Have just called about a job as security officer (woo-hoo!).  Took me all day to work up the boldness to give them a call... I am such a wuss sometimes.  Anyway, I wiil get this job.  Or actually I will accept this job if it works out for meetings and ministry.

Thank you everyone who contributed to this list.  Which is in fact, no one,  I hate you all.

 

In no particular order, more or less...

 

1.  Austin Healey 3000

2.  Aston Martin DB9

3.  Jaguar E-Type

4.  Lamborghini Miura

5.  Jaguar MkII

 

Notable mentions:  Ferrari 275 GTB,  AC Cobra, AC Ace, Morgan Plus 8, Ford GT40, Alfa Romeo 147, Corvette Sting Ray.

 

(Edit: 27 Nov.)  And on second thought I will have to add the Bugatti Veyron to the list.  It's just stunning.

So that's that.  Georgie Best, the Belfast Boy, has died.  Signing off with bruised and yellow skinned, sick pallored eyes - looking nearer to 90 than 59.

 

Infamously said "I spent a lot of money on women, booze and fast cars.  The rest I just squandered."  A brilliantly decadent statement that perfectly summed up his troubled life of a sporting genius turned celebrity.

 

Naturally in his final days he had nothing but regrets and apologisies over his excessive lifestyle.  Ultimately his heavy drinking is what killed him after haunting him for 40 odd years.  It's truly said to see such a gifted, and more importantly all-around good person brought down by celebrity and left with no real friends, only the bottle for comfort.  A shame, and a tragic warning for everyone.

 

Closed out a bank account today, and with the extra cash in hand thought it only right to nip over to the beer section and buy a few pints.  Once I'd done that I thought I ought to have a proper meal to go with a proper beer.  Toyed with the idea of beef, or steak or fish or pork, but decided to go vegetarian because I'm too cheap to buy meat.

 

So this is what I am having.

 

Toasted Tomato Sandwich

-Bit of nice bread

---swathe withe butter, or in this case butter like stuff that is 58% vegetable oil

---sprinkle few drops of beer left over from now empty can (coz I poured it in a glass) on buttered bread

---toast a short while in the oven, at this time prep tomatoes - wash and slice

---replace in oven

---bake till desired toastiness

---eat

---throw up and go to Burger King instead

 

 

Will be shortlisting in the following catogories: Most Beautiful Cars; Most Beautiful Machines (Mechanical Transport i.e. cars, boats, planes, bikes etc) and Most Beautiful Electronics.   Decisions, decisions, decisions...

 

 

Post a comment and leave your suggestions.

I've managed to settle in pretty well at my new job, meeting new people and working and stuff like that.  One of my co-workers is a class act, does a bit of good advice, like Mr. Rogers.  He's telling me how I should get a room-mate from work to help pay the rent and to that cause he's always pointing out chicks and suggesting I go out with them.  Better than that he recommends having a few girlfriends, in all seriousness one for each day.  He's married and keeps a few girls on the side (not sure what his missus thinks about that...)   Interesting fella, more of an economist than moral agent.

 

Of course he did also say I should stand up to my current room-mate and in fact beat him up for being a slob and not paying rent on time etc.  Which is a fantastic idea if only to watch such a match up.  Not exactly David and Goliath, more along the lines of Gary Coleman and Danny DeVito. 

It is because my aspirations exceed my ability that I am seriously considering building a boat.  According to some how-to sites I've checked it's all relatively easy.  They keep mentioning how blind children with leprosy can build 80 foot luxury cruisers.   Surely I can bang together a 12 foot can-yak.

 

I'm not really that stupid, I'll be enlisting the help of a few acquaintences (i.e. paying them to do the work for me) and generally leave all the difficult bits to the professionals.

 

This is exactly why I want a house.  A little home with a small, but adequate, garage where I can tinker with cars and boats and other things I know absolutely nothing about.  I could be up at the crack of dawn with a warm mug of cider and a big wooly sweater and a pipe.  The thick fog rolling off the ocean and muffling the sound of the saw cutting through wood - oops! slip of the hand and there goes my arm - and muffling the sound of screams as gallons of blood spew from the hole where my forearm used to be attached to my elbow.  That would be great, like a Kurt Douglas film where he does something like that in a rugged salt-of-the-earth sort of way.

 

I want to build a boat and I want to build a car, an economy-size coupe based on an escort....or probably a vw fox because those were built rock solid and are probably closer to the dimensions I need.

And then commit murder, violent deadly murder.  Do I not hate this weather.  It is 10 degrees farenheit as I write.  And the privilege of living in this winter wonderland comes with the heavy cost of heating my house.  Or barely heating my house, as I'm as tight as legally possible.  It will cost me literally hundreds of dollars to keep my house on the friggid side of 65.

 

With any luck the cold will kill my car and I'll die on the shoulder of of some mudcaked highway early one morning.  Or I'll go into a coma and not awaken until mid-April.  That is the most I can hope for.

I want to be a security officer/rent-a-cop.   I'll have to dig out my resume again and look for job postings.  Not keen on peeing in a cup though, but if I must I suppose I will.

As far as sports are concerned this has got to be the best single all-around day I've ever seen.  The job was done in rugby (both codes), cricket and football.  England having a field day against the aussies in union (GB over NZ in league) eng over Pakistan in cricket and a phenomenal match against the argies.  Only a friendly but it felt a lot more important than that.  Lots of respect to Argentina, they put in a good game and could have claimed a well deserved 2-2 draw.

 

And last, but certainly not least, Halifax over the Daggers 3-0.  Up the Town!

Just seen Madona's new video.

 

One thing's for sure, Kylie she is not.

I was looking at the two cars that grace my backyard this morning, wondering how much of my opion is shaped by the badges either wear.  The one, a 92 VW Golf - replete in atheist teal and blotches of rust, and the odd dent from the previous owner (mostly) - is my car, and primary/only mode of transport.  The other, an equally ungodly maroon/red Dodge Spirit from the early 90's  is my parents', currently under my care and keep.

 

While considering just how unbearable the design of the latter is, the thought crossed my mind that perhaps I was being unduly critical of the little car's faults.  There is no doubting that the build quality from the engine to the how the body is held together is dubious at best.  But if it had said "volkswagen" on the backside would I dismiss the flaws as minor niggles or go so far as to consider them essential to the car's feisty, underdog character?  Bravely fighting the odds, despite falling to pieces every time it does a full rotation of the wheels?

 

I would have to say, no.  For one reason, I can list a handful of examples when appalling makes have put out models that I quite like, daresay, love.  Pontiac, for instance, is a car company so far removed from good taste that the mere mention of the name ought to constitute a public nuisance.  Yet I am impressed with the Pontiac Vibe (interestingly, a car vilified by most Pontiac enthusiast - curiously, more than the Aztec).  Even my deep hatred towards the company couldn't stop me from liking this car.  Of course, it is a just a Toyota with better styling, something I thought I would never say of a Pontiac.

 

So I feel comfortable with my objectivity, knowing it to be far superior to that of all the rednecks who are so backwater they make the pickup trucks they drive look even dumber than they really are.  But it's not as clear-cut as that.  I admit I'm sentimental enough to forgive my car of more faults than I really should.  The gearbox is all wrong, a layout that is best described as wonky, and the gear throws are nearly as long as the wheelbase.  It doesn't like to start when it rains, and that's down to the electrics, which don't work.  But none of that matters, or matters very little, when considered on the whole.

 

Love and hate are obviously 90% logic, and 10% forgiveness and resentment, respectively.  Unless you like Pontiacs, then you're just blind.

1. Top Gear

2. Arrested Development

3. Simpsons

4. Law & Order

5. Step by Step

As of late I've been hit with an odd, almost middle-aged outlook.  As if my biological clock were ticking down and suddenly there were a need to get married, settle down and raise a family.  Though, when I say 'get married, settle down and raise a family' what I really mean is 'get married to some fantastically perfect girl, have a good run around the world for a few years and then retire into peaceful marital bliss somewhere in the country - but not to far from the bright lights.'  Basically it involves living in hotels and driving beautiful cars really fast.  A Bond film really.

 

Quite a spirited drink for such a dour bottle.  Trouble is I'm about as boring as the towels in your gran's bathroom.  Let's be honest, I'd look like a class A idiot in a DB7.  I'd mash the gears to pieces and if I ever got it up to speed I'd end up running over someone's pet dog.  I could live out of hotels but I'd either look out of place, arrogant or both.

 

So scaling back my aspirations a notch, I hope for a good looking girl who can have a good time on friday night and maybe the occasional saturday afternoon down at the Shay.  And won't decorate my house like a JC Penney's display.

So I'm pacing back and forth in my room (actually I'm sitting but what a dull thing that is to write) fuming over the state of general engineering and innovation.  Why are we still making cars that are fundamentally the same as the cars being made 40 years ago?  There have been several advances to be fair, and the final product is entirely more satisfactory.

 

But the engine is still up front (typically) and weighs a tonne.  Where is the more equal weight distribution - a very basic need for good handling - and clever intergration of engine and structure?  Kudos to MCC Smart who did manage to combine frame and body seamlessly, a portion of the frame serving as part of the body as well.  When will the frame of the car be fully replaced by a sound, sturdy body?

coke and rum it is.  bad idea, i'll be spotting up like a 12 year old.

 

gotta drink more orange juice.  full stop.