K20A

My new plates, such a plate whore!

k20a.org (almost 50,000 members!).

I admit I'm getting used to the Yellow. I still hate the steering (but hey, it's a Jazz!) and the K20A engine is torquey. I like it.

Renovation update

Before.


After.

Side gate is done!

Animals at Night

9 strong last night. Loftus night rides are well and truly back!

Free money on eBay!

Last week I put up a few things on eBay and all the listings ended today. Watching the bidding frenzy during the closing minutes was a lot of fun. I've always had good luck buying and selling on eBay. My general rule of thumb is take pictures, many of them, and post them up big (800x600). Deal with the stupid questions as best you can, flame if you have to. Out of this lot of stuff I got $1900.50 for bothering to lost stuff, that's going to go straight back into some more furnitire for the house.


Couch went for $947.00!!!


Old guitar went for $306.


Strida went for $425.


Basso frame went for $222.50

Floating bench

It's all coming together. Yesterday the floating bench was installed in the master bathroom, we just wanted something to rest clothes on when you're having a shower. When installing it one of the tiles cracked (bum) so that has to be fixed, but once it is fixed the ensuite will be completely finished.

Weekend update

It was Tony's B'day this weekend (Christina's Dad). A Japanese theme meant that we were in for Salmon Sashimi, Wagyu too. Even more fun was having Christina's parents both over at my place to help clean up. Rosemary had a few boxes of kitchen goods to donate to us and Tony helped with lifting a lot of heavy stuff downstairs (the trash pile is so huge we'll need 2 loads to the tip!).


Today we bought new bar stools.


Perfect!


A while back Suga and I visited Bimbadgen winery in the Hunter. We decided to go hard for our first wine purchase with a case of their best Signature 2006 Shiraz.


The rear side gate is finished.

House renovation update

Before.


After: Main side gate is on it's way.


The other side gate is almost done too + new washing line is installed.

Found memories

I've been cleaning up non-stop, well, kinda non-stop. I've found so many amazing old things which I didn't even know I still had. I've been distracted by these finds and I've found myself going through them (when I should be cleaning!). A huge stack of business cards, old love letters, diaries, here are just a few pictures.


The left number is from the 1991 Bell MTB nationals in Goulburn, my 1st ever MTB race. The right certificate was for the 1991 Gong ride.


I saw Michael Jackson live for the BAD Tour and obviously I bought a guide. This thing is in amazing condition!


The middle spread.


Who's bad!


Love the hat on mic stand image.


Stock R32 GT-R seats. I got stuck cleaning them up good (what for I have no idea?!).


Love letters. I got caught for hours reading some of these today. I'm emotional. Awesome.


All of these comics are Issue #1's. I have so many more (yes I was into comics once, who wasn't?).

Bogans!

Suga and I, drastically late and severely hung over from Jess' 18th B'day party the night before.


The boys!

Just in today. A couple of pics that my good mate Oz took a couple of weeks ago at Jamie and Richie's bogan party (celebrating Richie's offical Australian citizenship!).

The blind man

The blind guy came today (no more dust about, it's nice outside now despite the wind) and installed blinds on 4 rooms of the house. We went for a combination of blinds, full block-out in the lounge room for bad daytime TV when sick or extremely hung over (or both) and some dual block-out and semi-transparent ones in the bedroom so we can let the light in yet still have our privacy.


Bedroom retreat, left side shows semi-blockout and the right window shows what full block-out looks like.


Detail of dual blinds (literally 2 lots of blinds/operating chains).


Lounge room 100% block-out.

Grandma's story

My Grandma's burial in Jakarta Indonesia.

I've moved back into my place now that the renovations are coming to a close. I've still got to go back to Mum's place to clean up the room I was sleeping in, living with Mum for the past couple of months has been great. She loves her wine so we often got plastered together after meals (they were amazing meals too!).

Conversations sometimes got deep and meaningful. Much laughter was had as well as plenty of emo moments. The other night Mum told me some more of Grandma's story (She passed away at 80 a few years ago).

My Grandma, Erlina Lestari, was 10yrs old when she lost her mother. Her father had 5 kids to look after and he was dead broke, so broke that he struggled to keep the family alive. He ended up giving up Erlina's 1 year old little sister to someone else in the village but one night Erlina and one of her brothers lit up a torch and went out in the village to get her sister back.

Erlina got to keep her little sister but she had to look after her. The little baby would cry non-stop and Erlina asked a neighbour for help, turns out the baby was starving, she needed milk but there was no money for milk so they just stewed rice, cooled it down and used it in place of milk.

When mum talks about stuff from the past it's like she's talking about the dark ages. Maybe one day when I have kids and tell them about all the stuff my Mum went through to have my sister and I it'll sound like the dark ages to them too.

Erlina's little sister is still alive and well now. It's amazing what my Grandma went through at 10 years old and bringing up a child. Makes me think 10 year old kids sitting on facebook all day have it easy.

Armageddon!

I woke up to glowing red windows at 6AM this morning.


Was the same out the back too (yeah I was half asleep, had to check).

I thought it was the end of the world (I had been dreaming about someone stealing my GT-R too). Yesterday I blogged about my issues with dust in the house and it looks like the whole of Sydney has to deal with dust too after this morning's huge dust storm.

Dust storm chokes Sydney - ABC news article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/23/2693643.htm

Many more amazing images on Flickr.

My R32 GT-R

I've been cleaning up the house and I found a CD marked RAW IMAGES JUSTIN R32 GT-R. I put it in and fuck I've fallen in love all over again with the GT-R. Mark Pakula, thanks so much, you are the man.

I've never seen these images and I have hundreds of them, of every little detail. I love you Mark!

Here's just a few:

In dust we trust.

The big clean up continues. There's just so much dust everywhere it's ridiculous! I've gone through multiple damp towels wiping magazines, toys, surfaces. I've been sneezing so hard I feel high.


Cor blimey!

Very fine dust has managed to get on every single surface throughout the entire house. It even got under the plastic covers we had on book shelves so it's all over the books, magazines, my toys, everything, you name it. In retrospect I'd have spent much more time wrapping (or moving) absolutely everything weeks before the builders ever stepped foot in the house.


Measure twice, cut once.

So I was at IKEA today (yes I hate the place and everything I've ever bought from there has either broken or never worked properly in the first place) to buy some of those things which hold your knives, forks and spoons in place in your kitcken drawers. Mum told me they had really nice sturdy and adjustable aluminium ones. I found them but hey presto, they don't fit in my drawers. I'll have to settle for plastic ones.


I've always wanted to try the meatballs there (I love meatballs), finally have, wish I hadn't.

Suga's modding frenzy

Following on from Suga's carbon front lip, mirrors and airbox we've just fitted a new carbon rear valance. Pulling the old one off was a little nerve wracking but it came off with a bit of force and with a bit of TLC the new one went on fine and the fit is perfect (to be expected for the the $!).

The car is looking hot. I need a better camera. Most of these modifications are Japanese, the car is not finished.


Oh my.


Fitted.


MMM Carbon.


Jasmine!

DEFQON.1 2009

Shot from my little pocket camera. YAH, IT WAS PRETTY CRAZY.

Massive weekend. Defqon.1 on Saturday was nuts. The drive out to Penrith was ridiculously boring, watching people get done by the sniffer dogs was amusing, the banging beats took me back to Welcome 94, even the happy ravers with their massive pants and flouro bits were still around. Heaps of Asians, everyone was drug fucked, Optimus Prime hosted the event (too cheesy and geeky for my liking) but I had a good time.

Some pics:


Jon.




Kay's sexy Connie's.


Suga and I.


Caroline and friend.


The crowd.


The main stage by day.


The main stage at night.

Clean up begins

Kitchen before.


Kitchen before.


Kitchen before.


Kitchen after! The pendant lamps are adjustable in height, more of a set and forget thing though, the floors need a good buffing.


The sink is actually recessed into the CaesarStone benchtop.


Zip - instant filtered boiling and chilled water. This guy is going to my new best friend.


Double drawer dishwasher so you can do a small load, or a huge one.


Microwave donated by my sister :) Thanks Mie!


We used CaesarStone for the splash back too. We had the option, and were tempted to go for an induction style cooktop but we both decided we wanted to use flame as there's just something right about using fire to cook with. All the goods in the kitchen are Fisher & Paykel except the microwave (LG) and this pimp minimalist (easy to clean) stove top by Electrolux.

The GT-R is back

Outside IS Motor Racing, oh someone cleaned my car! :)


Papz's car on the dyno.


A sign I saw on one of the cars in the Dyno room.


Stock airbox?!


Back at home.


Walkaround.

I got my GT-R back from IS Motor Racing today.

Indy and team have done a lot of what I've asked them to do but I'm still waiting on a quiet/er exhaust to come in from Japan. Whilst I was gone Indy thought he'd try and get it engineered as is, but the exhaust failed. Everything else was good though, Trust plumb back BOVS, stock airbox, cage out etc. I've got tinting on the rear 1/4 done too (1/2 cage back in? Maybe).

The tune is out of whack now that I've put the stock airbox back in but I'll wait until the new exhaust is on before a re-tune. The new Excedy heavy duty clutch feels ridiculously easy in comparisson to the twin plate that was in there before (easier than the Jazz?!), there's no more induction noises... it's all very tame (except the exhaust). Yeah I feel a little sad about it, but I'm going to stick with my plan.

Carpet is down

The carpet guys came today to lay down our carpet in the bedroom and the retreat. Christina's mum suggested spending up on quality Cavalier Bremworth carpet as she's had it in her place for 6 years and it's still looking as good as new.

Unfortunately the carpet wasn't quite wide enough to be split at the step, so there's a line where the carpet for the retreat joins up. They assure me the line will settle though. I hope so.


Before.


After. A shot taken from the ensuite looking out into the bedroom and retreat.


The ensuite, yet to be cleaned (it's covered in dust!). Also missing a wooden bench at the far end on the right side.


Just another shot of the guest bathroom.


Deck/narrow steps before.


Deck and wider steps after.


Another deck shot.


House painted, floor painted, new guttering, roof painted.


Kitchen before.


Kitchen after.

Ibanez RG Prestige RG2550ZL

Last night Kelvin Ng sent me the photos he took for ImportStrings.com of my new Ibanez RG Prestige RG2550ZL.

I have to admit I've not been playing it since I've been so busy cleaning up the house (carpet goes into the bedroom today!). I'll be moving back in next week hopefully.







You can view more of his images, in higher res, here.

I'm back

Yonas' EGK24A. Photo by Mark Pakula.

I've just read DJ Chesta's feature in Auto Salon Magazine (yes I've been catching up). I've read Winnie's feature on Eddie's crazy Jazz which I now own. I've just interviewed Yonas about his never ending love affair with his EG Civic. Last night I was speaking with Kawasaki/Mugen Steve on msn about his EF which is "almost done". I'm really really really enjoying driving a manual again. I hate it that I've bought someone else's modified car and I have no fucking idea what modifications have been done to it. I'm now truly happy to be working on both the Jazz and the GT-R again (with the GT-R, even if it is "de-modding" it's still modding!). Suga's going mental on her R32.

I'm obviously back. It was a great break. Here's cheers!

Fucking biatch!!!

Today I caught up with my mate Narada from Circuit Club. It's been a while since I last saw him. Funny how the world works. One day someone pops up in conversation and the next day you're having coffee with them.


Deus Cafe


We met up at Deus Cafe. I've never eaten there before but I've always wanted to. Same with Narada. We were too early for lunch so we settled for brunch and both consumed a plate full of baked beans, pork sausage and poached eggs. Hearty goodness!


Mash Cinelli. Whilst we were there we checked out the shop too (of-course).


I'm pretty stoaked that Deus are bringing in Honda Zoomers. I've wanted one for years now but Honda Australia have never brought them into the country. Deus have an estimated price of $3k. I'll have to chew on it.

Catch-up with Nads was great (not so great for him as he had an accident that morning in his S2000, minor bumper incident and he's not at fault, but that's enough to ruin anyone's day). I headed off to Bondi Junction Westfields afterwards. I'm not sure what's the go with this place but I always have a fucked time in the carpark. I've seen so many road rage incidents, women stealing other women's parks, horn bashing, you name it and today I copped it hard. For one they had blocked off the entire top floors of parking, that meant I was circling for at least 15 minutes looking for a park. I then found one, indicated, waited for the car to leave and a woman in a silver Golf sneakily stole my park! I beeped the shit out of her, hopped out of the car and tapped on her window (she wouldn't open the door). I took the camera out and took a shot of her plate, then her face, to which she produced the finger at me.


BA72NE


The fucking bitch.

I was fuming, circled some more to look for a park, decided to give up and then queued up for 10 minutes just to get out of there, all the time burning my clutch going up ramps in traffic. I parked the car outside on the street and started to make my way back to the mall with the intention to key her car (yes I was that angry). By the time I got in the mall I'd calmed down a little and I thought keying her car might be a bit much, so instead I'd just deflate a tyre. By the time I had done what I needed to do in the mall I whimped out of doing anything to her car at all. *sigh* /vent.

K20A Jazz update

Lately with the silver Jazz (which I just traded for this new yellow one) I had gotten lazy with using the bike rack/tow hook combo (using it means I can't open the boot see) and since I had no love for my filthy interior I had been chucking the bike in the car.

For last night's Loftus ride I got my bike and Ash's in the boot of this new Jazz but damn it was hard:

1) I had leather seats to worry about, the pedals on these bikes are very sharp and they'd tear right into the leather.

2) The rear strut brace was in the way and the cage is in the way of getting the rear seats to fold all the way down.

We still managed but I don't think I'll be doing that again. One bike should be fine but 2 is a no go.


Oh noes don't scratch the leather!

I've since taken the rear brace out.


400km/tank and that's with a LOT of VTEC YO!

Another thing that happened today. I was just driving along, slow start off the lights in 2nd and the car lost power. Accelerator was down but there was nothing, it then kicked back in. Did it again and then after shutting the car off for 20 minutes and driving again, it did it again.

Water temp/oil temps were fine. Zi thought it might have been an ECU/tuning issue. On the way home from JDMyard I realised that this morning the fuel light was on, but now on the M5 back home the needle had magically raised up past the 1/4 mark.

I thought it had to be a lack of fuel!

I made it to the Shell, opened up the fuel cap and damn there was a lot of pressure in there, so much so that a shitload of fuel sprayed out at me (great!).

Filling up the tank drove the fuel needle way past the FULL sign, it now all makes sense. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to fix the fuel needle calibration (?!). I might just not bother with it, and just fill up every time I get down to 1/4 tank.

Yellow Peril

Photo by Mark Pakula for Auto Salon Magazine (click here for higher resolution pic).

So I've had a weekend of driving the new Jazz. The aircon isn't working due to a broken pipe in the engine bay somewhere. Dedy from Top One seems to think that vibration might have caused it to break. He's ordered the parts needed in order to fix it and after a re-gass the AC should be back in action, which is a good thing as it's been a hot couple of days.

I'm getting a loud knocking noise from the front suspension when cornering, especially on load. I can pretty much get it to knock from a stand still when turning either left or right. I'll have to look into that pronto.

Apart from these issues I'm loving the car. It's damn loud when the exhaust is on and super quiet when the exhaust is off. The loud setting has proven quite fun, especially in tunnels. ;)

R32 Gruppe M install

Last night Suga and I installed a Gruppe M intake on her R32 Golf. We should have been in bed as we were both still struggling from the copius amounts of alcohol consumed at Jess' 18th, but excitement got the better of us and once we started, we couldn't stop.


The huge stock airbox and snorkel had to come out.


The instructions are all in Japanese but removing it was easy.


All the stuff that came out. Check the massive paper air filter.


The Gruppe M kit.


K&N pod filter.


Installed.


Lovely.

We went for a little drive straight after. Personally I couldn't feel a difference in power (I'm pretty sure a small gain was made) but I could hear the intake which was subtle, not at all like the noise you get when whacking a pod filter onto a Honda.

Next up? Exhaust!

Jess' 18th

Christina's sister Jess had her 18th last weekend. The afternoon prior was spent looking for an outfit for the Gangsters and Flappers theme. A quick trip to the mall did the trick: suspenders, some black pants, white leather shoes (I doubt I'll ever wear these again!) and a wife beater.

I spent some time calming Mrs Lock down (the bottle of Absynth I bought Jess for her 18th B'day didn't help), sure she was going to have 60+ underage kids getting wasted at her home but hell, they were going to be in a safe place right? It's not like they're in the city, or sprawling out onto the streets. The worst thing that could happen would be maybe 3 or 4 of them drinking too much and throwing up.

Out of the 60+ kids that rocked up only about 15 of them were guys. When I mentioned to a few of them that they were indeed lucky bastards to have so many girls at a party (ie: not a sausage fest) one of them yelled out "yeah, this is a taco fest!". Taco fest?! Classic.

Anyways, had a blast. Almost threw up but held in there (felt even worst the next day at Jamie and Richie's Bogan party). Christina threw up all morning (nice). Massive weekend, massive fun, here are a few hazy pics:


Suga and I.


Girls gone wild.


Cake time.


The birthday girl!


Skull skull skull!


Mr Lock. Loosening his tie did the trick me thinks!


Suga and I invited Stevey along. He's got braces on at the moment so we thought he'd fit right in with the young crowd.


Suga's cousin Norman and Amy. Turns out Amy knows Narada from Circuit Club quite well, small world!


Trashed.

My 3rd Honda Jazz

Yesterday I had an offer too good to refuse.

Zi from JDMyard got me on MSN to tell me that Eddie wanted his Honda Jazz gone.

Eddie has been modifying his Jazz for about 2 years now and like myself he's not one to settle for 2nd best. He has gone all out on his car. A Mugen body kit, full roll cage, Carbonetics brakes, suspension, Bride seats and perhaps most noteworthy, a K20A engine swap.

When I had my 1st Jazz I often spoke about throwing a K20 engine into it but at the time only a couple of people in the US had done it (the pictures of how they cut up the engine bay in order to fit the larger K20 engine freaked us out!) and noone seemed too keen on trying it locally. In some ways not being able to get that K20 into the car made me lose interest in the Jazz and it was perhaps the main reason for selling up (the car was all show no go).

I bought the 2nd Jazz (an auto) off my sister (who bought it off my mother). It's been a great little daily driver for almost 2 years now. I've used it to carry bikes, it can carry so much gear, it's easy to park in the tightest of tight spots, it's cheap to insure at only $400 a year. Best thing is I get an average of 500km/tank.

It's time to go... Jazz.

For the past few months I've been once again haunting carsales. Initially I thought of replacing my Jazz with something more powerful, more mature, more my age but I still wanted it to have some of the Jazz's great qualities: Good on fuel, cheap to insure, easy to park, can carry the bikes etc. After a month of racking my brains (and others) I decided that the car I was looking for didn't exist.

Since the Jazz was so cheap to run I then thought I'd just keep it and look for a 3rd car. I copped a lot of flack for that. 3 cars?! That's a bit excessive for one guy isn't it? Especially considering I only have one lock-up garage.

Timing is everything.

So yesterday Zi tells me Eddie wants the Jazz gone and that I should take it. Eddie's been under pressure from his wife to sell the car for some time now. Earlier this year I even dropped hints, that I wanted to buy his car, but the asking price was way too high at the time. So what I got on MSN was this:

Eddie wants to trade with you on your Jazz. You give him your Jazz, and some cash adjustment and he'll give you his Jazz, as is.

I thought about it for all of 10 seconds, there was no way for me to refuse the offer and I've been running with it ever since.

At 8.30AM this morning Eddie was at my doorstep, we hit the RTA, frustratingly dealth with a lot of paperwork and charges (rip you RTA motherfuckers!) and the plate and rego swapping was done.


Yes, it's yellow. About the only thing both Christina and I can't handle about the car!!!


I'd been running around all day and hadn't had any breakfast so an Angus burger (my 3rd) was devoured.


This little controller on my keyring opens and closes the exhaust system so I can go from mild to wild at the press of a button.


6-speed goodness, right out of a DC5R Integra Type-R.


Flush mount bonnet pins. These really should be on my GT-R no?!

So, what are my impressions?

Well, the leather Bride seats are lovely but they're hard to get in and out of (God, listen to me, I sound so 34). The suspension isn't set up right. It's too soft (which makes me feel a bit queasy) and there's no steering feel at all (it's a bit scary actually). I'm pretty sure that Doug at Heasmans can dial in some negative camber for me (he set up both my old Jazz's to my liking). The exhaust is damn loud when open but very quiet when closed. It's nice to have the option. The aircon doesn't work but Eddie assures me that Dedy from TopOne (mechanic) is onto it. There's also a knocking noise in the steering, something I'll also look into.

Insurance couldn't be done with Shannons (Hi Adam! Thanks for the help in any case) but JustCars have come to the rescue. It's costing me 3 times more than the silver Jazz (Bingle) but that was to be expected I suppose.

More pictures, and updates as they come.

Tomsuey

Last week I got a care package from old friends Tom and Sue who together run Tomsuey Inc.

I love free stuff, especially free T-Shirts! One of the great pleasures in life me thinks! Tom and Sue sent me a couple of their anti-twitter T's (right up my alley!). They're made from a really nice and sheer material too so they'll for sure be put to good use this summer!

Find their wares at Tomsuey (click the store link).

Ibanez RG Prestige RG2550ZL

Last night Dave from ImportStrings.com delievered my new guitar (how quick was that?!). Kelvin came around to take pics of it too (I'll post those when he's finished grading them).

All in all I'm chuffed. The neck is so fast I found myself trying to play faster than I was capable of. It's soooooo metal. I tried playing it clean and it was just a no go, crap tone, no twang but hey, it's a shredder!


The box.


Inside the box was a nice flight case.


Upside down upside down! :)


Inspection card made me feel fuzzy. Nice pick too!


Galaxy Black = sparkly goodness.


Cosmo black hardware.


Pearl inlay is a nice touch.


Even the Tremolo was coated in cosmo black.


Tool holder behind the head is a nice touch.


Whack ZPS3 Zero Point System (I doubt I'll be playing with it anytime soon!).

Wrenchmonkees

Wrenchmonkees. These guys are so cool. I love everything they do. They are my idols (I have a few) and I got a huuuuuge shock when I saw that they plugged us on their blog. Heart attack man!

Weekend shenanigans

Crazy huge oyster at Sunny restaurant in Hurstville. Never seen anything as massive!!!


Gee, me and John. Gee was absolutely hammered.


See?


Gorgeous huh?


Fathers Day pressie for Christina's dad.


Tony put the Riedel decanter to use straight away with a lovely bottle of Wynns (my fave).

Inglourious Basterds

FUCK YES!!! It's an absolute privilege to be totally immersed in a good film isn't it?

I've been a Tarantino fan since True Romance (which he wrote but didn't direct). Reservoir Dogs blew me away and Pulp Fiction was huge for me (opened my ears up to appreciating much more music outside my comfort zone). I'm still not 100% on Kill Bill but Inglourious Basterds takes the cake. The real Tarantino is back!

I was so immersed in this film that I felt like I was in the movie, in the room with them. So long as a film does that to me once a year I'm be a happy man!

Performance, it's the name of the game!

House Update

There's still a thick layer of dust on absolutely every single surface, it's going to take a lot of TLC to polish everything up for the camera, but as promised, here are some new photos of where the house is at right now.


Our en-suite is done! It's a huge bathroom twice as big as it used to be. Mmmm heated towel rails. :)


We designed a built in shelf to hold shampoo and soap and like the guest bathroom it's a walk in shower (no glass to clean!).


Lots of storage space, a huge compartment under the sink, compartments behind the mirrors and all of it is soft close, even the toilet, which is great as you can just shut the lid/doors without making loud banging noises.


We had an issue with the steps in the house, they were actually sticking out from the floor in the wardrobe room so we had to raise the tub, looks great though we think!


Every single powerpoint in the house has been replaced with these new slim/stainless steel ones.


The guest bathroom is finished as well.


New door handles replace the old gold ones. Amazing how much difference new handles make, they just feel so solid, smooth and new.


New large entrance tiles replace the ugly old pink ones.


We're painting the driveway a dark grey to match the roof of the house which we've also painted (it was a bright orange/terracotta roof before).


The roof of the garage used to be a porous concrete of some sort which used to crumble onto my car, that's now been fixed with a faux ceiling.

There's still quite a bit of work to be done outside (new gates, garden landscaping) and we've still got to find some new room lights, carpet the bedroom and other bits and pieces but I estimate another 2-3 weeks before I can move back in again.

Mum's House

Had a great catchup with Sean today and I mentioned I was staying at my Mum's place. He hadn't seen my Mum's place since it was an old house which I was squatting in before it was demolished (rats in the kitchen, furry wallpaper, termites, you name it). The new house has been finished for a couple of years now, it's brand new but the salt is eating away at everything, even the marine grade lights and all the stainless steel furniture but that's the price you pay (and then some) for living right on the water.

I've seen pictures of my Mum's house pop up on the net, one recently popped up on fffound (geez, it must be cool then...).

I thought I'd post the images up on here in any case. It's a lovely house and one which my mother put a lot of blood sweat and tears into. She worked very close with her architect, builder and interior designers (pikewithers which are old clients of mine, their site is over 9 years old and still working!) and all the hard work has quite obviously paid itself off.

To design my own house from ground up is definitely still one of my missions in life (has been for some time now) but for now the rennovations on my own house have given me a taste. I've made some mistakes, lost the plot a few times, rushed things, settled for things which I shouldn't have and blown a lot more time and money than I had planned but I've got a feeling that I'll be rewarded once it's finally finished, that reminds me, have got to take more pictures of the progress to show. Will do tomorrow :)

PS: Just got back from Unas (again!). My stomach is still very much digesting Chicken Jaeger. I was going to post up a group shot but thought I'd see if Charles has updated his blog (I saw him rattle off a few shots see) and sure enough he has, check his Unas review here.

PPS: Definitely check out the cake shop next door to Unas (the little shop looks and feels exactly like the patisseries in Paris). Go the little Petit Fours (I got the strawberry one) they're great!

Giant 2010 Performance Launch

Grant with new 29'er.


Ash with new Glory.


Carbs!


New Faith.


Holy Bling Batman.


Do I have to wear spandex to ride that?

Last night I got to attend the Giant 2010 performance launch which was held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Coogee Beach. Giant invited all their Sydney dealers along to check out the new range of bikes, dinner and drinks were served as well. Click here for my full write up and pics too.

VISA card has expired

My vent for today: I called Westpac/VISA up before I went overseas to let them know my card was meant to expire last month, the guy on the line said don't worry, they send them out late. I let him know I had a problem with it going missing last time, again, no worries, you will get a letter which will let you know that your card is at your local branch at the end of the month. The letter never came so today I went into the local branch and hey presto it's not there, it's not at any branch so they're ordering me a new one (5-10 business days). I wouldn't whinge about it except that it's connected to all my bills (RTA/cable/adsl/gas/electricity/web hosting and more) /vent.