneath the track and head through the trees getting absolutely soaked to the downhill sweep of  Pouhon Corner which is a great view with the cars coming down from Les Combes and off up through the gears to Campus. Stamina issues set in and so we stop here ahead of the practice for GP2 / Porsche Supercup cars. Rations are needed and Mrs Piemans red cross parcel is attacked with relish. Also attacked with relish are the ubiquitous Belgium fries available by the bucketload all around the circuit, with a mustard flavoured mayonnaise on top, orange in colour!!!!

Qualifying starts, is affected by the rain with Petrov coming off on the first out lap before even recording a time!! Idiot! Although it did give us the opportunity to see his damaged car close up as they carry it back to the pit on truck by us. Webber, Hamilton and Kubica is how qualifying finishes.The sun is shining and we are getting burnt, crazy weather!

We carry on walking around the circuit with Porsche/Gp2 races practice taking place and sussing out our spot for the race day. We've settled on the area were going to aim for on race day and so begin the long climb/walk back to our coach and the journey back to Brussels.