If anachronistic anecdotes don’t make you queasy, enjoy!

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TPS Report: England - Interviews and Wiffle Ball
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date:07.21.06
current location: Settle Down Inn, London, UK
mileage:0
price of gas: 97P per litre ($7.60 per gallon)
temperature: Jen says it susposed to be better than yesterday, the man on the BBC says 31 C in the big city.
comments:
Let’s just say that its hot here, temperature wise and even more so politically. Jen and I walked by two fairly aggressive protests, one pro Palestine and one pro Israel. The bobbies were well represented at both which was appropriate considering the back and forth with the spectators was fairly heated. A few blocks up the road, we encountered another raised voice conversation taking place around a news stand. Honestly, this is as tense as I have seen it in Europe, its a tension you can actually feel. As my good friend Ernie likes to quote from Lily Tomlin, “Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse.” More to come, I am sure.

Vaughn and Dominic rolled up on the hotel around 8 pm or so and all bowed in awe. I was so overcome with joy that I may have started crying, its tough to tell. Its really difficult to convene in words how crap these cars are. The SEAT made me breakdown in a massive fit of laughter. I mean, one person could pick up the engine in their hands. The lads found out the SEAT is actually 843 CC. As the Brits would say that’s bloody small.

Being proper rally participants, we conducted our first meeting on foreign soil at the pub. Real monumental stuff was worked, yo know wiffle ball rules and the ins and outs of the video diary portion
of the trip. Then we drank the beer, then we joined a flock of Aussie ladies and headed to the “club”. I feel safe saying that some dancing occured. Upon our triumphant return to the hotel, Jen and I went on a mission to locate mayonaise for our room service. There was one weird dude from Cairo occupying the lobby. There was a lot of babbling from both sides of the conversation. He was quite the name dropper, you know the type, Bin Laden this, Bin Laden that.

Its morning, the team is packed into our shoebox in eager anticipation of our interview for Mongol Rally “The Movie”.

Here’s some notes from the morning.
Its been said that the rally is “very organized, very safe”, I have my doubts. Vaughn and Dom seemed to have learned quite a bit up North, great stuff like cake apparently is good for flesh wounds and “leave no trace” which in rally terms means firebomb your car if you must leave it behind. Jen’s still reading the book of liar. Just capital.

The rally was hot, not hot like Paris would but hot like sweltering. Our hotel room is small and it gets exponentially smaller when you squeeze six people with a camera and a mic boom in. We had to turn off the fans for the interview which created a sauna like experience. There were some memorable moments from the interview. Jen got to explain the poop shovel, Vaughn had some really classic lines, and I sounded like an idiot. You will have to wait for movie to learn the rest.
Later in the day, it was concluded that we should make coffee. By concluded I mean I thought was a bright idea and no one complain loud enough to stop me. We are not just talking the ole coffe maker, we are talking combustible gases, lighters, minor explosions and singed arms. Yup camping on Oxford Street.

So I am sitting at the bar right now in the midst of the send off party. The reality of this whole deal is starting to set in. We are awaiting the MOT for the fiesta, basically this means we do not have an inspection for the car and this may affect our entry.

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Seth’s bag of poo
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Subject: Seth’s bag of poo
From my bag -
1 broken camera
1 non functioning camp stove
1 sporadic minidisc player
1 stolen lighter
1 broken coffee mug
and we haven’t even hit the road.

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Hurry up and wait
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We are sitting in Hyde Park waiting for the Mongolian Car passport stamp. There are some dark clouds on the horizons but spirits are high with the many participants. We are definitely lagging behind in the sponsor department. Just about every team has their car covered with stickers from their various sponsors. We started scribbling with paint sticks to try to fit in. We definitely have some of the worse cars here. That’s reassuring. The MOT arrived for the fiesta and the Mongolian entry deposit is settled. We continue to wait, I will write again once we hit the ferry. Nathaniel on location in London.

One Response to “What garbled and missing posts?”

1. Mom Says:
   July 25th, 2006 at 11:10 am

   Just got back from Bull Run. Bob is being good. Hope the vehicle is still running. How’s the underwear doing? love, mom

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