A 11th hour decision saw me hurtling up the Autoroute du Sud at warp speed on Friday morning. I now completely understand the term 'hands free' for a cars mobile phone system. Literally translated into Catalan it means that you can drive at 180kph+ gesticulating wildly with both hands without the bother of holding a mobile phone or the steering wheel - it was time to be afraid, VERY afraid! After seeing the speedo hit 187kph I decided it was better to sleep and therefore not witness our imminent demise. Remarkably we survived the 5 1/2hour trip without a single speeding fine and arrived in St Hilaire to sunny skies and a brisk north wind. I had work to do with AXIS which took most of the afternoon and evening but was well lubricated with vast quantities of Czech beer on tap :-).
Its the first time I have visited the film festival, but with an invitation from Mr X how could I refuse! Wingsuits, jet men, G-force, impossible flying machines and lots of adrenaline, what more could anyone want from an evening at the cinema? Lots of green beer and a manic party in the Parateam tent which really got going at 2am left us crawling away for sleep when we should have been getting up.
Saturday dawned when the event officials evicted me from my sleeping place at some antisocial hour to make way for an antique hanglider exhibition - they probably wanted to see if the cold huddled heap was still alive! The launch was completely hidden in cloud - we couldn't see the sky or the valley but the aerobatic plane display went ahead anyway. It was a case of guessing what was happening by the engine noise.
The masquerade once again saw improbable disguises defying the forces of gravity.
St Hilaire is one of those places where you either see no-body that you know even though they are all or you bump into old-friends at every turn. Its a year since I caught up with Leroy (and that was also at St. Hilaire!) so there was lots of planning new adventures and catching up to do. After watching the acro show from the Lumbin landing I made quick goodbyes to those friends I could find and 'enjoyed'(!**?) the sensation of nearly breaking the land-speed record on the journey back to Barcelona.
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