Isle of Man to Peebles

My mother and I were heading off for another annual Caine family get together in Peebles, Scotland. My wife can't make it as it's in Manx Grand Prix fortnight and she can't get time off from her job at the hospital.

This meant an early start to take the Ben My Chree sailing to Heysham and after the obligatory stop at Gretna to buy some whisky and lunch we turned off the motorway at Moffat to take the scenic route to Peebles.

There were only two other people in the Manannan Executive lounge. They were going to a reunion which was normally held in the same hotel we were going to but this year it was big reunion and it was being held in Edinburgh. Coincidentally they were also going to return on the same sailing as us.

Unlike last year when torrential rain had flooded and closed some of the roads this year the weather was fine and I enjoyed “making some progress” in the Porsche Boxster.

If my wife had been with me it would be all white knuckles and "slow down!" but my 84 year old mother was in the passenger seat and she was fast asleep after a good lunch. Once she briefly woke up and asked how fast we were going. I told her about 80 and she said "Oh, I thought it was faster than that" and then went back to sleep.

After checking in to Peebles Hydro we in to Peebles town and looked at some shops; I may buy some shoes. My mother then wanted to look at a church so I enjoyed a pint in pub next door. Such a convenient arrangement! In the evening we had our meal with six of the family.



Glasgow

We knew from our previous stay in the City Inn that the open top tour bus stopped right outside the hotel so after breakfast I quickly checked that the Boxster was still OK in the open car park and then waited at the tour bus stop, chatting to a couple from Leeds.

A blue tour bus eventually came along. I hadn’t been expecting that, the City Tours busses were always red. The couple from Leeds asked if it was the same service and were assured it was so the boarded the bus. I wasn’t too convinced, but as we didn’t fancy waiting much longer in the hope of a red one turning up we hopped on and paid for the two day pass.

It turned out that the blue and red busses were two competing services and although they both took exactly the same route the red busses were more frequent. We’d not long set off when a red bus turned up at the stop.

The tour started off OK but soon ran into problems with the parades through the city and the accompanying crowds and strong police presence. It seemed that every turn the bus tour took it would run in to a new parade, or perhaps it part of the same parade twisting its way through the city.

We eventually abandoned the bus tour and tried to make our way on foot. We eventually took in the art gallery in Royal Exchange Square (being picketed by striking union members), the Barras Market (not for too long), Glasgow Green (never seen so many police) and the Peoples Palace (closed due the strikes).

What a weekend we’d picked to visit Glasgow!

We made our way on tired feet back in to the city centre where using Foursquare on the iPhone I found a place called the Lighthouse and after a false start I eventually made my way to the top of an old tower with spectacular views over the city. I also stopped in at a Rohan shop to buy one of their wonderful umbrellas before I really perked up with a very enjoyable seafood meal in Mussel Inn followed by a few more drinks in the Toby Jug pub and a taxi back to the hotel.

It was quite a nice evening so we sat at the hotel’s quayside tables and enjoyed our complimentary wine in the sunshine. A good end to the poor start we had today. 

Boxster Service in Chester

We were up early this morning to take the Seacat over to Liverpool and then on to the Porsche garage near Chester to drop our Boxster off for its first service. While the car was being serviced they dropped us off in Chester, where we did a bit of shopping before being picked up again later when the car was ready.

We then drove to the De Vere Carden Park Hotel, a hotel we'd stayed at before and had our evening meal in the hotel



Porsche Club "Ace Cafe" style meet

I cut our own grass today; not as much fun as the ride on mower but then our garden is far smaller.

Photo: Two Boxster RS 60s in the pit lane
 
In the afternoon I washed the Boxster and took it to the Ace Cafe style meet at Grandstand. The pit lane full of Porsches with other marques in the rear area of the grandstand. It seemed a good turnout for the first time event with some very interesting cars to see. I wish I'd taken a lot more photographs but I was still messing around with video on my Canon 5D MkII

Porsche Club GB Dawn Raid

I was up at 05:30 this morning for Porsche Club GB Dawn Raid. Around 60 Porsches met at the TT Grandstand for a lap of the TT Course before the road got busy with traffic. It was the first time I'd attended one of these events and wanted to tag along at the back of a group. The groups were sent off with only a small interval between them (less than one minute) which I felt wasn't really enough of a gap as the lead car in the group behind me soon caught me up while we still within Douglas due to traffic lights, roundabouts, etc.

Photo: Porsches in the TT Grandstand pit lane prior to the dawn run

The English Porsche in front of me lost touch with the group due to traffic and the roundabout so I stayed behind the driver to make sure she didn't get lost on the lap. She may have done it before and knew the y way, but I had no way of knowing. We didn't really get much of a chance to pick up a bit of speed until we'd passed some traffic after Kirk Michael.
 
I lost her at the traffic lights in Ramsey and aware than another group was behing me at the lights and the "rule" about not overtaking any Manx Porsches I decided to pull in and let them get past. I needn’t have worried as I was soon behind them on the mountain and even getting held up by them. The person who told me about it being slower than going out by yourself was correct, there were a couple of fast drivers but the rest were no faster than any locals in a half decent car
 
We were pulled over for a short break at Creg ny Baa. I guess the rest then headed back to the grandstand; I headed home for breakfast.
 
Later than morning we went back down to my Mother's house and my wife gave the back garden a few more cuts with the ride on mower while I did the awkward edges and bits under the trees with a Flymo. By late afternoon I was knackered from my early start and struggling to stay awake so I went to bed early.