Great VWGolf.net.au meet last night at Broadway. People often wonder, what the hell do we do once we all get to the carpark? For me it’s a chance to catch up with some old faces, talk shit (not just cars), meet new faces, check out other cars (and to an extent show off your own). Many more photos here
Sun is coming up, it’s Brekkie Time!
Confrontation!
Mia, less scared, more curious, but still shitty.
Maxy hamming it up for the camera.
What a pretty boy!
After lunch on top of the cat tree (he’s a good jumper!).
Nap time.
Little Maxy has settled in really well. He’s a crazy little kitten. A lot braver and more adventurous than Mia was, much better co-ordination too (Mia liked to play with things on the ground as a kitten but would lose sight of things that were off the ground in the air). He’s also very vocal when he can’t see you and he’s a great jumper (he’s jumped up onto the toilet cover into the sink and almost managed to jump up onto a bar stool too).
Mia’s starting to get over being scared of him… she’s more curious than anything else and tends to follow him around but as soon as Maxy walks towards her she’ll grumble and most of the time she retreats. They’ve played chase more than a few times. Hilarious when Maxy chases after Mia! She’s had a few swipes at him but Maxy’s just manned up and tried to swipe right back at her.
This morning they kinda ate brekkie next to each other, all was good until Maxy tried to eat out of Mia’s bowl. After lunch they almost slept together as Mia let her guard down a little (she’s not used to staying awake all day!).
So far so good. We’re still keeping Max in his kitten room at nights, for now but we’re pretty sure they’ll both get along in a week or so. :)
A while back I tried on a few suits (for the wedding). Saba, Armani, BOSS… none of them felt or looked right. I decided to do some internet research and thanks to some recommendations from the VWG forums (here’s looking at you Rob!) I booked in to see Patrick Johnson, a bespoke tailor based in Paddington.
I was immediately impressed with both the man (he’s a good looking guy!), team (Ethan’s a champ and you can view his blog here) and his eclectic studio.
My first meeting went for over an hour. In that time Patrick listened to what I was after, showed me some examples and measured me up (this process was damn amazing, so many measurements!). I’ve since been back for a few fittings and today I got to take my suit home (some pics, maybe later). They’re making me a shirt too. Everything has my initials on it and everything fits me and me only. IE: When Patrick wears my suit the button doesn’t match up to the hole as he hasn’t got a left shoulder that’s exactly 2cm lower than his right… but when I wear it, it’s perfect!
Visit: www.pjohnson.com.au
Our shed.
Zi’s spaceship. Probably the softest, heaviest and slowest car he’s ever taken to Wakies.
Timmy’s SP23.
Timmy stripped his rear seats out in search for an advantage over his mates. LOL!
Clifton’s Sportivo.
NB – rep it.
NA is best.
Luke’s GT-R.
Oh noes, my GT-R is leaking…
My best time.
Zi went wild with some race tape.
Crazy hot Mosler, sounded and looked so damn good.
NA on the track.
Timmy was looking really good in the last corner. I think he ended up with a 1.19 which is awesome for a first timer.
NB pitting.
There were a few Accords on the track, all going hard.
This Cobra sounded very tough.
Clifton pitting, all smiles.
Great day out at Wakefield Park today. Met up with Clifton, Timmy and Zi at the Shell half way on the M5, amazingly I was the last to arrive! Ate some McDonalds (as you do) and after I digested, we headed for Wakefied Park. As soon as we got there we realised that there was no more garage space. IE: It was a very busy day! Not great if you’re a a noobie (Cycling friends Clifton and Timmy have never been to the track before), not great if you’re a veteran like myself either ahaha.
We parked in our own garages a row back, felt kinda cool to have the entire row of parking to ourselves. They split up the street cars into 2 groups as there were so many of us, and there was also a race car group, as well as an open wheeler group (4 groups, 20 minute sessions).
We’d missed the first session. I ran into a few familiar forum faces. One guys Melvin already had car issues and needed a tow back home (damn that would suck after such a long drive!). We were up for the second session, unfortunately they don’t allow passenger rides anymore so showing someone the line isn’t easy (it’s always great to jump in cars with new guys). On their first session out, Cliffy and Timmy just took it easy. Their mate with the Impreza spun out though, haha. There was a lot of traffic and I didn’t get a good run in the GT-R, but still managed a 1.13 and damn the car was fast, brakes were awesome too.
Session 2 saw the boys get a little faster. I clocked a 1.11. Still not confident with the car. I hit the brakes in the wrong spot and had the tail come right out, caught it nicely though which stopped me from going around.
After lunch. Zi pushed me (just what I needed) to just go for it, just smash at least one corner I don’t usually smash. I tried harder in the 3rd session. I knew I was on a flying lap and on the lap after what felt like a fast lap I pushed even harder but it all came undone on the last corner. I spun out and couldn’t get the car started again for a while (flooded the engine I assume). The track marshal called me in after that, not for the spin, but because he spotted a lot of smoke coming out of my car when I was lifting off.
I parked the car, a few minutes later Zi noticed the car was leaking. There goes my day! Luckily the fluid was red. Power Steering Fluid. It’s the same thing that happened to the GT-R the last time it was out on the track over a year ago (!). I’ve since called Indy and he’s looking into a cooler set-up of some sort to stop the fluid from boiling.
When I checked the lap timer I was happy to see a 1.09 there. Fastest I’ve ever been around Wakefield. I know there’s a lot more in it. I’ve just got to grow some bigger balls! Pretty cool for a car to not be tracked for over a year, then to go and bang out a 1.09 though!
The beast in hibernation has been awoken! 6AM. We’re ready to rumble!
Last week Zi got me on MSN. Free track day! OKkkkk. Let’s do it! When? Monday? OK! So in the meantime I’ve been feeling a little crook but I felt great last night and after chatting to Clifton last night over MSN I was so hyped I started packing my bags (it’s going to be his 1st time on the track, Timmy too).
I’ve not taken the GT-R out on the track since the Auto Salon shoot which was many moons ago. It’s high time to blow the cobwebs out of it. Air is cool too, so it’s turbo time!
So… this little hole on the plate that holds my speedo has been bugging me for some time now. In the US they use this hole to hold an indicator light which my Japanese Zoomer doesn’t have.
I gathered some parts together from my parts bin. A Niner Bikes YAWYD (You Are What You Drink) beer bottle top cap, a funky spacer from Battle Scooter, a bolt + nut.
Perfect fit!
Of-course I’ve just run to the fridge to carefully crack open a cold Asahi, yeah… hole no more! RPRSNT!
Big limbs! You can see how he’s going to be a big boy in this photo.
We’ve got a collar on him already.
I’ve glaucoma.
Looking towards to door at Mia.
Mia. Very pissed off.
Who dat?
We picked up Little Maxy from the breeders yesterday, he hid in the corner of his room, under the pong table for a long time, but Christina eventually got him to hop into the Fuzzyard fuzzy bed and he was kneading and purring away by the end of the night. This morning we found that he’d eaten a lot of his food and he’d done lots of poo too (he’s already well toilet trained of-course).
MIa’s pretty scared of him, which is a bit of a surprise to us as she’s damn tough with the visiting neighborhood cats through the glass (haha). She’s acting very grumpy but we’re sure they’ll both get along eventually.
Faye Cahill’s Dulwich Hill studio.
Taste sample box.
Naughty! Christina couldn’t wait for me…
Yesterday I got up with a rude migraine headache. Yes I did drink a couple of glasses of red the night before, I was also feeling a little sick (maybe one of the sick boys at the BMU/MCC bike night passed on the flu?), in any case we had some important stuff to do today so I soldiered on.
First up was wedding cake shopping. Our wedding florist, the wonderful Susan Avery suggested that we see Faye Cahill for a wedding cake. We sussed out Faye’s web site and liked the more simple designs she had on there so we booked in a meeting (that was a month ago now). The pouring rain + my headache put me in a pretty grumpy mood, but once I saw Faye’s little studio I snapped out of it. A really cool little set-up, basically you walk right into her kitchen, the sights and smells were awesome.
We checked out a book of hers and pretty much picked out a cake design we loved straight away. We’ll need Susan Avery to do a little magic to finish the cake off, but I’m sure that won’t be a drama. Faye left us with a sample box containing samples of cake flavours as well as filling flavours, we’re both in agreement on which flavours we’d like for our cake, too easy!
Next up we headed west to pick up our new Russian Blue kitten Maxy! Pics are on the way :)
Cam just uploaded a video of the Longford stage which captures the sounds of Targa quite nicely. We got there early and chose this corner of all corners, we were right at the front of the barrier too.
