November Randomness

[vin_petrol]

Back from Whitby, where I had lots of fun. Highlight of the trip was suebeedoo singing "Abba's Greatest Hits" in The Elsinore. Lowlight was my somewhat evil hangover on Saturday. Although I think I'll not take relationship advice from steer, I should perhaps listen to him when he gives me drinking advice ;-)

The weather has definitely turned cold, and winter is upon us. Riding my motorbike to work now features icy cold air. Fortunately, I now have HEATED HAND GRIPS, which are a fantastic invention. Sadly, I've had them before (twice) and they never seem to work for very long. It's as if there's a universal law that heated handgrips exist, and can be fitted to motorbikes, and offer so much potential to avoid numbed hands, but in reality they always stop working for me after a few weeks :-(

evie_petrol is wild and rampaging, though it seems she did miss me lots when I was away at Whitby (aw!) She's been very snuggly since I got back, and pleased to see her Daddy. Sadly, she does seem to have taken to waking up *very* early in the mornings after two years of generally not doing so. She woke me at 0515 this morning saying "Daddy! Get up! Not tired! Wake up! Glasses on! Downstairs! Watch Beebies!" The pain... She also knows the word "website", which makes me inordinately proud. Two years ago today we had a meeting with social workers in North Yorkshire, then drove off to meet her for the very first time. She was a little blob back then, who grinned a toothless grin at me and fell asleep on my knee.

Trash has effectively sold the Honda Civic Type-R :-( There's a rather convoluted car-swapping-trade-in-thing going on, involving her sister. The net result is that later this year her sister gets a new Honda Jazz, we get her sister's old Vauxhall Astra, and my lovely Type-R goes off to de Vries Honda in part-exchange. So come the new year I will be Astra Man *sigh*. Trash then gets to buy a car she can park, of whatever type she wants. She's currently quite taken with the idea of something like a Zafira, which can seat seven people! So, I could end up with my own mini-gig-bus, which would be quite handy for the giggers, clubbers and boozers I often give lifts to.

Work is a little strange. There have been lots of people leaving recently, due to an ongoing reorganisation. Their redundancy payoffs are pretty good, so they're rarely that sad to be going. Hardly a day passes without another leaving card and collection doing the rounds, or an "I'm leaving" email hitting my inbox. Leaving cards are so common that someone got a "best wishes" stamp made so they could simply stamp each card as it went past! It's lead to *ahem* a small dip in staff morale. My job is safe at the moment, but who knows? Not much point in moving on though, as if they *do* decide to get rid of me there's a good payoff to be had.

Second Life has been in the press a lot recently. If anyone does play it, say hello to Flak Wolfe, which is my in-game persona.

Comments

[ant-girl.livejournal.com]

Would you like to be our roadie?

[vin_petrol]

*laughs* the problem is that although I may well end up driving something of a bus, I would make a terribly unreliable roadie. I'm sure you don't want to cancel gigs due to "our roadies little girl threw up all over him so he decided he had best not go out gigging tonight!" :-)

[ms-siobhan.livejournal.com]

...and there was me thinking your highlight was having delightful company in the form of Jacqui, Pandy Pops and myself at breakfast *grin*
It must be nearly two years since the delectable Miss Dark introduced us at WH then. Its nice to be missed though it sounds like you could do without such early awakenings. Thats the nice thing about a cat really - you roll yourself up in the duvet and have at least 5 minutes before they manange to burrow their way through to find you and mither you for food again.

[suebeedoo.livejournal.com]

"who can live without it, I ask in all honesty?"

You missed out the bit about your paranormal trachea.

[vin_petrol]

You missed out the bit about your paranormal trachea.

Shhhhhhh. I might want to share a cottage with someone else in the future!

[puritypersimmon.livejournal.com]

I take it the Stern report has passed you by? ;)

Seriously - do you have any need for an enormous gas guzzler, or could you not choose a more environmentally sound option such as the Toyota Prius? It's Evie and her generation who will really be struggling to cope with the effects of climate change, you know. (As a Green Party member I feel obliged to rant about this kind of thing...).

[vin_petrol]

enormous gas guzzler

*laughs* ooh dear, I spent some time on Monday staring in depression at the high MPG, pitiful power output, low insurance class, terrible (i.e. 'low') top speed and diesel options of the Zafira. I really can't see it as anything like an enourmous gas guzzler, seeing as it's based on the Astra chassis.

[puritypersimmon.livejournal.com]

Well, if it's crap anyway you might as well go for the greener option - equally crap, but at least you get to feel virtuous about it (and avoid the swingeing taxes which are bound to be imposed at some point) :)

[planet-andy.livejournal.com]

My Dad's recently got a diesel Zafira. They're decent cars - compared to his old VW Sharan which cornered like a stack of mattresses and was about a mile long - but don't get the auto if you're used to hot hatches, you'll think your right foot has gone missing :(

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

She also knows the word "website", which makes me inordinately proud.

I'm still a bit startled when I think that her generation will take all this Internet business utterly for granted - you know, the same way you or I don't think it's a big deal to be able to direct-dial phones that aren't on the same exchange as yours. My five-year-old niece keeps pestering me to get a webcam at home so she can video-IM me ...

[vin_petrol]

We got a webcam so that my sister in Australia can do video calling with Evie, which is nice.

[fritx.livejournal.com]

Zafira? Auto?

[vin_petrol]

Zafira? Auto?

Shouldn't think so, but Trash is the person really buying, so it's up to her.

[cazzioc.livejournal.com]

So come the new year I will be Astra Man *sigh*.

So what exactly is wrong with that huh?
I love the Astra, it's the best car we've had, & we've had a few between us.
We're on Astra no 3 at the mo, & if they hadn't changed the design again & left it with a v small boot, we would've had one again.
We've looked at the zafira, but the cost is the main problem.(as always!)

[vin_petrol]

So what exactly is wrong with that huh?

Well....

* It doesn't do 0 to 60 in 6.8 seconds.
* The cams don't change profile at 7000 RPM with a lovely change in the engine sound.
* It doesn't look anything like as sexy as my Honda Civic Type-R, which looks like it's going fast standing still.
* It's not a Honda (clever those Japanese, you know.)
* It's unlikely to put *quite* the manic grin on my face that thrashing the Type-R does.

[sunflowerinrain.livejournal.com]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! x

[vin_petrol]

Thanks! I was never quite sure I would make it this far, what with the motorbike riding! ;-)