4 days and counting

 

Fo' you 'soft southern shandy drinkers' maybe

Only 3 for us upt'norf

 

Only 1 night at work left
Time to start cleaning the car me thinks.
Inside today.
I'll have a go with those route plots later today chris, here's hoping
chris.

 

I think you will have to create the routes from those waypoints in the csv files, if it's anything like the ones I've tried Chris.

I don't know if Destinator reads the names of the points, so that might be fun for you working out why we stop in the middle of nowhere

If you need any help understanding anything get me on MSN

 

I've just had a chat with the guy that wrote the program I use to run destinator on my pc. He reckons there is no means of plotting a route, and it's something he's working on for the future.
I'll give it a go later anyway, and see what happens.
chris.

 

Any chance of a favour? I'm after a few of bottles of Walkerswood Jonkanoo Sauce (this red one, available from Sainsbury's)



Would some kind soul be willing to help this chilli-head out and buy say, three bottles and bring 'em along with you? I can pay you in pounds sterling (I have a tenner left over from my last trip to the UK).

 

I will pop down to Asda and get you some Frenchie

Have you tried their Jerk Ckicken?

Chillies MMMMmmmmmm

 

A SatNav program that cant plot a route? wtf use is that? Do you mean like Autoroute or do you mean it will only navigate to the next point (how TomTom does it)

Can't you just take TomTom on the PDA?

 

Cheers CharlieWhiskey, that's absolutely brilliant!

I haven't tried the jerk chicken so if a few bottles of sauce and the jerk chicken sauce comes in under a tenner I'll certainly have a go! I usually cook with fresh chillies (or dried Sri Lanken chillies in a curry or Chilli Con Carne) but the Jonkanoo sauce is wicked in a bit of pitta bread with a bit of beef/chicken, tomato, onion and salad for a quick snack -- harissa just doesn't get anywhere near hot enough for me. The jonkanoo is also great lashed on to spaghetti bolognese with some lovely fresh parmesan grated over it

All this talk about food...

Don't forget to have a full english before you leave lads, it's croissant and café for a week

 

Sorry chris, the sat nav will plot routes from destinations, no problem. There's just no way of getting a pre sorted route into it, and following it like with tom tom. I've got rid of tom tom on my pda now anyway, and I'm using destinator on there. I'm not taking my pda either, as I've got no incar power for it, and no *** lighter either
If I get chance this weekend, I'll have a go at porting the route files you sent me across.
Got the car cleaned inside and out today, as the weather looks to be nice all weekend.
See you soon, one night of work to go
chris.

 

Terry - I understand Andy has already put in an order for octane booster and a radio - could we also bag a couple of the fluorescent yellow jackets for Italy?

I'm starting to lose the plot as to who had produced satnav route plans - we've got TomTom 5. I'd be really grateful if someone could e-mail me the routes. Are they already saved in TomTom itn format or will I have to convert them myself?

Have to say I'm not a big fan of driving in convoy - I suspect when I'm driving I may be too slow for some people's tastes anyway.

 

No worries Eleanor - I'll bring them along with me

 

Andy has an email with the .itn files in

I think we will all drive at our own pace, or with freinds, at least initially. We can find people we are comfortable driving with during the week

 

Thanks Chris, they arrived a couple of minutes ago

I think we've sorted everything now: bulbs, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, full-size spare, track day insurance, TomTom European maps, warning triangle, new tyres, fresh oil, radio, fluorescent jacket, helmets, octane booster... why is it I get the impression that once I've loaded in my camera bag too, there won't be room for anything else?

(Sorry in advance if I end up wearing the same shirt all week!)

 

LOL Andy

I'm thinking of doing a summary of the peculiarities of the motoring laws & stuff in each country if anyone would find it useful?

Does anyone know if the High Vis jackets have to be Yellow (i.e. Green)? I'm taking a pair of Railway 'yellow vests', which are, of course, Orange

 

Don't forget to ensure that you ask your mobile operator to enable "International Roaming" or you won't be making any calls to home

 

I have ensured my employer has done just that Terry

Mobile Phone Bills? what are they?

They all know I'll be in the Alps though, so the likelyhood of being able to recieve a call is slim

 

That's the ONLY thing I've done so far With T Mobile you have to enable each country separately... roaming in India wouldn't have been much use!!!

Putting a todo list together now.. bit last minute, me! And a busy weekend ahead, as I still have some work to finish yet

 

Get yer'sen sorted woman!

 

I'll be in good old ROYAL MAIL flourescent, we'll look very smart if we have an emergency at least, even if andyc pongs abit by the end of the week
5.5 hours to go!
chris.

 

All done
Just my packing to do, sort out my rear speakers (they've just gone on the blink!), see if my bro' in law can sort my sub, pick my new spotlights up off chrome, then I'm ready to go
chris.

 

Terry if you have any more high vis jackets I would be grateful of a lend.

Thanks

Stuart

 

Well I just got my EVO's geometry set up for fast road use, with much less camber than it usually has for track use - who knows, my new PZERO C Drys may even last the fortnight lol!! (I'm staying on for the second week at The Ring and meeting up with the MLR peeps there )

Just got my bullet cam & stereo mics set up and am well pleased with the results http://www.rog.me.uk/Bullet%20Cam.wmv 3MB - the vid is well compressed, but you get the idea... Will probably use my SM1 mount for most purposes - this "discrete" cam is really just for The Ring

Looking forward to meeting up with everyone soon!

Cheers

Rog

 

Nice little film there admiral
Very discrete, as I couldn't make it out at the end in your grill.
Have you got it all hooked up to a dv camera then?
chris.

 

Thanks, Chris - yeah - I use a Sony HC40 which is great, with sports auto-exposure, image stabiliser etc

I'll probably mount it on my rear screen like in my Knockhill videos http://www.rog.me.uk/KH%20August%20Short.wmv 68MB - I like to see the driver steering, and you can position the rear view mirror to see behind etc.

The hidden cam is essential for The Ring - they are VERY strict about filming, especially at public W/Es...

Have bought 12 new miniDV tapes from Comet and have a 12/240v converter, so will be an Epic DVD lol!!

Cheers

Rog

 

No probs mate

 

Car ready, packing almost complete, slowly getting Destinator PN sorted with routes, can't import the .csv files so having to do it from scratch

Are we there yet

 

All ready to go at this end too
Does anyone know the time of the return ferry crossing?

chris.

 

Some good news from Switzerland: The Sustenpass is now open along with a couple of diversionary routes

That just leaves us with The Grimselpass and the H10 which are on our planned route.

We shall see if they finish any of those this weekend, if not we can now get around them

Car is now sparkling on the outside, thanks to Swissol & missyc's efforts yesterday

Everything is ready to go in the motor in the morning, just gotta nip to Sainsbury's as Asda didn't have any Jonkanoo sauce

 

5.30pm on 12th Sept