E30 vs 190e

So on day one of the E30, Costa and I had a bit of a battle royale on the highway between Otaki and Wellington.

We were basically re-enacting the famous German touring car battles of the 80s when Mercedes tried to challenge BMW's E30 dominance by building the 190e with Cosworth Engineering.

Fair to say the E30 took line honours despite the smaller engine - it's all about the tactics hehe.

Also while I think of it you can actually buy the Cosworth.

The new addition - a dirty E30

So I went and bought myself a motoring classic today - a BMW E30 coupe. The beauty of the E30 is its simplicity - ie the electrics cant shit themselves like they did in the Peugeot because there aren't really any. But the main reason I bought it is because they are wicked to drive and relatively low cost.

It's NZ new - still has the original Shelly BMW label. Rock and Roll. This here is an artists impression of what me driving it up my windy/hilly road could look like.

A desk with a view

Ok so I'm writing this at my desk which isn't so good (if you notice the time), but I can't really complain about my view tonight.

The picture doesn't really capture the brightness of it, but hey, if you want to assist in my entertainment you can do your own tree design here.

Some things

Does anyone else really not give a fuck about Tiger Woods crashing his car? Or whether or not he was shagging around? I just don't really care, so I'm not sure why so many column inches have been dedicated to it.

Also, in the last week I have learnt that Star Wars Lego is badass and I really, really want a motorised Lego AT-AT. This came up because one of my colleagues found out that her husband has a secret collection at work - including a Death Star.

Some quality in the form of a slightly incendiary opinion piece from Mike Moore on how green politics has become a religion. I do like his style at times.

And finally, I sitting here wondering what I am doing awake and more importantly what the hell I am doing watching English Premier League... of Darts. In what other country would you see 8000 people turn out to watch a game of Darts?

Supporting a culture of death

I'm not going to link to it, you can google and find their site if you must, but Right to Life are calling for a boycott of Telecom since it "supports the killing of unborn children."

Of course this is in response to the Family Planning Association being part of the community sponsorship programme.

From Right to Life's blog post:

Right to Life is disappointed that Telecom New Zealand has been supporting a culture of death by making annual grants to the New Zealand Family Planning Association of $50,000 for 2006 and 2007.

Right to Life is totally opposed to grants being made to this controversial Association. We know that the Family Planning Association is strongly pro-abortion. The Association is the major abortion referral agency in New Zealand; it believes that we need abortion as a back up for so called failed contraceptives.

What pricks.

Christmas tree

Shameless promotion really, but this is pretty cool I think - I'm off to Auckland today for the launch of our Christmas tree. Wellingtonians will have also noticed that one has popped up in Frank Kitts Park as well this year which gets switched on from Tuesday night. (hard not to notice a 30m or seven storey tall tower)

There a phone boxes at the base of the tree for kids to call santa from - their wishes shoot up the tree to the star. For the older kids you can just sit on the beanbags underneath it and gaze at the lightshow.

So check it out - Western Park, Ponsonby Rd Akld or Frank Kitts Park, Jervois Qy Wgtn.

Vid gives you the idea

HAL 9000

After months and months of trouble with the Peugeot it looks like we might finally have a solution.

for those who don't know, transmission has been playing up for ages and would occasionally go into what's called 'limp-mode' which means you basically lose acceleration, and you have to restart the car (which I had mastered, meaning id slot it into neutral, turn the key off, turn it on again and slip it back into drive - while still moving).

Peugeot said its an electronic issue, and you'll probably need to replace the transmission - looking at $2000 plus for a fix in short. But the old man of one of my colleagues, Hal, got wind of this and did a stack of research and came up with a genius plan involving new transmission oil and filters and a bit of good old jiggery-pokery.

And it worked!

This morning I had to re-start the car 12 times between Aro Valley and the Basin on the way to the mechanic. Coming home tonight and during the test runs this afternoon - it didnt go into limp mode once. Not once!

I felt like Renton finding the opium suppositories in the bottom of the toilet in Trainspotting - YES! You fucking dancer!

Cactus Day Monday

See what happens when you intern with me?

The Family Cactus was on Radio NZ's Music 101 yesterday - clip below, and on Monday the 13th their album Come Howling is out... on Sony Music no less, and will be on iTunes.

Download it bitches.

Obit

In the last week or so we have seen the passing of two totally different but oddly, equally significant figures from the last 40 years - Robert McNamara and Michael Jackson - figures from wildly different backgrounds and accomplishments but both saddened me all the same.

For people around my age group, you couldn't help but be a fan of Michael Jackson. I grew up immersed in his music - the first two albums I ever owned were Thriller and Bad - I can remember going to the movies to watch the glorified music video that was Moonwalker, and making lame attempts at the Smooth Criminal lean (that link is totally cool btw) and of course moonwalking. But for me personally, after Dangerous (and the arrival of grunge!) Jackson's relevance dimmed somewhat and in a funny kind of way, for all intents and purposes, he passed away long ago which has meant his passing has had far more of a tragic tinge rather than a shocking one.

On Robert McNamara, upfront I'll say that I believe that ultimately the expansion into Vietnam was LBJ's doing but also that McNamara should have gotten the hell out of there far far earlier. For anyone who doesn't know, McNamara was Kennedy and Johnson's Secretary of Defence. He remains the longest ever serving Defence Secretary and up until Rumsfeld, the most controversial.

But he is also one of my all time favourite political figures - there is something beautiful in politics when someone so powerful openly acknowledges and discusses their failings. I maintain that he is one of the smartest people to have ever held a Cabinet position in the US (or anywhere probably) and to this day I have his eleven lessons pinned above my desk. I still think that his first lesson of war - to empathize with your enemy - to understand their thinking and where they are coming from is his most important and is so applicable to politics - yet tragically missing from so many political strategies. It was Kennedy and McNamara's empathy with Kruschev that avoided nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis and as he notes in the video below, it was the lack of empathy that allowed the Vietnam War to get so far out of control.

This is a clip from the fantastic 2003 McNamara documentary, The Fog of War. For anyone interested in conflict and politics its an absolute must watch - his insights into the WWII fire bombing of Japan is especially mindblowing.

Stupid people = stupid questions

At the moment I'm selling off my Nintendo Wii and all the games etc on Trade Me and in doing so I have discovered a whole new world of stupidity - the idiotic questions you get from people about the item you're selling.

Some examples:
On the auction it says - Seller allows pick-ups, Seller is located in Wellington City, Wellington.

So why would you ask "Where would pick up be please?" - why do you think I would be anymore specific at this point?

Or this one: "do u interest to sell ur wii fit and star war for 100$?" Uh no, if that was what I was interested in selling... that would be what I'm advertising.

"May i ask why you are selling please??" How about because I want to? I felt like answering, I'm selling because its hot and I need to shift it asap.

So anyway at work we were talking about the inane questions you get and one of my colleagues mentioned that his old man sells all sorts of junk and given his temper - he hates getting daft questions too... So what else were we to do...

The latest auction he is running is for beer bottle openers - which come in packs of three and are coloured Red, Black and Green (black ones pictured). But we had some (infuriatingly obvious) questions as follows -

Q. Do you have 5 packs of these available? Also how many bottles could you expect each one to open?
A. They are auctioned in lots of three.In regard to the number of opens I really have no idea. Cheers

Q. Do you have a full range of colours? Do you have Yellow? or Red?
A. No yellow. Red listed. Cheers

Q. How many colors r there? Will u sell just a red one?
A. We do not list this item in single units. Cheers

I like how he kept hiding his rage by adding 'cheers' to each one.

Childish prank for the week? Check!

Oh and if anyone wants a Wii - the auction closes monday night.

Sing when you're winning

Yesterday I spent the day down in Christchurch for work and last night I went out with my South Island colleagues for dinner and... karaoke. It's fair to say I'm quite the karaoke fan lol.

While I was initially outraged at the lack of Midnight Oil's Beds are Burning and ACDC's You Shook Me All Night Long I still pulled out a few stunners.

I kicked off with my hardcore Axel Rose impression with Sweet Child O Mine and followed that up with Oasis' Supersonic, Pearl Jam's Better Man, The Cranberries' Zombie, Radiohead's Creep, The Killers' Mr Brightside and The Knack's My Sharona.

Then it was time for the big guns - as always, I broke out a mean version of Elvis' Suspicious Minds then Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit before hitting the high notes with The Bee Gees' Night Fever.

I then closed out the evening by kicking ass with one of my colleagues with Rage Against the Machine's classic - Killing in the Name. Yeah there were a few dropped jaws when we got to the "Fuck you I won't do what you tell me" part ROFL. The video below kind of replicates just how it went from my perspective. That's how we roll.

Reprazent

So we're having a work team-building planning day/bollocks whatsit next week and we've been given a list of things they want us to do in advance.

We have to come up with three factoids about ourselves - one of which has to be untrue and people have to work out which is made up - hilarity ensues. I'm thinking of throwing in either pedo, general sex offender or amateur abortionist - you know, just to liven it up a bit.

We also have to take the album that we think best represents us. Naturally, I'm taking this far too seriously - working through all the options and thinking about the ramifications of any choice. Do you go for one of the top 5? or a classic album? Wacky? Offensive? Inappropriate?? Political? It's a tightrope!

The top 5 is currently (alphabetically by artist) - The White album, Nevermind, Definitely Maybe and OK Computer (the fifth spot is currently vacant). But like Voltron, the four permanent members of the top 5 can't really work alone - that could be perceived as picking 'a' favourite album... who knows what could happen if that were to occur??

But going classic is risky - is it something like The Doors self titled album? ACDC's Back in Black? REM? Or should I go 'worthy' with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On or Sgt Peppers? Maybe all cool and alternative with some Sufjan Stevens, Sonic Youth or Flaming Lips? Mysterious and moody with some Ryan Adams or Johnny Cash - the man comes around? Zany with Tenacious D? Just plain odd with John and Yoko's Two Virgins? Would people get the irony if I took some Phil Collins or NWA??

Argh who knows?? I have a week or so to work it out. Ideas appreciated.

Top of the Pops

My 175,132 steps for last week was enough to get me in the top 10 for the entire business - all 8000 staff!

I was worried there for a bit, the Taupo Ironman was on the weekend, as was the Auckland Round-the-Bays run, but in fact it actually got me to seventh place and if I had done it the week before I would have been fourth.

The blister the size of a 50c piece on the ball of my foot has probably put paid to a repeat effort this week but oh well.

Queen Charlotte

Well I'm annoyed to say it, but I have the blisters to prove I walked 24kms of the Queen Charlotte track. In doing so, i racked up 41,000 steps for the day and a grand total of 175,000 for the week - another team record which should put me in the top 10 for the country based on the previous weeks (fingers crossed). Goes without saying that the beer at the Portage afterwards was out of this world.

So anyway, for your viewing pleasure - sights of the Sounds (love a good pun)

Elephants and Sundaes

I got my monthly update from Exodus gym today - all seems to be going well so far. It was just the month of February, so only covers my first two weeks but still made for hilarious reading.

It tells you how much you have lifted in total - 24,000kgs (obviously not at once) but they also translate that into an everyday object so apparently I have lifted the equivalent of 6.7 african elephants. I've also burned the equivalent calories of 10 chocolate ice cream sundaes... good to know I guess?

It is quite a cool system though. You have a pin/ID code that you log in at each machine, and it then tells you how many reps/sets you're supposed to do, at what weight and it also has your range of motion logged so you can't cheat and only do half a rep. You then get these updates emailed to you and the information is fed into the system for you and your trainer to check on.

So anyway thats enough of a plug for the gym.

Steps is still going well - Monday was 24,000, Tuesday 26,000 and Wednesday 24,000. Thursday is a bit down since I didnt get to do my lunchtime walk over Mt Vic and around Oriental Bay - but I should still make 20,000 all going well.

This week's total will get another boost too as I am now heading down to Marlborough Sounds... again, for a day trip with 3 other guys to walk a 23km section of Queen Charlotte track on Sunday. We're planning on starting at Camp Bay and walking to the Portage (to finish with a beer obviously).

Exciting huh?

Glory Days

Some people may be surprised to learn that before my current life I was a checkout chick at New World in Levin and tonight I got a chance to reminisce.

Thorndon New World have introduced self-checkout... uh checkouts and I love them. I've had some hate on for the Thorndon checkout staff for sometime - FFS No I dont want detergent packed with food!

It was like old times - the other shoppers were no doubt in awe of the master class of scanning that I was displaying.

In other news, (I know you're thinking about it) in week 2 of the 10,000 steps challenge I completed a total of 132,809 steps - yus! Number one for our team (Corporate Punishment) and most improved also with an increase of 25,000 steps. Our team is still kicking the asses of our arch rivals (the lawyers).

Ten thousand reasons to get off my arse

Our team at work have just started doing the 10,000 steps a day challenge - I was warned in advance that "ohhh it's so much harder than you think." But uh I'm kind of making light work of it at the moment oddly enough.

In the first 24 hours (12pm Monday-11.59am Tuesday) I did 17,054 steps and since midday today I've done 11,833. Mind you I am making an effort, so I'm not that surprised - but still... this challenge is getting pwned!

On top of this of course we have our regular humiliation all scheduled to go tomorrow... I'm reliably informed our Mayor won't be showing up again... ah nevermind.

Wellington thinking

Why?
We had our second session of humiliation yesterday, the positive this time though was that since it had been raining there were less people to stare at us while they pie-munched and we contorted ourselves. The negative involved the instruments of satanic worship that are dynabands combined with the obligatory 'pulse' action. Ugh pain. The Mayor and the Phoenix players who had been participating didn't show this week - but as Mish said, "we don't need them anyway - they never win!"

Sevens
Despite going along last year for the first time, the whole sevens thing did seem a little tired this year and I think Tom over at the Wellingtonista summed it up nicely with his article "Thank God that's over". Mind you, I do wonder if the Cuba Street Carnival is really that much different? Isn't it just another case of a certain group of Wellingtonians letting their proverbial hair down - and shouldn't we just embrace all these events? Meh, maybe? But they do all get a tad boring after 10 years.

Courting controversy
Was it just me that let out an audible sigh of relief at the announcement that the Council's proposed 12 basketball court sized indoor sports stadium has been held up for another 18 months? I don't get why we need to rush to build this mammoth thing other than to give the dopey Mayor her swansong? For those who don't know, Wellington City Council is trying to build a huge indoor sports centre to attract national tournaments etc etc, which is all very good. But after originally looking at building it on top of the stadium concourse, and then on the waterfront, the Council decided building it over Cobham Park out in Kilbirnie (on the way to the airport) is better (images over at EOTF). In theory thats fine, but as anyone who has tried getting over/through Mt Vic when something is on out the other side, Kilbirnie is a nightmare to get to in peak traffic - so how would this location work if we had say 30 teams in town for a tournament?? So anyway, I'm happy its stalled again, even if it was a little dodgy how it happened, and I hope the 18 months now available will see sense prevail and other options considered. Btw, what about that pun for a headline eh? eh?

Public humiliation

As part of the Council's Summer in the City series, our psychotic work personal trainer, Mish, is organising "Putting the Well in Wellington" fitness sessions at Frank Kitts Park - and through immense peer pressure we are basically forced into participating.

It started this week and its fair to say after spending 40 or so minutes doing all sorts of daft sit ups, leg lifts, press ups etc etc with 150 other mugs (and infront 200 others) I feel suitably humiliated and well... fucked.

The best bit had to be while doing the leg lifts when after counting down to 2 to go, she then paused and said "3 and 2 and.... pulse". Who comes up with this stuff?? Mind you, Mish is NZ personal trainer of the year so she must know what she's doing... although as I said to her, if she was really that good - I wouldn't look like this. lol

Oh and in other stupid exercise news, the other morning while buying a coffee down at Legato I entered a competition to win a 6 month membership for Exodus Health Club and cutting a long story short - I won!

Long weekends

I ended up spending the long weekend over in the Wairarapa - checked out Castle Point and the Wings over Wairarapa show which featured some very cool Red-Bull-esqe air racing... and some very ordinary commentary from Jim Hickey. Honestly he was an unwelcome blast from the past.

But anyway check it out - the old Cannon camera is still rocking it.