Today and Thursday I am child-minding. My daughter is a professional entertainer so the school holidays to impact upon her timetable if she happens to have a show scheduled during the day. Today and Thursday are such days so it falls to grandad to look after the boys while she goes and earns some money.
They say that having grandchildren is one of the privileges that comes from not having killed your children and, in this case, I certainly relish the privilege. I have three wonderful grandsons, seen here with my wife at her birthday party earlier this year. Let me tell you a bit about them.
Joshua (aged 12) is the eldest (obviously). He is quiet, gentle and studious but has a wicked sense of humour. A seriously clever student at school, he excels at Maths (he definitely didn’t get that one from me). Academically very competent, he has topped his class for the last few years and achieved lots of awards. He is just starting to get into the “grumpy teenager” mode, but, if he survives that, I think he will come out the other end as a well-rounded and thoroughly likeable person.
Daniel is the middle one. Nine years old, he is a complete and absolute ratbag (I don’t think he got that from me either). Distinguished by a mop of tight, curly hair he is everywhere at once and is almost completely unpredictable. Academically brilliant like his big brother, he is also a stand-up comedian in the making and can keep a crowd of adults enthralled if he chooses to do so (he takes after his mother in that regard).
Thomas is the third pea in the pod. Five years old, his transition from pre-school to “real” school has been rocky as he is highly intelligent, mischievous and ultra-stubborn. Inquisitive like most little boys, he is not satisfied until he gets the complete and full answer to a question, no matter how long it takes.
It’s hard to say which characteristics the boys get from their mum and which they get from their dad but, suffice it to say that it doesn’t really matter to me as their grandad. I love them to bits and predict great things for them all.
In racing, in the lead-up to Aragon this weekend, the continued unavailability of Ben Spies for the PRAMAC team is having a knock-on effect that has resulted in some interesting changes. Since Michele Pirro (who has been subbing for Spies) is unavailable for the next few races due to testing commitments, PRAMAC have snaffled Yonny Hernandez to take his place. As a consequence, Hernandez’s place at PBM is vacant and has been filled with Aussie, Damien Cudlin, for Aragon and PI and probably the next round as well.
As well as this, Luca Scassa has been grabbed from WSS duties to replace the injured Karel Abraham (and may stay for longer). There is also a replacement in the WSBK ranks with David Salom being hired to take the place of the injured Loris Baz in the Kawasaki “works” squad. Michel Fabrizio continues to replace Jonathan Rae at PATA Honda and Blake Young replaces the injured Leon Camier at Suzuki.
Excitement is mounting ahead of Aragon this weekend. A good performance here by Marc Marquez could see at least one hand placed on the world championship trophy although the man at the centre of the story continues to say that he is happy to be getting experience and to be learning more and more about his trade!
Catch you tomorrow.