I still haven’t recovered from missing the Arora Borealis but at least we woke to a beautiful summer day with blue skies and the smog weirdly gone

I was determined we would do a few days sightseeing before the day of reckoning when the flag drops. Everyone else does City Breaks but in the cultural desert that is PW, if it doesn’t have a race circuit, what is there to see? After 40 years of marriage I reckoned I’d earned my very own City Break

I know I’ve had 2 years to plan this, but did I think you would need to book to get into the Forbidden City months in advance? Nope, didn’t cross my mind. Hence, the Forbidden City remains forbidden to the Watts, which is a real shame. No comment from Harrison’s please!

When my new best friend at concierge, Shan, broke this to me and saw tears fill my old ladies eyes, he was overwhelmed with young persons compassion and did his very best to make it up to me . He managed to secure a booking for Tiananmen Square which is the next best thing, and recommended the Summer Palace as compensation

We started at the Sumner Palace.

Wanting to encourage Patrick in the world of history and culture I suggested he had the informative tourist thing you buy and listen to as you go round. By the second pavillion he had stopped recounting the details to me and by the third I noticed the ear piece was dangling around his neck, although he was extremely interested in the Geisha girls posing for photographs. You know how everyone dresses up for an Abba concert , well it seems Chinese girls do the same when they visit the Summer Palace . According to PW they were all queuing to have their photograph taken with the Western Silver Fox (recollections may vary?)

An hour later he declared he’d done culture and we needed to get back to rally matters .unbelievably we found an entire industrial estate devoted to car parts. There were whole floors divided into American, European and Japanese car stuff . On the ground floor stretching as far as the eye could see were tyre manufacturers. Obviously we headed for Pirelli who have actually manufactured special tyres for us for the rally. I still can’t believe this .I have so many people to disappoint 😳

Then it was on to Motul who are supplying our oil. I suggested buying some for spare but apparently that was a stupid idea on account of the extra weight . We compromised by buying a small tin

I couldn’t really understand the place as it consisted of hundreds of small businesses selling various car parts, with no apparent customers around, but then I remembered all those car bits PW buys on Amazon, which arrive weeks after the due date from obscure Chinese addresses. This must be where Santa’s Elves in the Car Division do the wrapping and sending

For supper we tried a little family joint across from the hotel and had our first Peking Duck which was fab

A busy day

Love from

The Navigator