Monthly Archives: February 2010

Video footage of the meet the other night. All shot and put together by forum member JohnnyG.

I’ve been messaging to and fro with Tabitha for over a month now, she’s been after a bike and I’ve been more than happy to help her find the right one.

Tab was my first boss. She signed me up for an internship when I was still at uni and gave me a job in her design studio when I graduated. I owe her lots, she’s awesome.

So Grant at MC Cyclery decided to slash the prices off a few remaining 09 bikes and there was one particular bike in the bunch that was killer. Tab met me at MCC today and although she understood the bike was great value she just hated the way it looked. I say fair call, it explains why I’ve painted a fair few frames now to rid them of their ugly sport shoe style graphics!

So she went for a Giant Alias instead, which was the same price as the slashed 09 bike, but with a level down in componentry. Whilst the boys were tuning the bike up we headed across the road for lunch at the recently opened Sushi Train (same franchise as the Bondi Junction one Suga and I haunt).

Love the interior design. Eating sushi in here feels like you’re inside a whale!

The bike was done by the time we got back from lunch.

Tabs opted for some hot red pedals which really set the bike off.

Photos from last night’s inaugural VWgolf.net.au GTG. Huge turnout, great people, great conversations. Lots more photos and discussion here.

Tried Manu’s restaurant last night. Hard to expect expensive dining to be good in Sydney, it’s always hit and miss but the food was awesome!

Free plug!

Duck liver pate was great and scallop sausage was awesome.

Chef’s cut of beef with blue cheese sauce. You could smell it before it came out, very strong, very nice.

Lamb. This was my dish, up there with the best lamb I’ve ever eaten in my life.

The good stuff, this was a smooth one.

And Helloooo Manu! The man himself!

I’m still working for others! Got to stop, and concentrate on working on my own projects this year! I’ve just finished up this logo design for WebVine. I also did a web site design + card design too. I’m quite happy with it!

My new INfront Talk here.

Garden crew came over to clear out the jungle today. At least now I can see it! Landscape design next!

Holy weeds Batman!

Sky high weed.

Welcome to the jungle.

Before

After

Before

Din Tai Fung. Yessssss Suga and I are still haunting the place!

Kinokuniya. Yeah I love haunting this place too (but my wallet, not so much!).

Sonny, a mate of mine, came over about a month ago with a Kona mountain bike. He bought it about 5 years ago for $500. It was red, aluminium frame, Suntour fork, Shimano Acera 8speed gear and in as new condition.

At the time he had ideas to turn it into a Transformers bike. Grey with a decepticon headbadge. Last night he came over with this:

I’ve posted the rest up here.

New owner…

… driving my ED away

Since launching VWgolf.net.au with Suga last weekend I’ve been thinking about buying a Golf (obviously!) but there was no way I was ever going to even begin to justify buying one whilst still owning the ED Civic and the 2 Skylines.

As of today the ED Civic is no longer.

Shame as the ED cost me nothing to buy, nothing to run, it’s cheap to insure, great on fuel and it’s the only car we’ve got that can comfortably carry my bikes too. There really wasn’t any need at all for me to sell it except I couldn’t justify owning 4 cars to myself (not right now anyways, still dreaming of my 7 car garage though!).

So I put up an EOI on JDMST yesterday and my inbox was 100% full this morning. I had one kid that was offering a deposit on the car unseen as he’s been following my build thread and planning to buy it all along. A few people have PM’ed me along the way about the car too. Charlie test drove it last night and was convinced he was coming back today to hand over the cash but I got a call from a guy who came over earlier today and he took it, the car is now sold!

So I’ve been thinking about the Golf Project.

I am considering:
– MKV
– MKV GTI
– MK6

Direction 1
Concept: A track car for the road.

Loud when I want it to be (Varex?) a handling machine, responsive due to being light weight, dead clean stock car look outside, race inspired emotion inside.

– Manual or DSG: I’ve always been impressed with Hollinger gearboxes in real race cars. I look at DSG as a poor man’s version of it! (yes I have a vivid imagination!).
– Strip it. Aim to get rid of 150kg. Rear seats, front race seats, carpet, trims, spare wheel, tools, sound deadening tar removal, roof lining, lighter exhaust and wheels.
– Race suspension (also lighter) and semi slicks.

Direction 2
Concept: Slamburglar.

Less is more and it’s all about the stance.

– Airbag suspension so I can drop the car to the ground at car meets and for photo shoots.
– Debadge, desticker, remove rear wiper, colour code everything, super clean, less is more.
– Re-upholster all trims with custom fabric including roof liner.