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Happy Birthday to me!
Today is my 30th birthday, and I'm celebrating it in relatively quiet way. No need to go out and go big when I haven't secured a job yet! I spent the day doing laundry, hanging my clothes to dry (no dryers in Spain!) and riding the Metro (underground train) outside the city to an industrial area where I looked at a bike for sale. It was not exactly as pictured in the ad I found for it on the internet. Somehow the owner had "forgotten" about an accident the bike had been in and didn't know why the front end was slightly twisted, the forks wouldn't compress, and why the headlight was crooked. Hmmmm. Not to mention he had driven off with a lock through the rear wheel and bent the shock. It was a disaster, and I wasn't going to spend good money on it. On the way back I decided to hoof it for a while and see the surrounding area. I ran across this pub and thought, how appropriate. I'm at my normal bar now waiting for a couple friends to show up for dinner, at 10! We'll see how it goes after that.
As for a job update? This is what I woke up to this morning. I got this just after midnight from a high-level member of the Repsol Team Honda:
Thanks very much for your note.
I have forwarded it to HRC for consideration.
Don't hold your breath - there is a queue a mile long of people wanting to
work for the team.
They will be breaking for winter after the tests in Sepang this week so I
would imagine there will be a long silence after a hard year.
I'm sure one of my colleagues will get back to you if there is a vacancy.
Thank you for your interest and good luck.
Kind regards
It bummed me out at first, since Nicky Hayden himself had given me several email addresses to send my information to, but what the hell. Today's my birthday and tomorrow I will come back with a vengeance! I'll be a day older and that much wiser!
I thought I was just going to sneak by, since I hadn't told my roomates, or any of you guys, for that matter. I had a nice Belgian beer, a Chimay, and then met up with one of my roomates and some friends for dinner.
I live in an area that has a couple of nice little places and we randomly chose one based on the amount of gay guys inside. I live in a somewhat gay area called the Ei'xemple (Hospital District) area that's filled with tiny gay bars and restaurants. It feels just like SF! My friend Hiro surprised me by coming to dinner, because I thought he was still trying to get one last test in at Jerez before the winter break. Next year Hiro is riding for the new KTM 250cc effort with Harold Bartol (who did a great job getting the KTM 125cc team and bikes competitive and also has a strong history of winning with Derbi). I thought it was a one year deal, but Hiro has signed for 2, and they hope to develop the bike during the first half of the season into something strong. He doesn't know much about the bike yet, because the testing was delayed due to KTM's inability to have the bike ready by now! Still, I hope he has a good season and continues to improve. Another interesting thing we talked about was how Honda (HRC) has decided to spend a fortune on F1 this upcoming season, and as such, doesn't have much money for MotoGP, 250cc, and the rest of motorcycling. I wonder what impact this will have on motorcycling this season? Or maybe it's a smokescreen while Honda prepares their 800cc '07 bike. I felt kind of bad for him because he was rotated out of HRC's 250cc team after two years and a top four finish in the category. It's tough to win when your teamate is the dominant rider. Look at Colin Edwards; he also placed fourth in the championship this year riding with Rossi. Hiro told me that HRC's structure is based on a two year program and that you have two years to make it or go home. Who is Hiro being replaced with? His younger brother, Shuhei. How's that for a family grudge, haha. Nonetheless, we decided that Hiro was still luckier than me, because at least he has a job lined up!
