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Very kind words Jeff... I forgot to reply at the time but - thank you 🙏 Another member reminded me of this thread just now and I thought it was worth a bump... How has everyone been recently, over Christmas and the last few months? Christmas is usually a very tough time for me, both with work stress and the thought of 'having' to spend a lot of time with a family I don't really get on with (perhaps others feel the same?), but this year was very different despite having the lurgy. I don't think I am alone in feeling better once the nights are starting to get lighter and the weather better, so I hope this is making a difference for everyone else now too! I've been keeping myself busy building more wacky stuff, but trying to keep a lid on the insane attention to detail a little. Catching myself doing this has been pretty enlightening - example: I'm half way through walking across the workshop to find a 5mm shorter bolt than the one I'm currently using because it is more optimally suited (yes this actually happened regularly previously 😅), then stopping and telling myself 'good enough is good enough'. I've been concentrating on getting out and exercising more, spending a lot of time riding the frame I built and thoroughly enjoying it. Nature and exercise are great healers! The latest project has been building a pedal car... like car racing, but cheaper, and better for both my lungs and the environment! The plan is to do a few rounds of the British Pedal Car Championship this year. The races take place on kart circuits (and Curborough!) throughout the country, lasting from 2-24(!) hours, with teams of 4 drivers. I'm hoping the competitiveness (with both other teams and within our team) will motivate me to keep up with the exercise and in turn this will keep my brain in check too (as long as I don't get too bogged down in the minor details of trying to 'optimise' every little part of the car...). If anyone else is a keen cyclist fancies a go we still have a space in the car for Round 1 which is 29th March...

Just add engine..... been a ongoing project for nearly three years now, bit of a push on, so hoping/aiming for first start at the end of the month, MOT at the end of March.

I though we had been over this with Agassi's autobiogaphy... I will Crack the seal a little bit... I struggle to expose myself to that lenghs, but, writting it down will allow me to re-visit it, and to remember my targets. doing it public sort of helps me to commit to them... I'm one of those with up and downs. I'm never too bad... (well sometimes I find myself at the vey bottom but I sort myself to a conforable place again with a few adjustmens) but never well enough to ensure an emotional stability... and that its been allways like this, but since I'm in this country is much much worst, continuously struggling, and taking the wrong decisions, and making the wrong adjustmens. I had a really low point starting around this past november, following some Very heavy family bussines (that are still being dealt with) that dragged me and my partner to a very dark place, we dealt differently with the issue and all exploded just after chrismas like a nuke. We are sort of sorted now as a couple, but not really as persons. One of my mains problems is my total inability of being alone... I like to think that is because I'm a super social person and I feel better surrounded by people to share my happines and often loud feelings, but the truth is that I can't bare being on my own... And this is difficult when you are 35, you are thousands of miles away from family, friends and what you call home, and your only daily company (my partner) works stupid shifts, and we happen to be people sharing a bed and have the odd weekend toguether more than a couple that shares a lot of time... Not different that many other families, but still though for someone like me with ZERO independence. This leaves me most of the time alone at home after work, with no many friends around to hag about and with the feeling that the life isn't worth much if is measured in beers, sofa time, and Netflix series, but that is how I choose to spend it because I'm unable to do stuff on my own. I've taken since the first week of january significant steps to learn being on my own doing stuff I enjoy and does not depend much of anyone else... And I have recovered a significant ammount of activities I had left aside during the years, because "life got in the way"... (relocating to uk, was a significant "life got on the way" thing)... Its incredible, how easy you drop something because in that moment you can't carry on, and when you could take it again, you simply don't do it because is too hard to start again, Also decieded to drop stuff that I though I enjoyed but only stresses me out... (more on that later). I have un-dusted all my musical instruments. Been a couple of times to an Open Mic sesion, and taken the executive decision to get back at the Music Stage as a Bass player. That means a significant ammount of practice hours requiered. I've been away from the stages at high (ish) level for over 10 years. So far I'm ejoying every minute of it... i do even have a test with a half serious band next week. Re-started my creative activities... Doing shirts, stickers and cool designs for people. This also helps to pay the bills of my own designs and projects. My time with the 3d printer is also well valued, and when I finish to draw something, it goes trough the printer and it finishes, still astonishes me that I'm capable of that (well the technology is). Shooting. Oh shooting. is SOOOO good. If possible, being on your own in the range, ear protectors insulating you from the world and a target in front of you with no other thoughts than this black dot in the target paper and your controlled breathing. Is so relaxing. I've significantly cutted down the ammount beer drunk during the week. I still get quite lose if i have no important activities on saturday, but I try to drink ZERO during the week. 3 beers every evening as a passtime can't be too good. I've left a bit aside the car stuff... in fact I do have a trackday in a week and I'm not sure my car will even start...Mental note... Better check it out... but the truth is that I really don't care. If it happens to work, will be a fun day, if not... is valentines day, Will sort something out at home for when she is back. And won't be doing competitive events at all. I just don't like it apparently (i though i did, but last year events were too much for me). And I'm forcing myself to cicle to work... regardless of the weather. (that its been stupid, because I've been poorly ill due cicling on wet mornings at 0 degrees... but I keep on it. hopefully will be better after february) My aim (and I'm still not quite there) is to have the desire to have free time to sit in the sofa and watch TV and drink a beer every now and then because I'm too busy doing stuff on my own, rather than this being the default passtime because I don't have people around. Will see how I get on. P.S. @AdamR's design and bulding capabilites are simple AMAZING. Every time I see one of his creations I feel embarrased because a so called "creative mechanical and development engineer" like myself would be unable to even design something like this... let alone to actually build it.

Well, it was a pap journey there .. Two accidents on the way. Waited for about 10 mins at Scotch corner for the first to clear, then got lucky with a four vehicle pile up at the M18 M180 roundabout. Managed to squeeze through before the traffic piled up. I think I heard on the radio both accidents caused road closures and diversions. Bit misty here and there but nothing too drastic. Got to the circuit 10 mins before the briefing, so left the car on the trailer, signed on and had a bacon butty and a cup of tea. After the briefing rather than rush unloading the car, I jumped into an Exige for the sighting laps, Car didn't want to start again! Had to remove the plugs give them a dry off and a blow.. refitted and away we go. The circuit was cold and damp in places and took a good while to dry out. Mainly the section under the trees between the hairpin and Barn. The sun popped out about mid morning but it remained pretty cold. I has a set of Pirelli slicks on for the first time, and they seemed to take ages to get any warmth into them. In fact I don't think I got them working properly all day. Half the circuit seemed to be fine.. Park corner all the way through to the hairpin was OK ish.. but Barn, Coppice and Charlies was somewhat lacking in the grip department. Still good fun though. (Was wondering if they put any sort of de-icer treatment down? It was frosty first thing, and I know some karting tracks treat the surface in winter) Anyway, the car ran OK. No fluid losses from the coolant or oil systems. I had one slight hiccup .. After hearing something clattering under the car, I discovered I'd lost yet another alternator bolt. I had a spare to pop in, but this is a recurring problem I need to fix. Will get a video up at some point. Pic of one very grubby car in the Cadwell sunshine! And there's some work going on to make more hardstanding. Be nice on a wet day rather than slithering round in the mud!

Wasn't sure where this should go... Stuff? Yeah I guess so. Nonsense? Not a bit of it! Anyway, perhaps I'm a day late with this as Mental Health Awareness week was last week, but here goes I've recently (almost) finished building my car, and all along the way this has had me dancing along a psychological tightrope. Due to various factors I have a tendency to strive for perfection, and this can get me into a lot of self-inflicted trouble (and has done in the past!). In a recent post I decided to 'come out' and share a bit of my story, in the hope that it would help others to be more open about any sort of mental struggles they have had, or are currently dealing with: https://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/topic/130867-the-lobster-88-se-rebuild/page/41/?tab=comments#comment-1422129 This can be anything from suicidal thoughts, right through to relatively-harmless-but-totally-draining overthinking (something I still do too much - mentally composing email replies at 3am while I'm lying awake, or practicing phone calls in advance!). If this describes you then you're not alone - even within this club - and I have always found the support that comes from all angles when I 'break cover' to be overwhelming, completely the opposite to my original fear of being seen as 'crazy', or being ridiculed, or even excluded. In fact it kinda makes you feel like you're in some sort of exclusive club when people pop up (both 'publicly' and privately) offering similar stories or support and understanding. It's extremely heartwarming. So, I guess the over-riding message is that it is perfectly normal to feel like cr@p sometimes, and that it's absolutely OK when that happens. There is support available all around if you allow it to come into your life. I will personally offer myself as one of these support mechanisms if I'm able to at the time, I'm only a PM away Feel free to share any stories here, you won't be judged and as I said, we'll be part of a (relatively) exclusive club, haha. And don't forget that whatever happens, there's always a fun and engaging toy with a shouty engine sat in / on your garage / shed / drive to allow you to clear your head at the end of a bad day Take care everyone, x

Thanks Gary, I'm Dundee area. Gotta say, really friendly atmosphere about the Westies which is great. Heading to Newcastle in 13hrs with 2 motorcycle jackets, 1 crash helmet, gloves and 2 wooly hats...lets see where this goes.

Visited an abandoned railway tunnel today that I have wanted to visit for a while. Thought I would share on here in case anyone is interested in this kind of stuff.

Thankyou for the comments. Very much appreciated. Be careful what you wish for. I will be heading that way over in a few months and I will have a drone with me. Yes, brilliant program. I have tried to plan to visit a few of the places in the programs. I visited "La Coupole" that was shown again in the programme the other night. You just dont get a sense of scale for these places or the "Feeling in the air"

Defo the music making this creepy as hell, especially the two ghosts/sprites/angels/apparitions at the end. As said before, you have some skill in these things and some real off the beaten track places to film in/at too, love it all 👍 @Ian Tolfree (tolf) - WSCC AO Rep, I think @Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup) should be in the list for the inaugural run to your place in France; the drone shots of the quarry and out-buildings would be awesome...?

Too busy blatting not enough cleaning. Hopefully the new doors will prevent the need to wash my coat now after every run!

Here you go @TableLeg I know you like a bit of exploring.

Wonder if any of the Scotland lads know any history @Gary Taylor - Scotland AO Looks like it has been on one of Bobs "Applecross" tours.

I appreciate you're new to the cars but to stand a chance of fitting any type of hood you need a windscreen to fasten the front onto unless of course you press-stud it to your head.

A man was stuck in a traffic jam on the road outside Parliament when suddenly a man knocks on his car window. The driver puts his window down slightly and asks, "What’s the matter?" The man replies, “Terrorists have kidnapped all the MPs inside the House of Commons! They’re asking for £1,000,000,000 or they will douse them with petrol and set them on fire. We’re collecting donations from car to car." The driver asks, “How much on average is everyone giving?" "About two litres.”

Once again this thread serves to remind us all what is really important, our health and especially our mental health. I know Adam did not intend to do anything but highlight his situation but it does show no matter how talented a person can be we are all capable of having days where no matter what you do, what you achieve, there is a self doubt, or self loathing or something that stops what others crave being enough for those who acheive it.. It is so important to understand yourself and to be yourself, too many of us have spent too long trying to be the crutch for others, or the clown to pick people up and in the process of helping others we forget ourselves. The hamster wheel will stop if you stop running on it, I have never met Jude or Adam but it is clear they are great people who are both beating, most of the time, what many allow to get the better of them. Hopefully they will understand how many of us think they are both awesome, how could anyone who has done what Adam has and a dog owning Westfield driving Ukulele female could not be anything else😀