World Time Attack Challenge 2013 from Downshiftaus on Vimeo.
Awesome World Time Attack Challenge 2013 Video. Better late than never right?! PS: Look out for the cameo appearance by yours truly (and my GT-R) at the start of the video!
Filmed by Jordan Barr – Above The Barr Videography for Downshift.
More pics from last night’s impromptu cruise on Zen: http://zengarage.com.au/2014/02/post-100mm-hangs
Jing and Matt.
New XT brakes from MC Cyclery (thanks Ash!).
So strange to see new shit on such an old bike!
Post ride selfie (trying to put on a brave smile).
Last time I rode was 2 years ago. Unbelievable how time has flown (then again all I’ve been doing for the past 2 years is Zen!).
I met up with Matt Mead and Jing Li at Loftus, 3pm. I was prepared to die… and die I did.
After the first single trail section my thighs were burning. Such a bad sign! 1/3rd the way in I started to feel my lungs, but in a bad way! I made it up the first climb in my granny ring but stopping at the top was a bad idea. I got dizzy and almost threw up. From there on I walked all the big hills, something I’ve never had to do before.
Whilst riding I couldn’t stop thinking about having a cold fizzy coke… water just wasn’t doing it for me. By the end of the ride I had a bad stomach cramp. HAHAHA! SO WEAK!
I’ve got to keep it up, and ride again next Monday, otherwise today’s efforts would have been wasted. Got to thank Jing and Matt so much for going easy on me today. Legends!
I’d just gotten back home from my fishing trip. I was on the couch, TV on, just poured myself a glass of wine and then I hear a “meep meep”! Zen’s resident arty chick Krysti Mclellan had brought over her newly acquired KE55!
Lovingly named “Audrey”, she bought it from a guy on Toymods who had owned it for the last 10 years. Audrey’s a very clean and original 1979 KE55 2 door which has only done 182,700 km’s.
I had to have a blat, and I’m so glad that I did. The first thing that took me by surprise was the gearbox, it’s so tight, direct and even has a notchy sporty feel (great gearknob too). Clutch feel is perfect and surprisingly the brakes are great too.
I was grinning ear to ear the whole drive. “She’s a 4 speed! So cute!”. Ultimately, cruising in Audrey was so fun largely due to the fact that she’s just so easy to drive.
The fuel gauge, heater and the clock doesn’t work. She has A/C but it’s not hooked up. There’s some hail damage and some minor rust appearing on the rear wheel arches. Some of the seats are worn and torn too but it’s not going to take much to bring this little car back to it’s former glory.
Bags packed, have been looking forward to this much deserved break for a while now. Matt picked me up from Zen and on route we were discussing where we were going to stay. A jetty, a cinema room… it all sounded way too familiar, turns out it was the house next door to the amazing place I stayed at last year.
The house on the left is the one I stayed at last year, we were staying in the one on the right, also such a great house.
Was so awesome to be back here. Such an amazing place.
We were all together to celebrate Jing’s B’day, which we did last year at The Entrance, this year we were treated to an amazing strawberry and watermelon B’day cake by Black Star Pastry!
The B’day boy. Couldn’t get over Jing’s new hairstyle for at least the first 20 minutes, haha.
We hit the grog pretty late last night, coffee and breakfast set us right in no time.
Jing’s Audi Allroad (I love it!).
Such a nice place to be inside. A short drive to Pelican to hire some boats for the day.
Pelicans at Pelican!
Unfortunately we failed to get a house boat, so we had to settle for 2 dinghy’s instead.
We collectively caught a lot of Brim (I only managed to catch one), but none of them were of legal size, still great fun though!
Winnie made a killer spag bol for dinner. So so good.
And she also made pizza! Home made bases and all!
Late afternoon chills on the jetty.
Cards by night.
We had a late checkout and ended up making the most of it, the boys ended up taking the house supplied dinghy and canoes for a fish on the river.
So cute. Ethan upset that his Dad was rowing back to Vietnam!
Yesterday I checked out the work of legendary artist, peace activist and musician – Yoko Ono – at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Loved it, if anything I wanted more!
War Is Over! (if you want it): Yoko Ono ends this weekend. For more info visit: http://www.mca.com.au/exhibition/war-over-if-you-want-it-yoko-ono/
Jess booked us in to Cafe Paci, which used to be the old Cafe Pacifico (previously open for 15 years). The building is about to be redeveloped (look closely at the picture you’ll spot a development proposal on the wall), so Cafe Paci is a pop-up store of sorts. Very smart that they just rubbed off a few letters!
The entire space inside has been greyed out, it’s a nice moody place to be, kinda feels like an art gallery.
Valentines Menu.
Complimentary Valentines Day Champers got our heads spinning!
‘Easter Egg’. Straight up, this dish reminded me of Marque. We were in for a treat.
Warm rye tacos were amazing. I would happily have had a full sized one!
Salt and vinegar fish skin, corn with togarishi and duck sandwich with pickled rose. Dreamy goodness!
Even the bread was amazing. Finnish style apparently, 3 days in the making and then covered with sticky yummy stuff.
Blue swimmer crab and plum, delish!
‘That’s Amore’. This was my fave dish. It was an angus tartare with dried tomato, parmesan, garlic and oregano but one spoonful and BAM, it tasted like a Spag Bol, perhaps the best I’ve ever tasted!
Oh, and if you’re wondering what my date looks like, here’s Jess, isn’t she gorgeous?! Not taking a selfie, just making sure her lens is clean!
This dish was interesting. Onions, lemon vinegar, mullet roe and hazelnut.
‘Photato’ – Yup, a deconstructed Vietnamese Pho. Amazeballs! The meat was next level. Loved it.
Looks like an egg, but it’s yoghurt with carrot sorbet in the middle and liquorice at the bottom. What a Heston-esque treat!
Malt, banana and parsley, over the top this dish. Super strange to me, but Jess loved it (and she hates Parsley!).
And finally, pop corn flavoured fairly floss (wild!) and pork and fennel petit fours. What a feast, Jess and I loved it. Food was awesome. Staff were amazing too!
My Catalina Park write up has been featured on my fave automotive blog out there. Motoring Con Brio.
Check it out here: http://motoringconbrio.com/2014/02/11/guest-contributor-justin-fox-on-catalina-park-the-hidden-race-track-of-katoomba-australia/
I get heaps of people asking me for tips and help in regards to getting more facebook likes to their pages. It’s a strange game that a lot of people are playing (kinda sad the more you think about it).
When you run a facebook page there’s a permanent facebook advertisement prompting the page owner to “Get More Likes”. Yes, paying facebook for likes.
Sometimes you have to go with your gut. We’ve NEVER once paid for likes on Zen Garage and after watching this video I’m bloody glad we haven’t!!!
Not to suggest Facebook is in fact fraudulent, but glad to be avoiding the drama of it all. Those running pages, and looking for more engagement, be sure to watch this vid, it could just save you some money AND prevent the death of your page’s reach.
