I'm sitting on the plane that is bringing me home from the opening trio of races, and I'm reminiscing.
I'm not daydreaming about the first time we heard the engines roar for 2011 in Albert Park, Sebastian Vettel's dominant start to the season, Vitaly Petrov flying or Lewis Hamilton's slow, steady reeling-in of Vettel this weekend.
Nope, I've gone a little further back: I'm re-living 1995. Trawling through the plane's CD library I've stumbled upon the breakthrough album Different Class by Pulp. It reminds me of my mum's pistachio green VW Polo, studying for my A-levels, David Coulthard's first Formula 1 win and me, at 17, thinking the world started and stopped at the Norfolk county border!
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This blog entry is being penned as I fly over Quanzhou on my way to Shanghai at 3,9101ft, travelling at 616mph.
I've just watched possibly the greatest boxing movie ever made, in my humble opinion. The Fighter is a gritty, emotive film about human endeavour, sporting brilliance, and defying the odds. Christian Bale is a master of his craft, isn't he?
It got me thinking of some of the greatest sporting tales ever told. I grew up with my Dad regaling me with tales of watching George Best's electrifying feat at the 1968 European Cup final. We all know about the sheer bravery and mastery that Sir Steve Redgrave displayed in winning Olympic gold number five or Red Rum's historic third Grand National win in 1977.
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Can I start by saying how great it feels to have F1 back on the BBC, and in HD glory?
I loved the tweets telling me about all the F1 parties going on around the UK and, even though many of you had to do some serious coffee drinking to cope with early morning action, #bbcf1 was trending on Twitter the whole weekend, which was awesome.
Mind you, it's funny how life can conspire against you sometimes isn't it? Having waited all winter, and an extra couple of weeks, I wanted to have the perfect preparation ahead of the opening race weekend of the 2011 F1 season. But it didn't quite work out like that.
Now, I'm an eight-hours-a-night man at the best of times, so having spent the day grabbing the latest info in the paddock and then grabbing a late dinner, I was already worried about finally getting to bed at midnight ahead of Saturday's first qualifying session of the year.
However, an hour or so later and my night was set to get worse. A lot worse.
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Welcome to my blog where I will be sharing all the insider news, uploading videos and photos throughout the 2011 F1 season. I've spent the past 9 years at the BBC working for Children's BBC, hosting Olympic games, World Cups and Sports Personality of the Year. Have a read and please feel free to share your thoughts.
© 2011