Thats the reason I’m feeling so fricking shattered 
Lets hope all the hours me and Maddsy have put in during them 4 days are beneficial to the company and everything 
Well I am certainly glad them last 2 weeks are out of the way! We’ve gone from being quiet in the lead up to Christmas, to things suddenly almost exploding at work! Not sure how much we can attribute to the Autosport Show, but fingers crossed things are starting to improve!
Lets start from the Monday I started back to work shall we Seems as good a place as any for the latest update! Monday morning was quite busy catching up on things that had come in over Christmas regarding online enquiries and things, and the morning seemed to fly past, and it wasn’t long before I was having to leave work and head to the dentist! I was nervous as usual, but this time it was the extraction of the tooth that was more uncomfortable than the injection! Something it turns out Wendy says the same about! I was uncomfortable for the rest of the evening, and for some reason my lip and tongue were still numb the following morning, after a not too good nights sleep 
Tuesday at work was a little manic, as Maddsy had only just booked the stand for the Autosport Show on the Monday, so was running around making sure everything was made, and that we had everything he wanted for the show stand, including the gaffers telly Managed to hook it up to one of the computers easily enough and we were all happy with what we were doing! Wednesday morning was pretty much the same, making sure everything was done brochure wise ready for Maddsy, Al and Crit to head down and set the stand up! As per usual nothing ever goes without a hitch, and the electricians decided to pop the electric up through the middle of where Maddsy wanted the stand, thus meaning they were there till about 8pm sorting it out, and having stuff checked by the Nazi show organisers :rollseyes: Tried my hardest to head to bed at a reasonable time, given I was to get up and be at Maddsys for 6am!! But it just wasn’t gonna happen, and I ended up on COD 5 till bout 12ish when I decided to call if a night 
It was difficult getting out of bed at that time in the morning, but I managed it JUST and nipped into ASDA to pick up a few bits, before meeting up, and heading down to the NEC! We had a good chuckle at the fact that due to Maddsys inability to listen to one radio station for any length of time, we were going through all the local ones, and the playlists were almost identical which I suppose you’d expect as they’re prob all owned by one big radio firm Got on the stand and everything seemed ok, until our arch nemesis turned up on the stand, in the shape of Richard from The Awning Company! Who soon tucked into the mints we’d sorted out, and also helped himself to a few of our Bottle Opener key rings Then again who hadn’t in the first 2 days haha!! Poor Jakki Degg was about 20 feet away from our stand, and through out the whole show she looked bored, and uninterested bless! Think it’s cos more people were paying attention to the bloke infront of her, who goes by the name of Ian Cook a.k.a. Popbang Video of his work here or on his website here. I found it awesome how he did it, which is basically painting using remote controlled cars 
Didnt really have much chance on the Thursday to have a walk round, altho given it was MEANT to be trade day, the number of kids roaming round, nicking our mints and bottle opener key rings was quite amusing! Mark didn’t come down in the end, as we suspected, but I ended up being asked, indirectly should I say, if I could nip into work upon my return to Mansfield to sort some designs and quotes out! Ended up being in work till about 10ish, thus leading to a 16 hour day! My body just wasn’t built for that, so a quick bath and bed was the order of the evening!
Our Stand… Ian and the Audi R8 he did at the show… Some more of his work
Up again about the same time, and it didnt seem that bad the Friday morning! It was more a case of knowing I wouldn’t be back till about 8ish on a friday night, and that I would be in bed early that made me feel a little depressed about things! Altho once we got there and I’d admired one or two of the ladies in their catsuits I soon cheered up We got there nice and early again, so had a look round the Pistonheads part of the show, and saw Smithys car on the stand, so I got a few photos of some really really nice motors! Mark came onto the stand for a brief hour or two, before heading up, and then the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to avert a crisis at work Not helped by the fact Maddsys phone was having a mental breakdown, and didn’t do much apart from say “Low Battery” and beep alot HAHA! Found the Moet stand which was run by one of our customers, and so decided to get the coffee’s from there as they were a little cheaper than the NEC prices But we still ended up shelling out £10 on 2 sandwiches! This was seriously eating into the kitty we had for the few days! Nipped onto the House of Kolor stand and met Paul, and he told me to get into the photo with his promo girls, so who can turn down an offer like that Dave nipped onto the stand, in his “Court appearance suit” and looked as dapper as he ever has, so we got chatting to him for a bit, before he wandered off for a look round the show. Got back and got called a perv by Maddsy :p Got home on the friday night about 8ish, and did very little apart from a quick game on COD 5 and then went to bed after a relaxing bath, ready for the “Joe Public” weekend!
Yours truly and Pauls girls… The Moet & Chandon stand… The House of Kolor stand
Saturday was not so bad, and we were still getting quite a bit of interest from people which i sall good! Had a bit of a walk around as did Maddsy, but we never ventured far, due to the amount of people we had coming on the stand The day began to drag, and the halls began emptying around 4pm-ish, which left for a boring ish last 2 hours! Got my mother to text me the Newcastle goals, and we ended up drawing 2-2 @ home with West Ham, which is a game we really should be winning to be honest! Got back at a similar time to the Friday night, and after a beer or two I was soon in the land of nod till being rudely awoken by the alarm! Who in their right mind agrees to getting up at 6am on a sunday bloody morning!!!
Smithys motor in all its glory.. Nice Ferrari… Noble looking good
Nipped into work, and picked up the Renault Van ready for breakdown, and waited in Kings Mill Macdonalds for Maddsy, and the meet time passed, so I sent him a text to find out he’d overlayed and was rushing to get ready ! On the Saturday we’d had a local guy from Eastwood come on the stand, telling us the M1 around Nottingham would be shut from 9pm till 9am, so we debated heading straight down the A38, but we thought we’d try our luck, and would you believe it, it was open and hardly any motors on the road what so ever! Soon made up the time in which we’d lost waiting for daft lad to wake up Hated the fact that the lads were playing football later in the morning, and we were sat on the stand! We ended up winning 4-0 which isn’t too bad I suppose. Will stick the match report on in a bit The day seemed to drag on again, and we were graced with the prescence of Meatball, Lee Westwood, Ollie + Missus and Smithy! Meatball was his usual mischevious self it’s safe to say They all left about 3ish I think, and Smithy had to stand around waiting to move his car about 7, so promised he’d help us break the stand down at 6pm! Only problem being around 5 he went to check his car, and found he’d left his interior light on from the Wednesday set-up, and his battery was flat! So he ended up spending the next hour or so trying to find some jump leads so he can get his car started, and once it was, he fucked off home! Took an age to get the stand loaded up into the van, but it was about 8:30ish when we rolled out of the NEC and headed home! As I got home Maddsy told me not to rush into work on the Monday morning as we were both knackered.
But in typical fashion, the binmen woke me up chucking the wheelie bins around about half 7, and I struggled to get back to sleep then, even tho I was soooo tired! Ran a red hot bath and just chilled out in there for an hour, before deciding to head into work anyway. For the rest of the week the pair of us were soo busy at work, sorting designs & quotes out from the show, and the regular enquiries, Maddsy writing up a sudden glut of orders and then trying to fit them into production, so I spent the evenings ranking up at a rate of knotts on COD 5 Went to football Friday night, and ended up killing myself again, and got home, and pretty much went to sleep, missing calls from Troy, Tibbzy, Lee, Maddsy and Wayniac due to my phone not working properly due to not paying Decembers bill Spent the whole weekend on thexbox, as it was double XP points on Call of Duty, so I have managed to fly through the rankings Had a small break to have my haircut on saturday afternoon, which to be fair, I was in desperate need of, and then Sat night I was chilling out with a few Amaretto and Cokes whilst playing the Zombie level with Lee, Ollie and Ryan. I was due to go to the King and Miller for a meal to celebrate my Grandads 70th birthday, but he’s not been too good with this flu flying round, so now it’s been re-scheduled for 7th Feb, so I might be cheeky and say it’s my 29th birthday meal too! Our Lyndsy will be back from Oz too, so will be good to hear some of her stories
Got up Sunday to go and watch Cockle as we didn’t have a game for some reason, and they struggled to a 4-2 win over Kings Arms! Wasn’t a very good game, and I may have cost John man of the match, when their manager asked me and another spectator who we thought we’d give it to, and we both agreed their forward who’s grabbed two goals, and was the only one trying to gee the boys up! I even got called an R&K Bastard by one of the Cockle players as a joke 
Ouch!! Monday night I chilled out watching the Liverpool vs Everton game for a bit,then found myself in bed!
R&K vs Mapplewells Match report…
Well done to everyone involved today, we deservedly took all 3 points after a nervy first half.
Changes had to be made from the previous week, as both Wiggy and Willa were unavailable and with Jock serving what looks like his last game of his suspension, we were down to the bare bones.
Craig got a rare start on the right and Moorey was given the nod to fill the vacant holding role as Brad had to play at the back today. Scotty got the nod to start upfront with Bud dropping back to the left wing.
The first half was very poor from an RandK prespective, we did’nt show any hunger or desire and it was the worst performance i have seen from us this season, it seems the change of kit to our home kit of last season brought last seasons performance with it.
We did have chances however, with Scotty being denied by a great save from the Home goalie from point blank range. Map had a one-on-one but somehow the striker stumbled and fluffed his shot allowing Rob to close him down and retrieve the ball.
Map had the hunger we were lacking and we will find this season that alot of teams will up their game as they will want to claim a scalp and have nothing to lose. This was Maps biggest game of the season, but for us it was just another game like any other.
Half-time 0-0
Changes had to be made at half-time and they were. Craig was replaced by Bobby and a re-shuffle was in order. Sami and Scotty moved onto the left and right wings with Bud pushed upfront and Bobby in the middle of the park.
This seemed to make us play better instantly and stopped their threat down our left hand side.
The chances kept falling our way and we eventually broke the deadlock thanks to a magical piece of play by Bud where he danced round 3 defenders before finding the bottom corner.
Map had a chance but again fluffed their shot on goal. Rob was doing well to say we limited their shots on goal.
Scotty received the ball and was instantly brought down in the box. With our luck at taking penalties Brad decided to step up resulting in sending the keeper the wrong way to make it 2-0.
Fisher got in on the act and Scotty finished them off with a great headed finish.
We could and maybe should of increased the scoreline but to be fair the home goalie had a decent game and made a few good saves. Brad should have scored right at the death but somehow hit the ball over from all of 3 yards.
Today was a difficult game to sum up, rubbish first half, good second half seems a fair reflection of todays play. We need to have the hunger from the off in games like these were the underdogs have nothing to lose. But we turned it around in the second half and maybe should have added to our tally.
MOM – Nick – chosen by Col, although not at his best he still managed a committed display. Well done pal.
Goal summary:
59 min – Richard Waring (9/10)
Converted from just inside the box with the left foot, it was a spectacular individual goal which Richard Waring wont forget!67 min – Ste Bradshaw (7/10)
Scott Hart is fouled in the box, and Ste Bradshaw slotted home with a great right footed finish.76 min – Wayne Fisher (7/10)
Scott Hart supplied the cross, and Wayne Fisher found the net from six yards out with a well-finished left footed effort.81 min – Scott Hart (8/10)
A well delivered cross from Richard Waring was converted by Scott Hart. A first-class finish with the head from 18 yards out.
More photos from the Autosport Show can be found here
