Following on from this morning’s discussion about getting a performance car now before it’s too late, there is however a way you can have your performance car and eat it too. Well, you really shouldn’t eat it as such, but you can certainly drive it without helping to stuff the planet.
This morning, I signed my car up with Greenfleet. They calculated that, given my level of fuel consumption and the distance I drive, my car will produce 6.78 tonnes of greenhouse gases this year, more or less. 26 trees will sort that out, and for the non-that-expensive sum of $61.17 (which would only buy me three quarters of a tank of petrol, after all), they will plant 26 trees on my behalf – which is nice. It will probably cost you less, because chances are your car is more environmentally friendly than mine. But, until you sign up, my car is now more environmentally friendly than yours, and more environmentally friendly than a hybrid car that hasn’t been signed up, which also appeals to my well-developed sense of irony.
I don’t know if the scheme will keep working if everyone signs up – we could possibly run out of space to plant trees in, or if last night’s news is anything to go by, we will certainly run out of water to grow them with – but this sort of carbon trading model certainly is a good way to enjoy guilt-free V8 performance.
Friday 20 April 2007
Life's too short to eat fast food
So they say that money can’t buy happiness. The hell it can’t. Earlier this year I spent probably far more money than I really should have on a new car, and I’m as happy as Larry (Larry Perkins, in this case, seeing as what I went and bought myself was a 6 litre V8 Holden Commodore SS). I have to say, this is the only car that has ever made me laugh like a loon while driving it simply because of what it is capable of, and puts a smile on my face the rest of the time.
There wasn’t really anything wrong with my old car, other than the fact that it was a bit small for me and I was starting to get aches and pains from driving it. But, for reasons I can’t really explain, around the end of last year I started to form a view that time was running out for performance cars given global warming and the likelihood that the oil will run out in our lifetimes, and that every day spent driving an Astra was a day not spent driving something more interesting. Before we know it, our car choices will be down to boring Toyota Prius-style hybrids that you can’t even get with manual transmission, and tedious crossover recreational vehicles that are part 4WD and part people mover, a brilliant combination of two of the least inspiring vehicle types around. The performance car is likely to be doomed in the face of environmental pressures and ever-increasing overregulation of driving (as I like to say, there are laws against speeding but there are no laws against acceleration – yet).
No, I decided, the time to act was now before it’s too late. And this is the point I want to make. Because life really is short, when you think about it, so make hay while the sun shines (if clichés do it for you). I’m a car guy, so I leapt at the opportunity to buy something I really wanted as soon as I could afford it, and before life got in the way of me being able to do so. But it doesn’t just apply to cars, it applies to everything. Love the piano but stuck with a Casio keyboard from the 1980s? If you can afford it, go out today and buy yourself a proper piano. Love your beer? Stop drinking VB and switch to something good like Boag’s or Cascade immediately. Are you dreaming of seeing Paris? Book a ticket and go there while you can.
I think this is part of a whole attitude shift for me. I used to be content to put up with near enough is good enough. I even used to eat at KFC from time to time. And I used to put up with doing things I didn’t want to do for far too long. Well, no more. There simply isn’t enough time available in a lifetime to put up with crap. I’m not saying you should be selfish – indeed, there is little that is more satisfying than genuinely making a difference to someone else who really needs your help – I’m just saying that if there are things in your life you don’t like, and something that you really, really want, take action while you still can.
There wasn’t really anything wrong with my old car, other than the fact that it was a bit small for me and I was starting to get aches and pains from driving it. But, for reasons I can’t really explain, around the end of last year I started to form a view that time was running out for performance cars given global warming and the likelihood that the oil will run out in our lifetimes, and that every day spent driving an Astra was a day not spent driving something more interesting. Before we know it, our car choices will be down to boring Toyota Prius-style hybrids that you can’t even get with manual transmission, and tedious crossover recreational vehicles that are part 4WD and part people mover, a brilliant combination of two of the least inspiring vehicle types around. The performance car is likely to be doomed in the face of environmental pressures and ever-increasing overregulation of driving (as I like to say, there are laws against speeding but there are no laws against acceleration – yet).
No, I decided, the time to act was now before it’s too late. And this is the point I want to make. Because life really is short, when you think about it, so make hay while the sun shines (if clichés do it for you). I’m a car guy, so I leapt at the opportunity to buy something I really wanted as soon as I could afford it, and before life got in the way of me being able to do so. But it doesn’t just apply to cars, it applies to everything. Love the piano but stuck with a Casio keyboard from the 1980s? If you can afford it, go out today and buy yourself a proper piano. Love your beer? Stop drinking VB and switch to something good like Boag’s or Cascade immediately. Are you dreaming of seeing Paris? Book a ticket and go there while you can.
I think this is part of a whole attitude shift for me. I used to be content to put up with near enough is good enough. I even used to eat at KFC from time to time. And I used to put up with doing things I didn’t want to do for far too long. Well, no more. There simply isn’t enough time available in a lifetime to put up with crap. I’m not saying you should be selfish – indeed, there is little that is more satisfying than genuinely making a difference to someone else who really needs your help – I’m just saying that if there are things in your life you don’t like, and something that you really, really want, take action while you still can.
Thursday 19 April 2007
Photo Day
So our baby had its first picture taken the other day, by ultrasound. I was surprised to see how much detail there actually was – I was fully expecting to see some sort of grainy blob wherein the ultrasound operator would point out various features and I’d nod along pretending to have seen it, but secretly not being able to tell which end was which. But no, there was a clearly visible head, and two arms and legs, and some finger movement was visible, and you could even see a rather well formed spinal column and all. The best bit, though, was the little heartbeat which I thought exceptionally cool.
The good news is that everything seems to be in order, and we are not having twins or triplets.
I did try to work out if it is a boy or a girl. Let me just say that I saw no evidence to suggest that we are having a boy. Apparently, though, my efforts to work it out were pointless as it all looks pretty much the same at this early stage. We aren’t planning to find out before their actual birth, but I thought, hey, if I can figure it out from here then good for me, and I’ll keep my findings to myself.
Stubborn, though, just like Mum and Dad. They had found a comfortable position, and they were sticking with it. Nothing at all would convince them to move around so they could have their picture taken from the other side. A household with two stubborn parents and a stubborn child, what could possibly go wrong?
I was thinking, though, that when they are born I will be turning 27 myself, and realistically, when they are older, they will have no memory of me that has me at anything younger than about 30 to 32. And it’s really odd to think that they will have no idea what I was like as a kid, what I was like as a teenager, what Mum and Dad did before they were born, or anything like that. In fact, those things hadn’t occurred to me about my own parents until recently – you just sort of assume that your parents were always the way they are now, and not that they might have been different before you were born, and have different views to the ones they hold now, and do different things on a weekend and so on.
But no, your parents were probably people just like you once. Does that mean you’ll turn into them?
I once read somewhere that you’ve turned into your Dad when you set aside a stick specifically for stirring paint with.
I have several of those already. Does that mean I’m now even more like my Dad than my Dad is?
The good news is that everything seems to be in order, and we are not having twins or triplets.
I did try to work out if it is a boy or a girl. Let me just say that I saw no evidence to suggest that we are having a boy. Apparently, though, my efforts to work it out were pointless as it all looks pretty much the same at this early stage. We aren’t planning to find out before their actual birth, but I thought, hey, if I can figure it out from here then good for me, and I’ll keep my findings to myself.
Stubborn, though, just like Mum and Dad. They had found a comfortable position, and they were sticking with it. Nothing at all would convince them to move around so they could have their picture taken from the other side. A household with two stubborn parents and a stubborn child, what could possibly go wrong?
I was thinking, though, that when they are born I will be turning 27 myself, and realistically, when they are older, they will have no memory of me that has me at anything younger than about 30 to 32. And it’s really odd to think that they will have no idea what I was like as a kid, what I was like as a teenager, what Mum and Dad did before they were born, or anything like that. In fact, those things hadn’t occurred to me about my own parents until recently – you just sort of assume that your parents were always the way they are now, and not that they might have been different before you were born, and have different views to the ones they hold now, and do different things on a weekend and so on.
But no, your parents were probably people just like you once. Does that mean you’ll turn into them?
I once read somewhere that you’ve turned into your Dad when you set aside a stick specifically for stirring paint with.
I have several of those already. Does that mean I’m now even more like my Dad than my Dad is?
On wallpaper
The background colours for this blog have an interesting ambience, I've just noted - it's rather like old wallpaper in a conservatively decorated bungalow, and I'm half expecting to also find plenty of old wooden furniture with velvet cushions and maybe some fine china sitting in a glass display cabinet.
I wouldn't decorate my house this way, but I quite like the way the blog looks.
I wouldn't decorate my house this way, but I quite like the way the blog looks.
Sometimes I'd rather be...elsewhere
From time to time, I find myself thinking that on the whole, on any given day, I’d rather be in one of the cities I visited on my honeymoon trip to Europe and Japan last year. It’s usually a different city each time – Rome one day, Paris another day, Bologna once in a while.
Actually, let’s stop that right there. The main reason I liked Bologna is that they have a café called La Nutelleria. As the name suggests, it’s a Nutella-themed café, so everything – crepes, ice cream, biscuity things etc all have Nutella in them. We went there, just to see what it was all about, and while I think we pretty clearly understood what the idea was, the guy in front of us in the queue clearly didn’t:
“I’d like an ice cream, thanks. What flavours do they come in other than nutella?”
“They only come in nutella”.
“Only in nutella?!”
But I digress. Sometimes Tokyo, sometimes Dublin, and so on.
One place I have to admit I didn’t think too much of was London, but I’m starting to wonder if I didn’t really give it a fair go. For one thing, we went directly from Paris to London, and in terms of aesthetics at least, that’s right up there with looking at a Rembrandt first and then wondering why you’re not overly impressed with a crayon drawing immediately afterwards, or with driving a Ferrari F430 and then finding your Kia a little below par. London is not a particularly attractive city, and I think the problem is all the brown brick. But then, maybe that’s the charm of the place which I missed because I’d just had my mind blown by Paris. But apart from that, I also found London hideously expensive when travelling on the Aussie dollar, the hotel we stayed in was crap, they wouldn’t let me in to the Houses of Parliament (I’m a sad case who visits Parliament pretty well anywhere that has a Westminster system, so so far I’ve been to Parliament House in Canberra - Federal and ACT Legislative Assembly - Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Wellington, and only didn’t go to the ones in Paris and Rome when I walked past them because both of those cities have better things to do), and the shower made a pretty good attempt at killing me. Let’s digress again on to that one.
So there I was, having a shower in one of those awful showers-in-a-bath that are just an accident waiting to happen. The hotel was pretty dodgy – the fire extinguishers were missing, the windows wouldn’t shut properly, many of the lightbulbs didn’t work, that sort of thing. I slipped, dropped the soap which made a loud noise, and did that whole trying-to-get-grip-shuffle that you do when you’re on something with no traction at all like ice. In one of those slow-motion moments, I decided the only thing I could do was grab the folding shower screen and hope that I didn’t rip it out of the wall, as that would surely end with my being killed.
Fortunately, it held up and I was able to steady myself. But that sort of thing coloured my experience of London, and I don’t think I gave it a fair go.
I liked the rest of England, though – well, at least the parts we saw, which were basically Bath and York. But I couldn’t help but think there was probably no real reason to visit, because all of the good things about British culture – good music, good TV shows of the type that the BBC produces, Jaguars, Aston Martins, tea, and so on – are all readily available here in Australia. Admittedly the whole English Gentleman thing that I do also quite like isn’t really available here, but it’s not as though you can visit the country and just converse with some polite chaps for a few weeks.
I think I need to go again, and do Britain properly, because after watching far too much Top Gear over the past few months, there do seem to be a lot more interesting places than just the ones I went and saw. I almost certainly need to spend more than four days trying to see the entire country, I think.
(Incidentally, Top Gear is the only thing that has ever made me think that living in England might be a good idea – for the sole reason that, if you start in London and drive for a few hours, you could for instance spend your weekend in Paris, or any one of a number of interesting places in Europe, with no real effort. If I start here and drive all day, I’ll just end up in Adelaide or Brisbane, which are not that different to here).
Actually, let’s stop that right there. The main reason I liked Bologna is that they have a café called La Nutelleria. As the name suggests, it’s a Nutella-themed café, so everything – crepes, ice cream, biscuity things etc all have Nutella in them. We went there, just to see what it was all about, and while I think we pretty clearly understood what the idea was, the guy in front of us in the queue clearly didn’t:
“I’d like an ice cream, thanks. What flavours do they come in other than nutella?”
“They only come in nutella”.
“Only in nutella?!”
But I digress. Sometimes Tokyo, sometimes Dublin, and so on.
One place I have to admit I didn’t think too much of was London, but I’m starting to wonder if I didn’t really give it a fair go. For one thing, we went directly from Paris to London, and in terms of aesthetics at least, that’s right up there with looking at a Rembrandt first and then wondering why you’re not overly impressed with a crayon drawing immediately afterwards, or with driving a Ferrari F430 and then finding your Kia a little below par. London is not a particularly attractive city, and I think the problem is all the brown brick. But then, maybe that’s the charm of the place which I missed because I’d just had my mind blown by Paris. But apart from that, I also found London hideously expensive when travelling on the Aussie dollar, the hotel we stayed in was crap, they wouldn’t let me in to the Houses of Parliament (I’m a sad case who visits Parliament pretty well anywhere that has a Westminster system, so so far I’ve been to Parliament House in Canberra - Federal and ACT Legislative Assembly - Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Wellington, and only didn’t go to the ones in Paris and Rome when I walked past them because both of those cities have better things to do), and the shower made a pretty good attempt at killing me. Let’s digress again on to that one.
So there I was, having a shower in one of those awful showers-in-a-bath that are just an accident waiting to happen. The hotel was pretty dodgy – the fire extinguishers were missing, the windows wouldn’t shut properly, many of the lightbulbs didn’t work, that sort of thing. I slipped, dropped the soap which made a loud noise, and did that whole trying-to-get-grip-shuffle that you do when you’re on something with no traction at all like ice. In one of those slow-motion moments, I decided the only thing I could do was grab the folding shower screen and hope that I didn’t rip it out of the wall, as that would surely end with my being killed.
Fortunately, it held up and I was able to steady myself. But that sort of thing coloured my experience of London, and I don’t think I gave it a fair go.
I liked the rest of England, though – well, at least the parts we saw, which were basically Bath and York. But I couldn’t help but think there was probably no real reason to visit, because all of the good things about British culture – good music, good TV shows of the type that the BBC produces, Jaguars, Aston Martins, tea, and so on – are all readily available here in Australia. Admittedly the whole English Gentleman thing that I do also quite like isn’t really available here, but it’s not as though you can visit the country and just converse with some polite chaps for a few weeks.
I think I need to go again, and do Britain properly, because after watching far too much Top Gear over the past few months, there do seem to be a lot more interesting places than just the ones I went and saw. I almost certainly need to spend more than four days trying to see the entire country, I think.
(Incidentally, Top Gear is the only thing that has ever made me think that living in England might be a good idea – for the sole reason that, if you start in London and drive for a few hours, you could for instance spend your weekend in Paris, or any one of a number of interesting places in Europe, with no real effort. If I start here and drive all day, I’ll just end up in Adelaide or Brisbane, which are not that different to here).
Wednesday 18 April 2007
Blog title clearly inaccurate
The more astute readers among you will have noted that, despite the title, this blog is not, in fact, blank as such. Well done to you. It is, however, a corruption of what is possibly my best-known catchphrase, if not my only catchphrase, which is Large Blank Space, like so:
Large Blank Space
However, I used to have a blog called that, and after I canned it, someone else moved into the space and as far as I can tell, set up a bogus blog full of ads that Blogger is now looking at canning for violations of the Terms of Service. So I might move to that address later on, or I may not.
Rather than tell you what this blog will cover in great detail (which is likely to be, ooh, cars, the impending birth of my first child, and random amusing things that happen to me, as well as my thoughts on the world at large, and so on), I’ll tell you what this blog definitively won’t cover:
Politics – as I have very firmly held views on this subject and anyone who disagrees with me is clearly an idiot, so that would just be a waste of everyone’s time, and;
What I do for a living – because it’s the sort of thing you will either wholeheartedly support or violently oppose, and I don’t want to enter into that debate with you (or get fired).
I’ve also decided that I won’t bother switching on the ‘clearance’ function for the comments, so if you comment, it will go up straight away. Yes, I know that will probably lead to it getting spammed, but hopefully some of that spam will make for good satirical fodder, or at the very least, be totally irrelevant so I propose that we just let it happen and have some fun with it.
So there you go. I give this whole caper three months, tops.
Large Blank Space
However, I used to have a blog called that, and after I canned it, someone else moved into the space and as far as I can tell, set up a bogus blog full of ads that Blogger is now looking at canning for violations of the Terms of Service. So I might move to that address later on, or I may not.
Rather than tell you what this blog will cover in great detail (which is likely to be, ooh, cars, the impending birth of my first child, and random amusing things that happen to me, as well as my thoughts on the world at large, and so on), I’ll tell you what this blog definitively won’t cover:
Politics – as I have very firmly held views on this subject and anyone who disagrees with me is clearly an idiot, so that would just be a waste of everyone’s time, and;
What I do for a living – because it’s the sort of thing you will either wholeheartedly support or violently oppose, and I don’t want to enter into that debate with you (or get fired).
I’ve also decided that I won’t bother switching on the ‘clearance’ function for the comments, so if you comment, it will go up straight away. Yes, I know that will probably lead to it getting spammed, but hopefully some of that spam will make for good satirical fodder, or at the very least, be totally irrelevant so I propose that we just let it happen and have some fun with it.
So there you go. I give this whole caper three months, tops.
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