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DAVID CARR |
Weblog: What do you mean the Wi-Fi doesn't work? The life of a Racing Post reporter
Fine day on the Costa del Somerset
Go West. Life is peaceful there. Go West. In the open air. Go West. Sun in wintertime. Go West. We will do just fine.
How right the Pet ShopBoys were.
Glorious day on the Somerset/Devon border. Travelled down in the murk from Bangor last night and the sun has scarcely stopped shining since I got here.
Nor could I possibly have been made to feel more at home.
I am not here for the good of my health but to see David Pipe, our new star columnist.
It was my first visit and I didn't quite know what to expect in Nicholashayne. After all, Pond House was the place that Roger Cook cast all those aspersions about many years ago and it is not exactly renowned as a place that journalists are welcomed with open arms.
Yet as I approached the office this morning I spotted a sign on the door saying: 'Welcome David Carr of the Racing Post', embellished with a picture of myself copied off the website.
The staff in the engine room were as happy a bunch as I have ever met at a training stables - even the Minnesota Vikings fan - and Mr Pipe himself was very open and very generous of his time (though you'll have to read Saturday's paper to see what he said during that time).
I had the first-time visitor's traditional baptism - a stint on the yard's mechanical horse. First time I had been on any sort of horse since the age of 11. Didn't take long for my leg muscles to start complaining at the strange new requests being made of them.
But I lasted long enough to have a picture taken to join an illustrious gallery - Emlyn Hughes, Sir Clement Freud and Freddie Starr are all up on the wall. As you can see, I probably take more after them in the saddle than Timmy Murphy.
And what better place to write everything up than Taunton, staging their belated first meeting of the autumn this afternoon?
Handily placed, just a few miles up the M5, and with the perfect pressroom, big window from which you can see every inch of just about the tightest jumps track in the country, not to mention a glorious view of the Somerset countryside - puts the Southwell electricity pylons to shame.
Paddock is a short walk, wifi and power points work. And the sandwiches are good to. Our west country reporter Andrew King must thank his lucky star every time he comes (unfortunately he was away at Ludlow today so I couldn't ask him).
Thanks once again for the latest rash of Movember donations - http://mobro.co/davidcarr is the address if you want to join in.
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