So, I was asked the other day if I had a role model or hero/ine and I said Kelly Holmes. Now I picked her because there she was, the person who always came second, the person who was forever picking up injuries and having to get over it. In short, she just stuck to it all – stubbornness, determination, grit, call it what you will, she just got on with it. In the end, lots of hard work and she comes home with a double gold medal that she plainly was delighted to get. I shall never forget her face after she went over the line, pointing at herself and going me? Me? Did I win? Me?
Anyway, all of that about Kelly is true, but in fact I think my real heroine is Lara Croft…. (although I know I shouldn’t really admit it) Now obviously, what woman wouldn’t like their breasts to point out and up like that without the merest hint of any scaffolding*1, but what that girl can do, hey, it’s mad. We had the (mis?)fortune to buy an Xbox 360 at Christmas and someone gave me a Lara Croft game. Suddenly I am able to run and shoot at the same time, leap from pole to pole and swing my way across ropes and along narrow mountain ledges. I am a dragon killer and an acrobat, a dead eye dick and a puzzle solver extraordinaire. What a girl eh? (me of course, not her plainly). I even killed the a T Rex the other day!
The Xbox is the biggest time waster in the world and one of the most relaxing things I have ever owned. I find myself immersed, regardless of whether it’s a driving game*2, Lara Croft or something to do with aeroplanes (which I can’t fly, I can only crash into the ground in many spectacularly different ways). For me it is a guilt free timewaster as I don’t have the time to think “oh I should be doing the ironing” when I’m approaching the next corner at 80 miles an hour, or where Lara is balanced precariously on a pole and needs to get across a chasm filled with tigers.
Great stuff – so thanks BMB for getting me into it.
At this point, you find out where the mis bit comes in the (mis) fortune, as although it's a fine distraction, should I really have this guilt free attitude towards it?
*1 I can imagine that thousands of teenage boys across the world are there, zooming the camera right up close and getting their first taste of growing up…..only to find out later that real girls just ain’t like that!
*2 I will own up to being a real fiend on Colin McRae’s Dirt – possibly the best driving game in the world ever....actually, there’s no possibly about it. If Carlsberg did driving games, that’s the one they’d do! Um, and yes, I am a fiend...I do know where the brakes are, but that's just thoeretical really....
BTW, the second link has nothing to do with driving or anything, I just thought it was a great ad!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The continuing car saga
So, I didn't write more, 'cos it was getting to be a very long story, but here I am, back again to finish it off.
Ten days after the gloves being stolen, I went away for the weekend again. This time I didn't take the front off the radio because I didn't have it any more and I left the alarm key fob with hubby who completely failed to use it...not being in the habit of doing so. He woke up in the morning and there was the top of the door...bent back again and this time the door was dished in where the nice little thieves had put their knee against it for leverage. It was back down the bodyshop for me...
"Hey" says the bodyshop guy, " you don't have to keep bending the car just so you can come and see me...and by the way, we've run out of tea bags..."
The car is now back in one piece and has a new door handle and lock too (it finally arrived from Japan ...see the earlier blog entry about the limber hubby!). All was going well until Monday...
Monday the exhaust started to grumble a bit so Tuesday I took it to the nice exhaust man who put it on the ramp. "It's very thin here and here and here its only holding together because the bracket is tight. You need a new back and middle section...it'll be special order (isn't it always?) so I you'd better sit down before I tell you the price!" Anyway, that was that, I needed one whatever the cost, so it was ordered and I went home.
Wednesday I had a call from the exhaust guy to tell me the exhaust was in (how's that for service!) so I jumped in the car and headed off towards the garage. I got about a half a mile, hit a bump in the road and the exhaust went from being quiet enough that you couldn't hear it if you turned the radio up to !!!OMG!!!! I'm deafening all the passers by...!
Good job the part arrived so quick eh?
Good news, anyway, apart from the fact that in the exhaust shop they oohed and ahhed as they hadn't seen a car like mine for about 10 years, they managed to fit the new exhaust in record time and my car is now purring along like a well contented cat.
I am so hoping that the exhaust was the third thing....
Ten days after the gloves being stolen, I went away for the weekend again. This time I didn't take the front off the radio because I didn't have it any more and I left the alarm key fob with hubby who completely failed to use it...not being in the habit of doing so. He woke up in the morning and there was the top of the door...bent back again and this time the door was dished in where the nice little thieves had put their knee against it for leverage. It was back down the bodyshop for me...
"Hey" says the bodyshop guy, " you don't have to keep bending the car just so you can come and see me...and by the way, we've run out of tea bags..."
The car is now back in one piece and has a new door handle and lock too (it finally arrived from Japan ...see the earlier blog entry about the limber hubby!). All was going well until Monday...
Monday the exhaust started to grumble a bit so Tuesday I took it to the nice exhaust man who put it on the ramp. "It's very thin here and here and here its only holding together because the bracket is tight. You need a new back and middle section...it'll be special order (isn't it always?) so I you'd better sit down before I tell you the price!" Anyway, that was that, I needed one whatever the cost, so it was ordered and I went home.
Wednesday I had a call from the exhaust guy to tell me the exhaust was in (how's that for service!) so I jumped in the car and headed off towards the garage. I got about a half a mile, hit a bump in the road and the exhaust went from being quiet enough that you couldn't hear it if you turned the radio up to !!!OMG!!!! I'm deafening all the passers by...!
Good job the part arrived so quick eh?
Good news, anyway, apart from the fact that in the exhaust shop they oohed and ahhed as they hadn't seen a car like mine for about 10 years, they managed to fit the new exhaust in record time and my car is now purring along like a well contented cat.
I am so hoping that the exhaust was the third thing....
The road to.......good intentions and all that!
So, here I am again and I bet you've all been wondering where I am. That's OK, after all, this blog is mostly about wondering, so I guess you had to have a turn sometime!
I guess I should say I'm sorry for being so quiet, but you know how it is, life just gets in the way sometimes....
I have been busy with my little car recently and that on top of getting a new PC up and running -I'm getting there obviously or there'd be no blogging at all, but it still tells me I have no memory when I boot it up! It's odd really, 'cos if I reboot it it suddenly remembers where its memory is and works fine...I don't think I will ever understand electronics...especially when I now have a PC that seems to suffer from dementia!
Anyway, my car has been a problem. It wouldn't have been, only someone broke into it. Now, It has got an alarm and a face off radio, but due to the fact that I had borrowed hubby's car for the weekend I didn't think to take the front off the radio, or ask him to set the alarm. Anyhoo, they got in by bending back the top of the door and this time managed to get in. They stole:
In the process, they bent the door and presumably out of sheer frustration that I don't store a million pounds in my glove compartment (which is locked by the way as it has an annoying habit of flying open when I hurtle round corners), they then bent the rear wash wiper arm. That'll be the one part that Honda have discontinued and I can't (yet) find anywhere. I have visions of red hot pokers and rusty saws and what I would do with them if I ever caught the little b*****ds!
Hubby took it down to the body shop for me and they bent the door back. Apparently it went something like this:
"What does she owe you?" asks hubby. "
"Well", says the garage guy, "we could do with a new box of tea bags..."
So, that was it, I paid him in tea bags and threw in a box of biscuits too....
...they spoil me those garage guys.....
I guess I should say I'm sorry for being so quiet, but you know how it is, life just gets in the way sometimes....
I have been busy with my little car recently and that on top of getting a new PC up and running -I'm getting there obviously or there'd be no blogging at all, but it still tells me I have no memory when I boot it up! It's odd really, 'cos if I reboot it it suddenly remembers where its memory is and works fine...I don't think I will ever understand electronics...especially when I now have a PC that seems to suffer from dementia!
Anyway, my car has been a problem. It wouldn't have been, only someone broke into it. Now, It has got an alarm and a face off radio, but due to the fact that I had borrowed hubby's car for the weekend I didn't think to take the front off the radio, or ask him to set the alarm. Anyhoo, they got in by bending back the top of the door and this time managed to get in. They stole:
- A packet of sweets with 3 sweets left in it
- The front off the radio
- The trim from the radio front
- A pair of very furry, bright purple gloves
In the process, they bent the door and presumably out of sheer frustration that I don't store a million pounds in my glove compartment (which is locked by the way as it has an annoying habit of flying open when I hurtle round corners), they then bent the rear wash wiper arm. That'll be the one part that Honda have discontinued and I can't (yet) find anywhere. I have visions of red hot pokers and rusty saws and what I would do with them if I ever caught the little b*****ds!
Hubby took it down to the body shop for me and they bent the door back. Apparently it went something like this:
- Open door
- Place block of wood inside door near the bend at the bottom of the window
- Push top of door
"What does she owe you?" asks hubby. "
"Well", says the garage guy, "we could do with a new box of tea bags..."
So, that was it, I paid him in tea bags and threw in a box of biscuits too....
...they spoil me those garage guys.....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)