New T-shirt

I found the following t-shirt on a website called Final Gear. They are my source of news for all things Top Gear and Fifth Gear. Recently they ran a competition to design a t-shirt, and below is one of the designs that was successful. I decided to get this t-shirt to go with my I AM THE STIG t-shirt. Can anyone translate the Morse code? -Don't worry, I already know what it says ;-)

Victory Boy

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had been in Katoomba at KYCK. This years theme was Victory Now, Victory Later, so they they brought in Victory Boy. This is his intro video. Very cool!

New

I walked into Woolies today and found these Orange flavoured M&M's in the chocolate aisle. So I bought a packet. Never seen them before, so it will be interesting to see what they taste like



EDIT: Sorry about the crap quality photo... it is from my Nokia 6300.

UPDATE: They taste like orange... A bit like Jaffa's actually.

False Start

For Christmas last year, my wonderful girlfriend gave me a V8 Race Experience. This is conducted on the short track at Eastern Creek Raceway (for Sydney-siders, and at various other tracks around the country). The short track at Eastern Creek is basically the "Flip Flop" which joins Turn 4 to Turn 9 and cuts out the section of track that runs around "Corporate Hill". They give you the option of driving a Ford or a Holden. The cars start as standard Falcons and Commodores, but they get a roll cage, racing seats and harnesses, modified exhaust (and don't they sound awesome!!), slick tyres, a locked diff (I think) and a body kit that makes them look like a V8 Supercar.

This morning I wake up and it is raining. That's not a good start, because they don't run the drive days in wet conditions. The cars run on slick tyres, ie. no groves to disperse water on the track, hence the not running in the rain rule (click here to see what can happen in the wet on slicks). There is a number to call that gives a recorded message with info about the weather and track conditions. During the day the weather cleared up and the sun was shining. A couple of calls to the weather hotline and the it appears that the weather is clear and the track is dry and the cars are running, albeit they are somewhat delayed due to the morning rain. That's OK, I was booked in at 3pm, she'll be right.

So, I head out to the track. You have to be there 15mins early to register and sign on etc. At this point you can also take the option of purchasing a DVD of footage from your drive for $49. I take this option. They give you a blank DVD in a case that you give to your driving instructor and he pops it into a DVD recorder in the car and you get a recording from a couple of cameras in the car that point at your face while driving and out the front of the car at the track.

Next is the drivers briefing. The guy runs through some racing techniques and safety type stuff. This lasts about 30mins. After this they send you to the pits to get into a race suit and helmut. At this point during our day, some guy in a car on the track has run off the circuit and hit the wall. The cars that are currently on the circuit are stopped and the onsite paramedics are dispatched. All is fine there are no serious injuries to either the driver or the instructor, however the session has been delayed to make sure that everything is OK. Safety is paramount for these guys.

So here we all are. About 25 guys (and 1 girl) were all suited up waiting in line to drive either a Ford or a Holden (I was in the Ford queue, because Fords are better). Just as we are thinking that we are about to get a drive, the black clouds roll in and the rain tumbles down. Oh, this isn't good. It's 4pm. The cars have to be finished on the track by 5pm. The track has to be dry before the cars to go out. And it is raining. That is not a good equation. When it was still raining at 4:30 there was no chance we would be going out on the track. I now need to re-book for another time. The next block of dates are in July, so I'll call them in the morning and re-book.

John Bowe was there too, today. V8 Race offer a John Bowe Experience where you get some flying laps with John.

I was really looking forward to getting out and driving a V8 Race car. Oh well. I hope it isn't raining next time.

UPDATE: Re-booked for Wednesday 8th July. :-)

Sunshine Coast

Last week I was on holidays :-) I spend the week from the 9th May - 16th May on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing time, and was good to be away from work for a while.

I was staying at The Point, Coolum Beach. Coolum Beach is a fairly small suburb on the Sunshine Coast about 25km south of Noosa. Here is the view from the balcony of the villa I was staying in:


This was stitched together from a number of photos taken from the balcony.... it hasn't been edited or even cropped (lazy me!) and was stitched using AutoStitch.

While there, I did some of the touristy things. I had a car, so I could take myself to wherever I wanted. Some of the highlights were going to Tin Can Bay one morning to see and feed the dolphins, and taking a drive through the Sunshine Coast hinterland to Mapleton, Montville and Maleny areas.

Tin Can Bay is further north than the Sunshine Coast. It is about 1.5 hours drive. There is a pod of dolphins that come into the bay and you can feed them fish. There are a group of volunteers that oversee the Dolphin Centre and the feedings but they come in at about 8am each morning to feed. Unfortunately I arrived a little late, about 8:30 and they had already been fed. However, that morning a couple of dolphins came back to the feeding place, so I was able to see some wild dolphins up close and get some photos. I have some photos below. You may be able to see the scratch marks all over the dolphin in the photos. According to the lady at the dolphin centre this is normal for wild dolphins. We are used to seeing dolphins up close in captivity (like at Sea World) that are clean. However, dolphins in the wild have to make out their teritory, and quite often get into fights with other dolphins and fish, so end up rather battle scarred. Note the chunks out of the dolphins fin too.




The Sunshine Coast hinterland is a very beautiful place. There is a mountain range, The Blackall Range, that has a few small country towns along the top. These are places like Mapleton, Montville and Maleny. Montville is a nice little town that is famous for it's shops. Now, I'm not overly keen on shopping, but I did enjoy Monville. There is a lolly shop and plenty of other small shops some of which were worth a look.

Here is the view from a lookout near Mapleton. Again it has been stitched with AutoStitch.


The drive out to the Blackall Range area is quite nice too. Starting from Nambour, you make your way up the mountain to Mapleton, and then follow the road along the top of the ridge, making for some great views out both sides of the road. Through Flaxton and Montville and then Maleny is at the other end of the road. Then you make your way back down the mountain into Landsborough.

I also visited the Eumundi Markets at Eumundi. Eumundi is a small town, and on non market days, there probably isn't much happening. However, when the markets are on, hundreds and probably thousands of people flock to the place and it is packed with people. The markets are on Wednesdays and Saturdays. As I said about Montville, I'm not overly keen on shopping, but there were a number of places there that I found to keep my interest for a while.

I had a great time on the Sunshine Coast. The only problem with holidays is coming back to work and wading though the billions of emails that come in while your gone.

Gospel Graffiti

I have been spending weekends in Katoomba for a while now, the last 3 being the KYCK convention run by Katoomba Christian Convention (KCC). This is a Christian youth convention where youth groups from all over the place come for a weekend of Bible teaching and much fun. This video was played on Saturday night. I think it is a great video.