So here we are, one of the most beautiful places in the world, Italy!  Today is Friday, which had John on the Stiggy Honda for the first time since his crash. This morning didn’t go too bad with John coming in 10^th, taking into consideration that this is the first time he has performed the positions required to maneuver the machine. I mean, of course the gym and fitness training is good, but it is no comparison to a full tuck etc, what piece of gym equipment can resemble his bike ;)

I am sure the weather took its toll on all the riders also today, reaching around 91f at some points. Not to mention the humidity was easily in the 90s, reminded me of Miami weather. After first practice you could see John was in a lot of pain and all he wanted to do was rest up and get ready for the next practice. It didn’t go as planned, and once the adrenaline had worn off he realized he had pushed a little past the limit and only found this out once his body had come down from the thrill and reality/pain kicked in.

Luckily, he was able to make his way to the Clinica mobil to have cortisone shots to help numb the pain for the next hour or 2.

2^nd practice wasn’t too good, the pain really got to John as you could see him straining every time he climbed on or off the bike.

I think the main purpose and goal for the weekend is to get to know the bike more, and build the relationship. Leon, like most other riders, can come into the garage and know what they want to run and how they like it to be. For John at the moment, it is like playing catch up as he missed a lot of vital testing, but tomorrow is another day so we will see how this weekend plans out J

At the moment, John and I are relaxing in the motor home just waiting for Christian (John’s PA) to come and get us for dinner. His Fiancée Stephania has offered to put her Italian cooking skills to use and make us John’s favorite food, Spaghetti Carbonara of course!

So our flight here seemed to drag as we had connections in Heathrow and Frankfurt. it wasn’t too bad though, as I got to grab a bunch of English grub to take with us J

We arrived in Bologna on Wednesday afternoon, collected our bags, rental car and began the hour drive to Misano. We take the long way there each time we come, as it brings you alongside the ocean. I had enough of sitting on my arse and was dying to stretch my legs, so we pulled over and went for a walk along the beach. We stopped for what the Italians do best, coffee! Maybe because it was just our calm, seaside surroundings or the fact I have been unable to be in Europe for a while, but I felt this was the nicest coffee/moment in a while.

Mmmm  

Before I knew it, it was back to routine and on the hunt for the supermarket to stock up the motor home. Once we unpacked and settled in, Christian & Stephania knocked on the door and invited us to dinner, in his words “ John, you come for the food and the disco tonight yes? ”.

Haha. He sometimes reminds me of Zohan, the movie Don’t mess with the Zohan is hysterical by the way.

The evening was a fun one, even though they failed to tell us it was a Black & white evening at the restaurant, so there is me sticking out like a sore thumb in bright red, typical!

The Next day was a lazy one, which had us doing a little organization, eating lunch then going to the beach in the afternoon. We sunbathed for a while as the weather was soo beautiful, then made our way down to the press event that was being held nearby. Of what I can remember they had Leon Haslam, Gregorio Lavilla, Fabrizio, Johnny Rea and a few other riders taking part in Kayaking. The boys had to paddle out about 30 yards, go around the buoy and back again with a quicker time than the other teams. Helping them out were a handful of pro beach tennis players, and towards the end everyone (including some fans) ran in the ocean and pushed their fellow team mate to shore J

We showered off and walked through the small streets to try and locate one of our favorite restaurants. Along the way we came by this cute little shop, which had a lady embroidering anything you want on an apron, slippers, clothes etc....

:)

 Stephania & Christian

We found our restaurant and John played catch up with the crazy chef for the first 10 minutes.

So anyway, for those who may be interested to know what we got up to with such a long break previously, I am going to jot it down real quick. Plus I have a bunch of pic’s that I think should be shared ;)

I will pick up where I left off on my last entry.

So the surgery took place the morning after we landed in San Francisco. It was funny because as we were leaving the airport, Rico from Dr Ting’s office, and a cameraman greeted us. They failed to notify us that they were recording a documentary on all the athletes that come in and out of the surgery centre. Of course we didn’t mind, even though we both looked like we had been dragged through a hedge backwards ;)

We had to be at the surgery centre for around 4am the next day. Which by this time I didn’t have much recollection of time, as neither of us had slept on the flight or all that night. Throughout the surgery I spent my time in the waiting room, just updating friends and family online. Every so often Rico would come out and play back the recordings he had just made of the surgery; lucky that I have a strong stomach is all I can say!

Everything finally came to a close around 8.30am, and I could go through and see John come around. He is a complete joker! As soon as he could speak he was cracking jokes and smiling, well until the painkillers wore off and then all hell broke loose L

We had scheduled our flights for the following day as John wanted to be in familiar surroundings, so that he could relax and recover at home, watching TV on the big couch with the dogs J

Noodle....

& the baby, Chance!

:)

( this website likes to chop my photo's alot by the way)

So for the next few weeks that was pretty much his daily routine, just relax and take it really slow.  We hired an electric wheelchair for the first month just so that he wouldn’t do damage to himself. He was a nightmare though, everywhere we went he would be offroading or whizzing a mile down the road, anything to give the speed freak an adrenaline buzz I guess.

Once he was able to move around more and less reliant of his crutches and wheelchair, he started out with some slow exercises and stretching. One of the days we drove up to his hometown Ramona to take a little hike, plus I think John has always wanted to check out some of his old hangouts, as he has never really had the time. We eventually found this lake, which one point in time he and friends would come to hang out and jump off the rocks all day. Well, it must have been sad for him because everything had pretty much dried up. We wondered around for about an hour, John just reminiscing while I seized the opportunity to put our new camera to good use, and touch up on my photography skills.

Black Canyon, Ramona.

The following weekend I had my 1^st running race. I’ve been training for a while so poor John is woken up every morning by my annoying alarm. He did actually sign up and intended to run it, but obviously the circumstances changed.

The race was called ‘Quivering Quads’ and had 20+ people running a 5mile course consisting of 5 hills, each with an incline of 15% or more. we had to be there for 7am on the Saturday so I knew John was struggling to sleep some nights and I didn’t expect him to come and watch.

Well as I was coming through the finish line all red, sweaty and about to DIE, I see him! So I was glad as he got to see me get my trophy :D

Afterwards our trainer Joe is soo awesome and threw a big party for everyone, so im sure it was worth Johns drive in the end ;)

Johns birthday came around pretty quick and seeming as he was able to get around a lot better now I decided to throw him a big party to let off some steam and have a good time with friends. We had a Southern food chef cater everything as we couldn’t be dealing with BBQ-ing for everyone again like the last party. We had the full deal: Mac n cheese, ribs, mash potato, steaks, fried chicken, baked beans, corn on the cob and many more im sure I have forgot about, due to the margaritas! John is a difficult person when it comes to present buying and I am the first person every1 comes to for ideas! What do you get someone that has everything they need?

I had this idea of having a picture of him and friends blown up life size! Its so funny, and he actually loved it! Haha.

I have three albums from this day, so I thought I would jst grab a few of the best and make a quick video for u to check out :)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdYrjY7Z2J0

We all knew that John would not be ready to race Salt Lake, Utah, but we wanted to attend anyways to show some support.

Driving into Salt Lake City was so beautiful; you are just surrounded by snow-topped mountains, even though the weather is warm. Driving into the town was a little weird, the people are, hmm different. No one really spoke and everyone was walking around like someone had died recently, very quiet and conservative.

We spent the weekend just wondering around, for me it was meeting new people again and remembering names. The track is really cool, it seems like the riders have fun out there and its pretty much flat so its great for the fans to see everything! John was jealous and bummed he wasn’t riding.

 The team didn’t have hospitality that weekend, so what does John do? Buy a BBQ and cooks chicken every night on the back of his hired golf cart!

 mmmm

Being silly...

I have to mention this as John has pushed me out & moved this thing in……

His Chopper!! He said he has always wanted one, but never had the money, or even found one he really loved. He has been searching for the past few months and eventually located one in ‘The Chopper Gallery’, Temecula.

 Again, this page has cropped my photo's :(

Well, like always I hope everyone is good! Sorry I don’t get to update as much as I want to, this website takes me 50+ hours to upload anything.

But don’t sweat it, I am working on it.

Oh, and for those who haven’t been to see Hangover at the movies yet, I thoroughly advise it! John and me were in stitches the other night, very good movie!

So this weekend in Misano did not exactly go as planned. John, along with team manager Stiggy mutually agreed that it would not be a good idea for John to race this weekend. They had full intentions in the beginning, but once he rode a few laps in 1^st & 2^nd practice his injuries began to be a problem.

Due to the rain, the first race was not an option for them so they decided to sit it out to be safe & wait to see what the afternoon brings. It did dry up a little but I think that everyone was content with the decision of not participating, for 1; its not like John is in a point’s battle! 2: He is currently riding the machine set up that has not yet been made his own. And 3: they have a lot of valuable testing coming up and didn’t want to jeopardize anything.

Both races were great, and its so nice to watch a fight at the front of the pack.

So anyway, its off to my hometown Portsmouth to see the Fam! J

Speak soon!

Ashleigh    xox