Every time I visit Lothar's house I get to feel even more inadequate. As I walked up his majestic curved driveway and past his immaculately manicured box hedges I could not help but wonder where this guy gets the time and energy to pursue such pastimes. Looking across as his broad expanses of lush green lawn my mind wandered back to my own colourful display of flowering dandelions, currently nearing the 20cm mark. One thing that I can grow well is blackberries and I was tempted to bring along a few robust blackberry cutttings and deposit them at various hidden locations around the garden as a secret gift to our host for the evening.
Lothar and Celia welcomed us warmly and showed us to a seat near their magnificent brick goldfish pool (the pool is made of brick - not the goldfish). I cast my eyes around the amazing display of grape vines and lavishly decorated tables. The scene looked like something out of a Desperate Housewives set - not even a cobweb in sight. I turned to look at the goldfish and noticed that all the fish had been trained to swim back and forth in perfect unison. Another example of German precision I guess. Even I was surprised, however, when I saw a goldfish struggle out of the pool and dig a small hole in the corner of the garden so that it could go to the toilet without soiling the water.
As I deposited some drinks in his garage I almost slipped on his highly polished vinyl flooring. This is NOT what a garage is meant to look like. I thought of my own forlorn garage. Not since a family of huntsmen spiders combined with a few hundred old paint tins and a motley collection of rusty tools to take over the place and secede from the rest of my property, have I been able to even get past the roller door. I tried to justify myself by imagining that maybe I was good at some other skills that I was still yet to uncover. Obviously gardening was not one of them.
Within a short time the crowds began to gather. It was great opportunity to get to know some of our newer riders and their partners better. Soon the laughter and conversation was flowing freely, although there was obviously an undercover of nervousness among the main riders who were all secretly hoping to win the major award.
Lothar soon busied himself at the BBQ cooking up a delicious banquet of steaks and German sausages. (I was a little surprised that he hadn't trained the meat to cook itself). With over 40 people in attendance it was a far cry from our first Awards Night three year ago. The women had done a fantastic job in preparing a mouth watering array of salads and side dishes and soon we were enjoying the first part of the meal.
This was followed by a look back over the past twelve months. Probably the most dramatic point to be noted was that our "official" riders had increased from 14 to approx 35 in the space of just 1 year. On a sadder side we also remembered that, with the passing of John Green, we had seen the first loss of a Ghost Rider. All future Reefton rides will be dedicated to his memory.
It was at this time that Maggie and I were completely taken by surprise when Chris came forward and presented us with a gift certificate for a night at Airey's Inlet. I have to admit that I had no idea what was happening but we are both thrilled at the prospect of a night by the ocean and want to thank all our friends who made it possible.
After another break for desserts we gathered again for the main part of the evening - the presentation of the Annual Awards. As per usual we had a few lighthearted presentations made to some of our riders which again made me wonder why some people are so unkind. Gary Hall (aka Garibaldi, our resident artist) presented a variety of individual awards, each adorned with his own original artwork. I am sure these will be treasured greatly by those who received them .
Then came the more "official awards", some of which were
Best Hill Climber - Ben Cuthbertson
Settlement Rd Sprint King - Bob Lewis
Most Improved Rider - Alan Field
Best Female Rider for 2005 - Marg Jones
Best Team Rider - Phil Jones
Least Disciplined Rider - John Ruigrok
Least Progress Award - John Seamons
Congratulations to all of the above (except Hooters).
The time finally came for the counting of the votes for the major award of the evening - The King of the Warby Trail. I am sure that no one was too surprised to find that the clear winner was Lothar "Lex" Rockman, followed by John Dawson and Peter Warren.
Lothar was presented with the Trophy and also a special "collectors' edition" of the Warby Chronicles. This is a complete compilation of all the ride stories from the past twelve months. This was duly signed by all his teammates as a special memento for him to keep. (If any other people would also like a copy of this book it is now available in electronic form - simply contact me for details).
As the evening gradually drew to a close it was tremendous to see the fine spirit of true friendship that has developed within out group. I hope that those who are still new to us are beginning to experience some of the sense of belonging that is part of the overall enjoyment of being a "Ghost Rider".
Just as the last guests were departing I noticed that Lex had trained some of the local clouds to bring a gentle refreshing shower to his garden. Why did that somehow remind me of something I once heard about Camelot ?