What
a wonderful experience! Last year I was invited by Skip and Lois Matczak to
join them on a trip to England for the Autosport International show in
Birmingham. Never having been to Europe before, and being an English teacher,
I couldn't believe the tremendous opportunity I was being offered.
I have been working for Seals-it for six years now, and the three of us have really developed a wonderful relationship. Skip and I met at what was then called Miller Motorsports, and since then we have become more than just an employee and her employers. Skip and Lois have really become my adoptive racing family. Lois is the Queen, and before this trip I was her Princess in training. (During that trip she told me that I have now graduated to Princess. So very appropriate I would say, since we were in London.).
We
left for London on Friday Jan 7th, and we stayed there for a week. I had told
them that if I was going to go, I would have to go to Stratford to see where
Shakespeare was born. 
That
is an English teacher's dream! We spent a couple of days in London. I saw a
reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, which is where Shakespeare performed his
plays. This had burned down, and has since been recreated for all of us to
enjoy. Skip read up on the topic and did a wonderful job impressing the tour
guide. She thought he was a film director! Lois and I decided that she had
misspoken. He wants to be a dictator, not a director.
Besides the Globe, we saw the Westminster Cathedral and went to mass there on Sunday morning. What a gorgeous place! I am not a very religious person, but I was in tears after being awe struck by its beauty. I highly recommend checking out this site. It will send chills down your spine if you ever get to see it.
In London they have these places that are constructed like Internet Cafe's. You pay one pound, and you get to use the internet, check e-mail, etc. for approximately and hour. One pound is equal to $1.75 of our money, so the Queen and the Princess didn't get to go shopping for bargains like we usually do. There were no bargains there for us! Everything was so expensive. I wish it was legal to ship blue jeans over. It costs 50 pounds for a pair of Calvin Klein Jeans there.
After
we left London we went to Stratford. All I can say is WOW! I came home with so
much material for my English classes! My students are going to get sick of all
the information. We stayed in a Castle. Ettington Park Manor is one of the
most haunted castles in England; so they say. There are tunnels that go for 6
miles underground so that the Shirley family could escape any form of attack.
Imagine all of the secret passage ways! There was a really cool one that went
through the fire place.
While
we were in Stratford I waited in line to see Taming of the Shrew. I teach this
play, and of course the play was sold out during the two days that we were
there. We did however get to see BUDDY while we were in London. How ironic! We
go all the way to Europe to see a performance about Buddy Holly. Oh well. If
you see Skip or Lois, you'll have to ask them about their dancing in the
isles.
We
fit as much as we could into our short amount of time in Stratford - on -
Avon. We saw Shakespeare's birthplace, Ann Hathaway's house, and Mary Arden's
house. We also saw the Holy Trinity Church where William and his family are
buried. They are all buried INSIDE of the church! Imagine being that important
that they bury you inside! Of course Mr. Shakespeare had enough money to
afford that plot, but to be buried inside the church; I had never knew that
was possible. How impressive.
After our short stay in Stratford, it was back
to reality. We were on our way to the expo. You should have seen us trying to
drive on the WRONG side of the road. QUESTION: 
How
many Pollocks does it take to drive a car in England? Yes, the three of us are
all Polish. ANSWER: Three. The wife
sits in the back seat screaming to stay left, (Yes, we did almost end up in
two head-on collisions.) I sit in the passenger side operating the emergency
break, the stick shift, and locating signs for directions, while Skip, the
driver, concentrates as hard as he can on staying on the left hand side of the
road, maneuvering the round abouts, and trying to stay off of the curb. Oh
yes, what an experience. The one chance that I did get to drive the car was
when I had to move the car to a new parking spot in front of the expo center.
First I got into the car on the wrong side, (No I'm not blond, and Yes, you
would have done it too; Skip did.) then I proceeded to keep bumping my elbow
on the door handle reaching for the shifter on the right instead of the left.
Yah, Skip and Lois are glad I didn't drive, but you had better believe that if
we go there again I'll be 25 and I will get to venture onto the road. Look
OUT!
The
Expo was Grand! We spent the first night waiting for boxes to arrive and
meeting new European friends, and then the show began. If you have ever been
to PRI you would know what kind of a show this was. It was pretty big, but not
quite as large as PRI. They actually had one display of NASCAR and IRL cars
promoting the new Martinsville speedway that will be in Europe. The rest of
the cars were all Greek to me. I usually pride myself on being a women who is
knowledgeable about the Motorsports industry, but I was introduced to a whole
new world. Rally Cars! Those people are crazy!
Well, I hope that you enjoy the pictures. Bruce Malcom from Fotosouvenirs went around the show with me on a photo shoot. He does a wonderful job taking pictures for all of the Formula One drivers. I was really lucky that he had some time to spend with me. Seems to me that Skip and Seals-it will have a good future in Europe. They were really impressed with our products. We spent time with friends from Triton Engineering, Demon Tweeks, Performance Racing Industry, and Intercomp. What a bunch. Thank you everyone for a wonderful time, and for an experience of a life time.
Photos by Bruce G. Malcolm
B.Sc.
117 Bull Lane, Eccles, Aylesford
Kent, ME20 7HT, Great Britain
Tel (01622) 710593
www.fotosouvenirs.com