A German Sunday

The Abu Dhabi GP Circuit

Nope – you’re not having a case of Groundhog Day. Yesterday’s posting was ‘A German Saturday’ but as with many social events out here they carry on and in this case it carried well into Sunday and dare I say it, Monday!

It was as we were leaving Rheiner’s on Saturday after the jeep trip that I asked the throwaway question ‘what are you doing tomorrow?’ ‘Watching the Grand Prix with some friends’, was the reply. And without another thought, probably due to the myrtle liqueur, I invited them over to Le Brin and before I’d reached home I was texting some other friends and inviting them also. It was going to be a Grand Prix Sunday.

I got a roaring log fire going, J made two delicious pizzas, I did my deep-fried sage leaves and also made a chocolate brioche bread and butter pudding. The wine, beer and soft drinks were all readied and at 1pm the guests arrived and after a quick lunch we trooped down into the bar to watch the race on the big screen. It was only then that I realised what a mistake I’d made.

Now for those of you who are not GP nuts, there was a very slim chance that Lewis Hamilton (the Brit boy) could win the world championship during this, the last race of the season but it was a long shot – he’d have to win and hope all the other contenders pulled out or pulled up.

Fernando Alonso

There was the greasy Spaniard, Fernando Alonso, who ‘shopped’ his McLaren team a couple of years ago  to the FIA and cost them a $50m fine. He was the favourite, leading the title race by 7 points. All he had to do was finish in front of Mark Webber, the likeable Australian but he had to finish no lower than 4^th place in doing so if a guy called Vettel won the race.Vettel was the outsider, a young German (called baby Schumi after Michael Schumacher) who trailed back in 4^th place. He had to win and hope Alonso and Webber were well down the pack at the finish.

I hadn’t thought about it but as the race started, Rheiner strated screaming for Vettel which was bad enough but his friend, Phil, was screaming for Alonso, he was a Ferrari man. This was war!

Sarah and I were shouting for Hamilton and although he was second, it still wasn’t good enough. He needed to win the race and hope all the others fell by the wayside – which unfortunately didn’t happen. Schumacher crashed out early on which caused some mirth amongst the Brits but from the start, the young Vettel had roared off into the lead and that’s how it stayed. Alonso could still have won the championship but his team made a huge tactical error with his pit stop and the poor Spaniard was released back into traffic, and he remained down in 7^th place – not good enough on the day. And so the title went to the German Vettel which caused a great deal of shouting from Rheiner and quite a bit of booing from the Brits.

Vettel, the young German celebrates his win

At the end though and after yet another glass of wine, we all shook hands and Rheiner was congratulated on his countryman’s success. He was like a dog with two sets of bollocks!

After the race we headed over to Tan and Angie’s which hasn’t happened for quite a while and put the world to rights. Several hours later I woke up on my lounge floor covered with a blanket and with an almighty headache. To say Monday was a quiet day was an understatement!