Well the Neil Holmes 'school opening' was a gas! I missed the 'on the water' bit, earlier in the day, and arrived at the old customs house casino for drinks, food and presentations.
A large selection of guests filled the casino ranging from current and 'ex' racers, to press representatives from many well known boating mags.
Mr 'Sport Rib', Mark Pascoe, took up his usual position of deeply sarcastic compare, dishing out plenty of fun awards dressed with his own unique style.
On arrival, Rowgscratcher greeted me and I couldn't help but notice his trousers were soaked from the waist down! I never got to the bottom of what this liquid was, but it appeared to have a yellow tinge to it and a rather odd odour
I was even presented with my own award, in the form of a 'Neil Holmes Powerboat School' T shirt enscribed on the back with the CORRECT spelling of my name.
A very convivial afternoon/evening was had, with plenty of chuckleizing with 'the scratcher' (as in Rowg), Gordon McMath, MP, Gill & Clive Williams (Drivers Wharf) and many others, plus a bit of drinking and chomping on excellent grub provided.
A constant supply of drinks served by very pretty young things wearing......well not much, was very welcome, but made conversation hard at times.
A lady came up to me and asked "Are you Jon Fuller?" OH OH! here we go, I thought! then she intoduced herself as Mrs RHINO (wife and co-pilot of racer & boatmad forum member RHINO) and went on to explain how boatmad had destroyed her life as she had known it, with RHINO checking the 'goss' on boatmad at any opportunity! ...ooops, sorry Mrs Peedell!.
Best line of the day has to be from Gill (Williams) who, whilst talking about racing and how it all was a few years back, asked me with a dead straight face "You used to have really big balls didn't you?"
I stuttered a bit and asked her what exactly did she mean, and she said you know, dinner-dances and awards evenings,that sort of thing! oh yes, loads I replied, phew thought for a moment she'd been horribly miss-informed!
I'm hoping to get some of the official pics of the day emailed to me, which I'll post if and when they arrive.
JF
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