Week twenty-two

A day at Goodwood brought with it a day of contradictions. There were so many wrongs and yet so many rights.  Oh yes, Glorious Goodwood – where do I begin?

I had never been to the races before and it is not really something that I have ever had any massive desire to go to.  I imagine it to be completely pretentious, full of country house owning toffs wearing panama hats and drinking Veuve darling.  And of course, it’s exactly that, but it is also full of incredibly fun and friendly people and its really infectious.

The reason I chose to go this particular day is because it was part of “3 Friday Nights” at Goodwood.  3 Fridays throughout the summer where after a day of racing you can rave it up rah style with some party DJs, the first of which was the infamous Boy George.

Myself and friend Nicole arrived to a beautiful setting – the grounds are just stunning and with it being about 25 degrees we were ready to float around with frivolity.  The first thing to do was of course to find some alcohol so obviously we went straight to the Veuve (darling) bar. 

We set up camp outside, just behind part of the track so we could indulge with all the men in chinos but, then we remembered – there is an outcome to racing – the mighty buck.  We were here to bet and no sooner had I handed over all of £2 my demeanour changed from frivolous to, well a bit forceful actually – since I got a little bit addicted and consequently won 3 out of 5 bets - wooohoooo!

All in all only about £35 but still better than a kick in the teeth and at least I lost nothing.  Unfortunately for Nicole some nasty bookie with fag burns in his ear with the warmth of a dead person caused havoc and made Nicole bet on the wrong horse.  She didn’t have it in her after that.

Nevertheless we both relished in my winnings and the general warm glow that was awash throughout the day.  We drank rose and ate pie and mash and couldn’t be happier.

After the last race at 8.55pm we made our way through the complex to the Parade Ring and were really taken aback at how gorgeous it was.  The setup was really very cool with a huge circular area surrounding the bar and at one end the DJ box on a balcony, hanging over the huge dance ring, flocked by stairs on either side leading back up to the bar.

Um, it was like the opening party of Ibiza - except for the fact that the music played was for the simple masses rather than aficionados. But, everyone was loving it.  I think it was actually more like an incredibly lavish wedding as supposed to Ibiza but it was just awesome and so well put together.

 There are two more Friday nights at Goodwood that you can check out with Mark Ronson and Chris Evans as the guest DJs.  You can find all the details here.  Next time I'm checking out London Jewellery Week.  Dazzling.