MY ECLECTIC WORLD: Goodwood Festival of Speed

There are times when what seemed like a good plan at the time soon becomes clear that is wasn’t such a good idea at all. This is what we discovered when I somewhat recklessly decided that it would be nice to go, for the first time, to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Actually, it was when I said “lets go to to the Festival of Speed this year, it’s a bit expensive but we have never been” and then when I added to that statement the insane idea that we could walk from home. Why you may ask, “because it’s not far from home after all is said and done”. A Bad plan !!

It was to prove fortunate however, but for all the wrong reasons, that we didn’t walk there in the end. The wrong reasons being that on the day we were to set off on this epic walk from home to Goodwood was the day that Val threw a very expensive sicky! Now no one, least of all me, would have wished the awful state she was in after contracting some vile virus from somewhere that left her completely incapacitated (I won’t go into details here as they are not pleasant). In any event, given her condition and given also that she insisted that I go alone, I decided to rescue some of our outlay and rather than walk I would drive there. Then at least if I did receive an “emergency" call I would be able to get back home relatively quickly.

I soon realised that our initial enthusiastic and excited estimates of the walking distance from home to the festival site had been grossly under estimated once I had noted the distance by car as being 3.5 miles. This was not including the distance we would have to walk from the car park to the actual festival site which I am sure would have added another mile or two at least to the “route march” that I found myself on once I got to the Goodwood Estate.

It was to prove an interesting and tiring day which I have many mixed feelings about but one thing is for certain, it would not have been an ideal day out for the lady of the house!

The highlights of the day were for me the fantastic flying display by the Red Arrows which until now I had tried to observe from the garden, only to nearly break my neck trying to spot the passing aircraft with little success. This time though it was "up close and personal” with a commentary and a view on a giant TV screen. The outcome being an example of one of the many photos I managed to take.

Good Things about the show were I suppose quite personal and therefore not everyone's cup of tea. However here are my highlights of the day.

2 Royal Tank Regiment display of the latest military vehicles and a fine example of their main battle tank. It was good to chat with them and recall my brief attachment to them in Libya back in the dark old days of 1967.

A bit different from the Centurion I learned to drive!

The Red Arrows display team put on an incredible display which was all the more exciting given that this year I was actually under it and not darting around the garden at home trying to keep tabs on them each time they flew over the house!

I could almost see the pilot as I took this photo.

The cars on display were overwhelmingly out of my reach in terms of cash! I simply drooled.
The Parking arrangements were pretty good and there was a form of rustic transport from the car park to the show fields which was good if you had to wander about looking for a lost car as some unfortunates seemed to have done at one stage. I on the other hand had counted the rows back to where I was parked (row 52) only to discover that several more rows had been fitted in by the time I came back for the car. I still found it with ease and didn’t need my GPS phone either.
The Cuban Cigar roller – Anibal Delgado Gonzalez was a star. He may not have been a voluptuous Cuban virgin rolling the cigars on her tanned thighs – but he did roll a mean “robusto”. Yes, I bought one hot off the table NOT his thigh!!

Anibal Delgado Gonzalez – Cigar maker, taking a smoke break!

The “Chunky Chips with Curry sauce – I have no more to say on this other than, even at £2.50 they were great!
Juliette Lowe the young local jeweller from Singleton who had the perfect gift on hand for the poor sick thing at home!

There were many more “good things” to numerous to mention but there were also some Bad Things that cant be left out from this even.

Programmes at £12.50 (admittedly with a “free radio”. I thought this was excessive given that we had already forked out £75 for tickets in advance so a FREE programme would have been nice!
Food prices were crazy with a Pims at £6.50 as was a sausage & onion roll. £4.50 for a bacon sandwich and of course my chips at £2.50, but there were good!!
Walking from the car parks was a bit of an ordeal as the dust got thicker and thicker as you slogged along with the crowd only to find more dust at the event its self. I came home looking like I had been working on a building site.
Entry fees do seem very high to me and there seems to be no incentive to buy early. Not it seems as I have already pointed out, no inclusive programme with the pre-ordered tickets.
The Dust was a major drawback for the nose, throat and any asthmatics but it wasn’t the organisers fault. All I would say is just be prepared for it.