Sanna and I went to the Gold Coast at the weekend for the Gold coast marathon. We both trained very hard for it but I over trained I think and my right knee injury came back. I went to a physio for a few visits and he recommended I didn’t do the marathon so I stopped training and did the half marathon instead.
Here’s the lovely Gold coast
Sanna after I find her in the recovery area afterwards, she managed to complete all 42Km’s and did it in 3:50 VERY very well done, I’m really proud of her to have completed it. I completed the half marathon in 1:55, not bad considering I stopped all training 3-4 weeks before the event due to my injury.
and a few minutes later, not feeling too great by this stage of the recovery
us being proud with our finisher t-shirts and our finishers medals
Still in the official recovery process with steak sandwich and chips in bed 🙂
The following day we hired a car to explore the Gold Coast a bit more and we drove away from the tourist area and into the countryside and found Lamington National Park. Unfortunately for Sanna Lamingtons did not grow on the tree’s there.
My first Trackday
Today it was my first proper track day at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney. I have driven for a afternoon once at Eastern Creek before a few months ago but this was my first full day on the track and in my own car. It was time to test the Lotus out near its limit but in the safety zone of being at the track with fire a paramedics at hand should anything go wrong.
Well it was a safe day and I learnt a hell of a lot about all the beginnings of racing techniques. There was one crash which was a driver of a Porsche 911 after only 10 minutes in, probably his tyres and brakes hadn’t reached correct temperature and he came off doing around probably 150 into the tyre wall. He was taken t hospital but we received word an hour later he was all fine.
OK onto some photos!
When we arrived at the track, everyone in the beginners group which I was in had to do a long safety briefing in a suite above the pit garages and then outside one of the instructors gave us a briefing on correct seating positions and about securing everything loose in the car. He used my car as it had no roof to easily show these things.
Here I am just before we go out on the track for the first time explaining the differences between my Lotus Elise R on the left and the Lotus Exige S on the right to some of the guys in the beginners group.
My friend Robert Bryden’s Lotus Exige Cup 240, the top of the range Exige offered by Lotus Sport and pretty rare too, only a few in Australia. Quite a bit more power than mine, really makes it FLY around the track, these are raced professionally a lot in Europe.
My friend the ‘meatman’ that’s his nickname I’ve given him as he owns Australia’s largest meat packing company bought his brand new Black Exige S along. He was a terror on the track, overtaking everyone with ease all day long.
Another photo of the lovely Black Exige, this is in the pit garage.
Lots of expensive cars all lined up ready to hit the track!
Line up Line up, gentlemen start your engines!
With the pit lane exit marshal waiting for the go ahead to exit the pit lane. The marshal looks down the track and gives you the go ahead when he sees a gap for you to accelerate onto the track quickly.
Me driving along the main straight in front of the grandstand leading an Audi RS4, I was going at 200kph (125 mph) at the end of the main straight, in a car that’s so low to the ground that feels really fast. Turn 1 just after the main straight I managed to stick to 140 kph (87mph), that speed in a corner is bloody scary but it sticks to the road with its aerodynamics.
Coming back into the pits after a few laps to cool off and get my concentration back.
Old and new Lotus’s, the old Lotus 7 in the background now being made by Caterham cars Ltd in Caterham England.
Me checking out my favourite car the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, worth nearly 3 of my cars! A very track focused car, not something you could have as a daily driver car, far to raw.
I love this car
Lined up ready to go out again along with a Aston Martin Vantage, Lotus Elise S1 and a Ferrari 360
I asked instructor Mat if he would take my friend Chris out for a few hot laps, he did for 3 laps and he really enjoyed the experience, he loved it.
This BMW M3 was good fun to go up against, it had more power in the straights but on the corners I was making distance on him, no other road car can beat a Lotus on the corners.
A photo of one of my rear tyres after being out on the track, you can see the edges of the tread where the rubber has literally melted from the hot temperature of driving at the limit and this hot melted rubber flicks up and sticks to the side of the cars which is hard work to clean off. Its all clean now though 🙂
Last photo of the day and the cars allowed to let its parts cool off in the pits before the 35 minute drive home, and to BED. Racing around a race track at speed all day is very tiring, *YAWN*
A video I took of the Instructor Mat driving me around the track showing me how it should be done. He owns and races a Elise himself and so knows how to drive a Lotus on the track VERY well and FAST. It was scary, after 2 laps I’d had enough 🙂
What a fun day overall!
Horah horah im a member
Horah i’ve been accepted as a full member of Lotus Club Australia! the first step to gaining my Australian CAMS Motor Sport license and the first step to being allowed on a racetrack.
Mix played on SS Radio in the UK
My good old mates Richard Earnshaw and Dan Jones of Duffnote Records suggested I put together a DJ mix and they might be able to air it on their weekly radio show in the UK. I dug out a mix I recorded about 9 months ago and I remember after recording had finished it was one of my proudest mix sessions I’d ever done, every mix was pretty much perfect and it all flowed so well. It even had my remix edit of Richards own track Joyride, which I re-labed ‘Franky Joyrides’ lookout for it 3/4 the way though. The original mix was an hour and a half long but I sent the first hour over to the boys in the UK. They both really liked it and have featured it as their classic guest mix for this week’s show.
They asked for an email for any ‘plugs’ or anything I want to say. Here’s the email I sent them:
Thanks for using my mix from your old mate Beddy guys.
Please call me Marky B on the guest mix, please plug the SHE monthly residency on the Last Saturday on the month at the luxurious inner city Sydney club Industrie. Please plug the newly re-launched brand and our newly re-launched website at www.shesydney.com bla bla
Mention we’ve bagged all the best Soulful House DJ’s in Australasia as residents, Graham Cordery, Liam Sampras, Dave54, Nick Vidal, Yogi & Ibiza’s Timmy Trumpet.
Do a shout out to Graham Cordery 🙂
Beddys got big balls e.t.c
Cheers.
Mark Bedford
Now they obviously printed this out and referred to it on the desk in front of the microphones in the studio when they were doing their broadcast as they kept referring to it all the time and taking the piss outta me in their own unique, as friends do way 🙂
When you have a listen to the show, bear the above email and what I said in mind and you’ll see how they kept referring to parts, including the ‘big balls’ comment I put at the end which was referring to a certain famous photo of have of Richard Earnshaws manhood =)
This will be auctioned off to the highest bidder in the future one day to raise money for gingeritis disease which Richard has a bad case off, bless him 🙂
Listen live with the links below.
Part 1:
Marky B mix on Sugar Soul Radio show 18-05-07 Part1 (128bit mp3)
Part 2:
Marky B mix on Sugar Soul Radio show 18-05-07 Part 2 (128bit mp3)
Drive through the Royal national park
Today me and Chris left early in the morning for a drive around the Royal National Park just south of the city, stopping halfway for breakfast it was a good drive around twisting roads in the countryside and I started to get a better feel for the handling of the car.
Here’s a short clip of the drive.
and a photo of Chris’ Breaky 🙂
A photo of me with the new toy as we stop for a break to take in the peace and quiet
Canberra Half Marathon weekend
Hi yah all,
This weekend we whisked ourselves away to the capital Canberra to do the half marathon there.
We drove there in the new toy (first time out of the city) driving via Wollongong to Pick up Sanna. Just about managed to cram in a weekends worth of clothes, our running gear and the roof of the little Lotus into the back.
Here’s a photo taken just after a spirited drive through the Royal National Park. I left at 7am so to get the cool crisp winter air on my morning run, the roads were deserted apart from a few bikers who enjoyed keeping up to my rear as I winded though the twisty national park roads.
I took this photo and it was lovely and quiet, all you could hear was he tinging of the engine cooling down and the waves down below against the cliffs.
Mum you will remember it here as this is where we got out for a short walk to the top of the cliff and dad was too scared to get out the car in fear of snakes 🙂
Have to say, rubbish on the left, that’s not normal Australia, it’s a very clean place usually.
A Nice shot of the rump of the Loti 🙂
Canberra, the capital of Australia and probably the most un-interesting place ever after you’ve visited it once.
The biggest dead kangaroo I’ve ever seen! It was as big as a person! it must of really damaged the car or whatever hit it!
Driving a sports car with the roof off REALLY messes up one’s hair 🙂
One of my favourite views of the car, the rear rump around the back of the window, this is the view from the rear mirrors all the time and I love it 🙂
No there are no photos of me a Sanna doing the Canberra half marathon, we would look far too tired and ugly for photo proof. We did a really good time though, approx 1:45 which is beats my previous personal best I set in the South England New Forest marathon of 1:56 by memory.
Goodbye Mothership, long live the Mothership!
Well it’s been about 4 years of travels and experiences I have been through with my trusty laptop lovingly nicknamed the mothership by my friends.
I remember I think it was Rich Earnshaw seeing it first and saying “Christ that’s so big it’s like a mothership†and it just stuck with my friends from there. The Mothership has been on travels though round the world trips, DJ’ing at masive night clubs and parties, travelling on tiny ‘tinny’ boats to remote beaches for beach house parties and generally all over the place with me. Its helped me find a place to live, make new fiends, find new jobs and make me money so it was the best present I’ve ever received for that, thanks mum and dad x x
So 4 years along and it was time to move on. I decided on a Sony as I continue to expand my Sony purchases and their equipment seems to just be so well built in all area’s hi-fi’s TV, mp3 players, speakers e.t.c. Their laptop range was suitably impressive too and I was attracted to their flagship model offering the world’s first 1080 High Definition screen and the world’s first ever Blu-ray high definition player/burner in a laptop.
So it only seems right to pass the flagship status onto the new mothership and name it HMS mothership too!
Some photo’s:- the old Mothership next to the New Mothership, its a lot wider with its HD screen and a lot of glossy back metal/plastic on show.
The new mothership close up
Here I am VERY upset to be letting the old mothership go but I must say goodbye alas, it is going to a new home in Western Australia as I sold it on eBay to a happy new owner
My first time on the Track!
Last week I went for the first time racing around a real race track here in Sydney! Well I wasn’t racing it was more of a first timers teaching session from a professional racing driver and racing driver instructor Mat. Lotus invited me for an afternoon at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney in a bid to say sorry a bit for the delay on my shiny new Lotus so far. They gave me and 3 others who were prospective customers for Lotus to go out on the track in Lotus Exige S for a afternoon of fun. The car was similar to what mine will be like to drive on a track so was a great experience to see what the car could do in the environment Colin Chapman and his team designed it for.
The afternoon started with a long powerpoint presentation in the pits of all the corners and their names, entry, apex point (middle point of a turn), exit points and some safety instructions. Then there was a slow drive round the lap with the instructor a ‘sighting’ lap. Next was 6 laps of me driving with the instructor giving me tips, jee’s I was slow haha, then was a break and then 8 laps again of me driving and getting more confident and faster in and out of the corners and then to finish off the day was 2 ‘hot laps’ of the instructor driving at race speed, jee’s that was scary! I almost fell out of the car afterwards shaking and making everyone laugh haha.
This is Jon, the guy in charge of Lotus Australia, he’s English too, was sent over here for 4 years by Lotus to basically increase awareness of Lotus cars here and so to start sales in this country as they are still fairly unknown. He’s a good laugh and enjoys working for Lotus I get the feeling and knows back home in Sussex well so he’s good to catch up with.
The final SHE party of the summer
Well this was the last SHE party of the Australian summer of 2007. We had run 6 special parties over the summer of 2007, 3 of them on boats on the harbour and all being a great success with numbers. This final party was on the Sunday 25th March and was from 12 lunchtime to 5pm with the after party at the famous Darling Harbour Cargo bar. We were very lucky with the weather, we seem to always be with our boat parties always being really hot and as usual we had lots of comments of everyone having a good time 🙂
Here’s our poster for the event, our graphics artist girl is putting together some excellent posters for our events lately, and this one was as usual a great example.
Here we are setting up the DJ equipment on the top deck of the boat. There were as usual 3 floors of live music, that’s 11 DJ’s, 4 musicians and 1 vocalist singer to setup and organise.
Graham and I just before we arrive at the wharf to pick up the customers. We were goig to both wear the sailors uniforms but I couldnt arrange mine in time unforntalty, maybe next time.
We arrive at the warf at the Opera House to pick up the 400 ticket holders to fill up the boat and start the party
The boat is starting to fill up just before we leave to stqart crusing aroudn the famous Sydney harbour.
Me with my friends, Claire and Stef and her boyfriend on the far left and AC on the right and my silly French flatmate in the background
The top deck in full swing
Two of my DJ freinds I met in the clubs around Sydney and now there my best DJ’s we always ahve play at SHE, Liam Sampras at the top and Dave 54 on the bottom.
Our sax player ‘Scotty on Sax’, I met him when I was DJ’ing for a year at the Peppermint Lounge and he was my sax player every week. I relaly enjoyed DJ’ing with him he’s a great live sax player.
A lovely old ship that usually makes it way slowly aroudn Sydney harbour most weekends
I think Damien looked like he was enjoying himself, loks like he dosent get out very often 🙂
Group of friends again, from left to right, Troy, Alison, Damien, Me, Claire and AC
The lovely Eleni, she does the ticket collections on the door most times we run SHE as she does it relaly well, and she’s always smileing and happy 🙂
Alison and Troy, they have been going out for nearly a month now, long time for the Troyski 🙂
Onto Cargo bar in Darling harbour aterwards for the after party and we were all a little drunk by then. Here’s Stef me and AC. Oh and it REALLY started p!ss!ng it down like a storm about 15 minutes after we got off the boat very lucky!
Last photo, this was taken of me on the walk home by Damien. I can’t remer it being takne I was so drunk, I havent a clue why i had my shorts undone in the middle of a buy street on a Saturday night?!? Haha
Sunday Kayaking
Last Sunday the weather was great, really hot and bright and lovely. I invited friend Mat and his new German girlfriend that’s just come over from Germany to live here for a year and my flat mate Damien to go Kayaking. We went up to manly Photo of Manly here which is a good kayaking sport near the main ocean but protected from the large waves and surf on the ocean side.
It was a great fun morning and we kayaked over to the old disused Sydney Quarantine station some photos here and didn’t get too sun burned 🙂 Here are some photos of me a Sanna and Mat and Maren, Damien took the photos so he didnt get in them unfortunately.
Me and Sanna as we arrived for a rest on Quarantine Beach
Mat and Maren as we arrived for a rest on Quarantine Beach
Me looking like a idot with my paddle
Sanna doing a silly grin
