Just thought I’d do a quick blog post about last Friday; My day at Silverstone and practice day for the British Grand Prix.

Well it was brilliant.

I arrived at the clubhouse of British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) half way through the first sitting of lunch. Diners included BRDC President, Damon Hill OBE and Vice President, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE. After a couple of hours there supervising the waiters I went on over to the BRDC marquee next door.

But not before I’d had a quick five minute visit to the first floor club lounge and then the roof terrace with a fantastic view of the whole circuit. One thing I hadn’t appreciated was the noise. The word ‘deafening’ doesn’t quite do it justice.

In the marquee I helped supervise the setting up of the BRDC Grand Prix Ball. 450 guests were due at about 7.30pm after a champagne reception on the lawn, including the board and their guests and other patrons.

After various management and staff briefings, we were ready for the off. A three course meal, with speeches from Damon Hill (not happy with Bernies decision to pack the British Grand Prix of to Donnington in 2010) and a visit from David Coultard (oh, and another driver whose name I can’t remember, but I do know he was foreign and had just turned 21.)

It all went rather well. Though to be honest I didn’t think much of Bjorn Again; the band hired for the after dinner entertainment. They were okay, I suppose. It’s just that I’d heard them doing all their sound checks and stuff while we were setting up in the afternoon. They were, of course, english, but when the evening came, they actually pretended to be the band members of ABBA, took their names and even put on fake Swedish accents. Oh and I’m not sure why they performed a couple of Status Quo numbers half way through, though there was a Rick Parfitt Jr on the guest list.

The patrons started leaving (along with half the staff) at about midnight, leaving us managers and the other half of the staff to set up for breakfast. Amazing to watch the whole stage set up and lighting rig in the marquee all come to pieces and disappear out the side exit as we were laying up tables.

At three am, the rest of the staff went too, leaving three managers and myself (oh, and a security guard who spent most of the time asleep) to finish off. We finished at 6:30 am as the next shift of managers and waiting staff who were doing breakfast arrived. The marquee had been transformed and it looked great.

Luckily for me, I wasn’t needed for Saturday, so after my marathon 18 hour shift, I drove the hour and half home, told Rich all about it, and climbed into bed for a well earned sleep.

Went to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry this weekend.

Getting there was a bit of a problem as I was due to be picked up at Reading Station at 7.20 on Saturday morning. I got to Guildford station on time and waited for the Reading train on platform 8. And on time the train arrived.

Two other passengers and I waited at the end of the platform and when the train arrived we tried to get on, but the first class doors at our end of the train didn’t open. By the time we realised there was a problem and got to a door that was open the guard very helpfully gave the signal to the driver and the doors closed in front of us! The train left us stranded on the platform.

Naturally we complained like hell at the arrogance of the guard - who knew he was being a complete and utter bastard. Sadly the duty manager (South West Trains) could do nothing since it was First Great Western who ran that service to Reading.

The manager was very helpful, and indeed appologetic since apparently that sort of thing happened rather a lot and they were constantly running out of compliant forms.

There was no way I could get to Reading by 7.20am and was going to have to drive to Coventry myself. Thankfully South West Trains paid for a taxi to take me back to Woking, which was very considerate of them since it wasn’t them that had caused the problem.

On getting into my car I reached into my pocket to take out my phone - except it wasn’t there. I’d left the damn thing in the taxi!

Cursing myself I drove home and borrowed Richard’s. I finally made it to Coventry at 10.30am (via Birmingham. I got a little confused when the M40 changed into the the M42!)

Had a brilliant time. I was working as a manager supervising a dozen or so staff who were running the corporate hospitality boxes at the stadium.

Saturday was Coventry v Wolves (football) and Sunday was Sarecens v Munsters (Rugby). No idea who won - I’m not in the slightest bit sporty!

Since I was there I stayed in the hotel over night. Clever actually, because the corporate boxes double as hotel rooms.

I got home about 11pm on Sunday, knackered but having thoroughly enjoyed it. Just a pity I’d lost my bloody phone!

1. Spend all day and all night Monday not doing anything apart from sitting/sleeping in a dark room and only communicating (when absolutely necessary) with one person because that’s what a bi-polar disorder can do to you.

2. Ditto for Tuesday.

3. Spend all day and all night on Wednesday standing/walking in the Venue restaurant at Wembley Stadium communicating verbally and non-verbally with upwards of 1000 England v Switzerland guests hoping nobody notices how useless you feel because you promised you’d do it two weeks earlier when you were feeling fine and you really need the money.

4. Spend all day and all night Thursday with a migraine, recovering.