Catherine, my elder daughter got up at the crack of dawn to be with me to drive down to Sussex, and enjoy a long day in the grounds of Lord March’s Goodwood House. The weather did not look too promising, as we drove south, but although at one part of the journey a few spots of rain fell on the windscreen, surprisingly it held off for the entire day!
By the time of our arrival, the car parks were already well-filled, suggesting either those visitors came from nearby, or they were even more diligent than us, and had little sleep! Already, as we prepared ourselves, the air was alive with happy and animated chatter all around us and a long queue of happy and animated chatter filled the air from every direction. We selected what we felt we needed for the trek to the track, ensured our tickets were all ready to hand and set off. Catherine took a good look around, and made a note on her phone’s map as to where I had parked the car, and we both walked in the general direction of all the earlier groups.
Neither of us took much note of the time, we chatted, occasionally taking note of the vehicles we were passing, we eventually lined up to be checked, presented our tickets and eventually, we were taking the steps up and over the bridge into the area with a few vehicles to glance at, then we spent some time taking in some of the ideas on show giving indications as to what the future held for us and more importantly what my daughter’s family and my grandchildren faced as we glimpse several facets of life in the coming decades.
We both spent time trying to assess what the future held in store, and I felt that the present situation with regard to Covid ensured that visitors were very likely to be more receptive to the message than many have been a mere year ago; I certainly hope so — for all our sakes.
I felt that the tone of the message was more informative than threatening, which I felt was a balanced message; warning rather than frightening, however, I am yet to be convinced from personal observation, that our population is fully on board with how vigilant and careful these next few months need to be? From past visits to this early show centred on vehicles, what was on display was very much a mix of the Past, Present, and a glimpse of a possible Future — in the case of the latter, it was very much a mix of both Optimism and Caution, and those in attendance there was an air of happy optimism, which I felt was indicated by the weather; it was warm, fresh, but cloudy, the atmosphere was one of relaxation and enjoyment, without excessive excitement; very British!
For this meeting, I have always made the effort to head for the Forest section at the top of the hill, but anno domini had certainly had a sapping of my energy for the uphill exercise, and I was very aware that at times I was falling back in relation to the progress my daughter was making, but from excessive care not to draw attention to my stamina, she would pause awhile every so often to look around before heading forward once again. For my part, I was definitely not going to pause too often as this would have made the upward trajectory far harder. I certainly did not take it to masochistic levels, just measured effort. Also, I valued the effort to keep the cobwebs away! We spent some time within the wooded section watching a few of the rally cars, but possibly our timing was awry as we saw very few competitors, hence nothing to show.
During the periods inside, much time was spent looking and reading rather than taking an abundance of images, however, what intrigued me was how using this mirrorless body with the Sigma zoom attached to my monopod was how well this combination worked without undue exertion on my part.
I felt that the tone of the message was more informative than threatening, which I felt was a balanced message; warning rather than frightening, however, I am yet to be convinced from personal observation, that our population is fully on board with how vigilant and careful these next few months need to be? From past visits to this early show centred on vehicles, what was on display was very much a mix of the Past, Present, and a glimpse of a possible Future — in the case of the latter, it was very much a mix of both Optimism and Caution, and those in attendance there was an air of happy optimism, which I felt was indicated by the weather; it was warm, fresh, but cloudy, the atmosphere was one of relaxation and enjoyment, without excessive excitement; very British!
For this meeting, I have always made the effort to head for the Forest section at the top of the hill, but anno domini had certainly had a sapping of my energy for the uphill exercise, and I was very aware that at times I was falling back in relation to the progress my daughter was making, but from excessive care not to draw attention to my stamina, she would pause awhile every so often to look around before heading forward once again. For my part, I was definitely not going to pause too often as this would have made the upward trajectory far harder. I certainly did not take it to masochistic levels, just measured effort. Also, I valued the effort to keep the cobwebs away! We spent some time within the wooded section watching a few of the rally cars, but possibly our timing was awry as we saw very few competitors, hence nothing to show.
During the periods inside, much time was spent looking and reading rather than taking an abundance of images, however, what intrigued me was how using this mirrorless body with the Sigma zoom attached to my monopod was how well this combination worked without undue exertion on my part.
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