Easy Dragon Rally

After 4 years, it’s time to tackle the Dragon Rally again. It’s taken me this long to get over the trauma of the last event… the gale force winds… the rain… the oil on the roads…. the cow juice… maybe I’m not over it… 

But I was off early this morning and the first stop is Tescos cafe for breakfast. I’d packed up the bike over the last few days. Packed and rebuilt actually…

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BIRD 2024 – Finals Day

Link to YouTube Live Stream – Finals Day

During Qualifying Day we had neatly split all 48 pilots into 3 classes of 16 pilot finals; Hobbyist, Advanced, Elite. I arrived early and while the computers were turning on and no one was here I had about 15 mins where I could fly the track. But I didn’t. I hadn’t thought there would be time so I hadn’t charged any batteries! For the second year in a row, I wasn’t going to get to fly my own track, but hey ho, that’s the deal with running the event. Next year for definite I’m at least flying the track in the break.

One person who also nearly ended up not flying was VikingFPV. He was staying at the whoophaus and no doubt had spent the evening getting drunk and trashing his whoop around. This meant this morning he didn’t have a whoop with which to fly so while I may not have flown the track, my whoop did as I leant him my gear to fly with. When his name came up on the screen it said VikingFPV, but in the corner it also said “Dad’s Drone” haha!

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BIRD 2024 – Qualifying Day

Link to YouTube Live Stream – Qualifying Day

Barely enough sleep later I found myself back at Millennium Point and arranging the last few things before people started arriving.

I got mum set up on the ticket desk with the app, pilot packs, merchandise, stickers and schedule for the day. This is something I had meant to do last night, but it just got so late that this was the first time I’d had to dedicate to the task. Dad was sent off to put the schedule sheets of paper around the tables in the pits and on the notice board. David was delegated to getting batteries ready for all the gates LED’s, plugged in and turned on. And Eddy helped me faff with everything else. 

The first few people had started to arrive and as much as I wanted to, there was just no time to be social. This was going to be a long, hard, fast day and we needed to crack on.

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BIRD 2024 – Setup

I woke up as late as I dared in the WhoopHaus. Not having gotten to bed until after 1:00 a.m. I wanted to get as much sleep as possible ready for the next three long days. 

It’s the Germans fault after all, they only turned up at midnight and it was so good to see these international friends we’ve made that we stayed up talking far too long. And then even later thrashing our quads around the WhoopHaus track.

We have been practising on this track all night putting pack after pack through our abused quads. The DRC boys had set out the track, and like last year, it went up one staircase along the hallway and dove down the main staircase. I’ve not released any details of the track I have planned for Millennium Point but this will be good training for them as I expect to include a dive gate at the event. A very special dive gate!

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Puppy Arrives

Today we go and collect the newest addition to the Shawtell household; a little puppy Akita I’m naming Daito. 

We have been talking about a new big dog for ages, ever since our beloved Haku passed. He was such a lovely boy, the house just hasn’t been the same without him. Kayto too has been missing the interaction and getting slower without the stimulus.

Having never had my own dog, I’m very keen to take on the challenge. Aimi had Kayto and Haku when we met and of course I’ve had an influence on them but really they are her dogs. She’s so worked so hard training them, they are perfect dogs for us and really well behaved for what we want to do. Giving Daito the correct training is going to be so much easier with her help. Even still, I know it’s going to be a lot of work but I want to do it to learn in depth what its like.

I had been talking about getting a dog for xmas. Partially because i know we will be much better parents than any fuckwit who wants a dog for xmas. So removing one from the market at that time will be almost an act of charity. But also because I’ve been forward planning the work I’ve got in my future and that looked like a “good time” to take on the extra responsibility. 

But really… when is a good time? There is always something going on, especially you guys reading will know I’ve always got something going on. I rarely sit around with nothing to do so there really isn’t a good time, I’ll just have to deal with the changes needed in life as they happen.

Aimi is great at cutting thru this and just getting stuff done. I like to take my time and think about things for a while before taking action, but sometimes that turns into analysis-paralysis. She just gets on with it, so booked us in to see some Akita puppies.

We are choosing an Akita again because from the research and experience we have had, they fit in perfectly to our lifestyle, personalities and check the health boxes we want. They are active and can go a long way but they are still quite independent and don’t mind being quiet. We wanted a big dog because we miss Haku coming up and putting his chin on your knee. And they’re quite intelligent even if they are quite stubborn. But then that seems to be a personality trait I enjoy having married Aimi…

Of course as soon as we had seen the puppies we were trying to choose our favourite one and it didn’t take us long to pick. He’s mostly black with stripes of white at each end and a cute little black spot on his excited little tail. He seemed to be the most energetic of the bunch and inquisitive which, with any luck speaks to his temperament… but he’s only 8 weeks old so time will tell.

Paperwork done and into the car we went, him sitting on my lap. I’m sitting in the back, with space beside me so if Daito prefers space he has it. I’ve got a few towels, with one over my knees, just in case he wees. Of course, in a new place, new sounds, smells, people and movement, it was bound to happen. But that’s ok, solids would have been harder for me to deal with. Being that cooped up with poop would have made me gag.

Arriving home we had it all set up and ready to go. Crate, collars, food, more toys ( even tho kayto had a whole box full he never touches! ). Now the real work begins. I hope we can do it!

Return To Our Valley

We’re back in Singapore again! Our first flight was really not so bad. With the extra leg room it was very comfortable. We managed about an hour of sleep, which was good but maybe a mistake. Getting kicked off the plane in Changi it was hard to focus on where we needed to go.

I had been looking forward to taking the skytrain through the Jewel shopping centre, over the waterfall, but it had been stopped for the night. The delay in departing meant we should have arrived at 00:20 but we actually got there at 01:40. The skytrain stops each night at 01:30 for maintenance. Oh well, we get a bit of a walk.

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