Automotive Dilemnas...

Quite a bit of water under the blog since the last time I shared anything here about cars...

I've gone from researching the hell out of a Hilux, to a Prado (still turbo diesel), and recently, after pricing all the extra goodies I want on a Prado, to take me where I would (in my dreams) want to go, and back again - the cost of leasing such a beast was going to stretch me a little more than was desired... A bit of a pity, but I did a bit of soul searching, and asked "will I actually USE this vehicle for the purpose I'm going to modify it", and the answer came back as "maybe"...

Then I started considering "what do I REALLY want in a car"? and to be honest, I don't bloody know! I want something reasonably efficient, something that performs well, that I can rely on, and doesn't cost a sheep station to lease.

Now, I've been very happy with the Forester XT, but despite this, probably wouldn't get another just yet. Given my involvement in the Impreza WRX Club, I'm thinking of staying with the Subaru brand, but definitely not getting a WRX, as they can't tow anything as heavy as the boat. That pretty well brings me back to an Outback or a Liberty.

A good mate, Les, has the Liberty GT Spec B, which, with my recent pay rise, on a 5 year lease would actually leave me with about $300 more in the bank a month than leasing my current Forester... With a pretty reasonable fuel economy of around 10.9 litres per 100 km (ADR sticker) it's a good contender, as is the Outback 2.5i Premium, with a 9.5 litres per 100 km, but the consideration is really the return when towing the boat, and general driveability.

I'm leaning towards spending a little more, and getting the Liberty, but it really depends how the Outback drives, and could I live without the turbo, having had a turbo charged car for 3 years now.

A Long Time Between Drinks - errr Blogs

Long time between blogs!

Just sitting at the kitchen table, watching the fish swimming around the fish tank, and realized I've been ultimately slack in keeping any updates feeding into my part of the world... Given no-one's given me any grief about it, I figure it shows how many people actually READ the crap I type!!!

Let's see if I can sum up the past 3 months quickly.

December, just before Christmas - started seeing someone.

January

• worked through the Christmas break, finalising the design for the Vic Roads Dealer Online System remediation project that has been all encompassing for the past few months...
  
• Implemented the remediated Driver Online System for Vic Roads

February

• Started back onto the Vic Roads Driver Licensing System remediation design...
• Researched and planned a 4WD trip to Cape York
  
• Did something I vowed never to do - got my Jetski endorsement for my boat drivers license.
  
• Spent 10 days on a Luxury on the Murray Houseboat, on the Murray River, starting with the Southern 80 ski race, and finishing with the Echuca Moama Wine and Jazz Festival.
• Discovered, that even though I'm 15 years older and 15 kg heavier than the last time I tried, I CAN still ski on a slalom water ski!
• Also discovered that if you start drinking beer at 7.30 am on a 44 degree day, you can drink 30 cans and still not be pissed by 2.30 the following morning!
  
• Made some great new friends, who live in the Echuca area!!
• Spent a weekend in the Victorian High Country with my sister and brother-in-law, and some great friends I have met through www.offroadsubarus.com
  
• Became single again

March

• Went on a Sun Microsystems training course - three days of training to get a free t-shirt!! (although their hardware is VERY cool)
  
• More time with my new mates in Echuca
• Lots more time working on the last of 4 Vic Roads projects.
  

New Synchro's for the Foz

Over the past couple of weeks, the Forester has been crunching into 4th gear above 90 km/h, and I've been trying to get to STi at Subaru Ducklands for about 3,000 km...

The car had it's 100,000 km service about a month ago, and 4,500 km have passed, with me thinking the Subaru has a 100,000 km / 3 year warranty, however the warranty is actually 3 years, Unlimited km!!!

One of the mechanics came for a quick spin with me, and agreed that yes, 4th gear synchro has in fact had it, and 3rd and 5th are a bit iffy...

It's booked in for the end of the month, to have all the synchro's replaced...

Next lot of work to be done, is front brake pads, which are nearly shot, and machining of the rear rotors, which are warped, due to being a non-ventilated rotor...

4WD and Camping Show

Just back from a day on my feet, wandering around Jeff's Shed at the 4wd and Camping Show...

Started off meeting Wayne and Fiona around 10.15 or so, and hitting the Nissan and Toyota stand first up... I reckon that the current Navara is rubbish in comparison to their new Hilux, which has pretty well confirmed I'm making the right decision when the Forester is up for replacement.

We split up a few times, when I got waylaid talking to various vendors about bits and pieces I am considering as possibilities, or definite "must have's" for my Hilux when I get it next April...

From talking to vendors, my Hilux build-up will look something like this!

Toyota Hilux Dual Cab Turbo Diesel D4D - in Sterling Silver
ARB Sahara Bar - colorcoded
ARB side steps - colorcoded
ARB rear step and towbar or the Kaymar equivalent- colorcoded
ARB canopy or hard tonneau - the jury is currently out as to which - also colorcoded
Tub liner - don't care which brand - probably from ARB
Warn Industries 9500 lb winch with plasma winch rope
Koni Suspension Upgrade - the other option is Bilstein, but their vendor rep wasn't very friendly


That's the base vehicle, how for the extra bits!!!

Autron Cruise Control
Autron Battery Management System
Couplertec 4WD Electronic Rust Proofing System
Counteract Paint Sealant - DIY
Counteract Fabric Protection - also DIY
Car Kit - to suit whichever phone I end up with next year
4WD Interiors Roof Console or Department of the Interior make a nice roof console also

And I'm sure there will be a few more goodies when the time comes...

A long time between entries

Wow, what a couple of months...

A week after the world lost Steve Irwin, Peter Brock died on a bad corner, during the Targa West Rally. Bathurst was, naturally a tribute to Peter Brock, with Team 888 winning the inagural Peter Brock trophy, with Craig Lowndes at the wheel...

On the personal front, I'm once again single, which was a bad thing at the time, but the right thing to do for the long term. It's not that I don't care, or have strong feelings, I realised I that we were both heading in disparate directions, with different goals to achieve in life...

On the work front, it's full steam ahead on the project I'm working on for Vic Roads, with some crazy, crazy hours being worked to make us look like shining knights, rather than rusty relics...

In the coming months, I'll be hitting the road, to visit every Vic Roads branch in Victoria, replacing the server that provides the platform for the licensing and registration system. That'll be fun, and heaps of time to see various parts of the state, and generally meet lots of new people...

I'll be endeavouring to be a little more attentive to getting some more regular updates happening, just in case anyone actually reads this blog!

Cheerio for now... :-)

RIP Steve Irwin

Born 22 February 1962, Essendon, Melbourne. Died 4 September 2006, Batt Reef, Queensland.

Like most people in Australia, I'm in a bit of shock about the death of Steve Irwin today whilst filming a documentary on Stingrays on Batt Reef, near the Low Isles group off Port Douglas.

Although most Aussies would say they have, at times been a little embarassed to be associated with Steve Irwin (through nationality), I don't, however, believe anyone could deny he did increase awareness of Australia's native animals through his Animal Planet program, and did wonders for Quarantine awareness, with his series of ads run on the TV





Details are pretty sketchy, and as per most media hype fairly judgemental, however it seems that Steve was diving, and doing filming of a stingray, and may have startled or cornered it, and was unfortunately spiked in the heart by the barb of the stingray.

Experts are saying, and I sincerely hope, that Steve Irwin's death was instantaneous.

Irwin was probably best known for his cry of "Oh, Crikey!", and for being "The Crocodile Hunter"...













Steve Irwin ran the Australia Zoo, which was started by his parents, who retired and passed the business to him in 1991. He began filming "The Crocodile Hunter" series in 1992. He married his wife Terri, a Vetinary Technician from Oregon,in June 1992, who became his manager, and between the two of them, they developed a business, thought to be worth $16 million per year.

Their first child, Bindi Sue was born in 1998, and their second, Bob (Robert) Clarence was born in 2003.











At a personal level, I had hoped to one day meet Steve Irwin, as we have an old family friend, who works at Australia Zoo, as their elephant handler. The elephants used to be circus elephants, and were relocated to the Zoo some years ago. My plans had been to visit the Australia Zoo in 2007, on my way to Cape York, which is currently in the planning phase ...







My condolences to Terri Irwin, and the kids, Bob and Lyn Irwin, and all the staff at Australia Zoo

"I spend my life with animals and nature not just because its what I enjoy (even though I do!), I do it because I believe in conservation, protection, and educating others about it's importance."
- Steve Irwin (1962 - 2006)

Steve Irwin, Australia will miss you

Windows Vista RC1

Hi Folks,



Have been looking for a new mobile for quite some time now, and I think Blaugh have summed it up perfectly!!!

Anyways, it's been a while since I've had time to blog anything... A fair bit has happened though... Mum has had neuro surgery to insert some carbon-fibre disks in her neck - all good! Fiona and Wayne are back from Japan - all good!

Even today, I'm not so sure that I have anything worthy of blogging, however I've installed Vista RC1 on a spare laptop, that I was given...

Thus far, on a P4 2.0 GHz processor, with 512 MB of RAM, I've managed to bluescreen it once (trying to install Firefox), but all else aside, it seems pretty stable ... little slow, but that's to be expected, as there will be heaps of bugcheck code in the OS...

I haven't been able to convince eTrust to install on it, so at this stage, I have no antivirus control - I'm hoping that the free edition of AVG will install on it...

... 5 minutes later ...

Well, AVG is installed, and up and running with very little issue... Even managed an automatic update - who says free software isn't a good thing!!! :-)

Now, onto other matters...

The Melbourne Storm, last night, took out the NRL minor premiership, which was already pre-determined 3 weeks back, when they were 4 games out... I feel kinda bad about the season gone, as I didn't manage to get to a game, despite best intentions, and going to every home game for 2 years, starting 3 years back, as well as going to a few games last year...

All things being well, I will go to the first round final next week, which is going to be a home game in Melbourne, played at Olympic Park

Will this be the Microsoft of the Future?

Found this today on Blaugh.com....

Poor Service = No Patronage

It must have been one of those days today... Firstly, I tried upgrading my laptop to the latest beta of Office 2007, given the upgrade on my desktop at work had gone so well...

BIG mistake - 4 1/2 hours later, I had a functional copy of Outlook 2003 back on the laptop (with a Send button), to be greeted with a wonderful e-mail from our Corporate Cards, advising I was late on my Amex bill...

Bit of a story behind that... Last month, my statement advised I owed Amex for a years worth of "Membership Rewards" program, despite having asked them last year to cease the membership... Fair enough, people don't do their jobs properly, or computers screw up, and it costs us money. I can handle that, so I logged into my Amex Online Services portal, to find that yep, no reversed charge. Whilst on the phone to the Corporate Services lady, who this time DID reverse the charge out, I decided to check out my personal card.

Interesting - my personal cards last 5 numbers apppear to have changed, so I ask the lady if she can take a quick look. She's only in corporate cards, but can transfer me to the personal cards area - fair enough, so she puts me through to a service desk somewhere in Asia.

After taking 5 minutes to work out that I am me, the conversation transpires:

Me: I'd like to inquire about the card ending in 21006 that appears in my online services portal - My card ends in 11006

Her: Oh, we issued you a new card, as you hadn't used yours for over 3 months.

Me: Actually, you issued me a new card in March, and I used it in April.

Her: Oh, well, you must have filled out a marketing offer, so we sent you a new card.

Me: No, I don't fill those out, as I only use my Amex for online purchasing.

Her: I don't understand. Please hold sir.

Me (thinking): got a winner here

Her (after 5 minutes): Yes sir, it appears that you requested a replacement card.

Me: No, the only card I ever had replaced was when my wallet was stolen in 1993.

Her: Oh, well... Can I place you on hold again...

Me: Why not?

Her (10 minutes later): Thank you for waiting, it seems that you requested a new card.

Me: Can I speak with your supervisor please?

Her: Can I help you with something else?

Me (thinking again - someone who understands the English language would be good): No thanks, just someone in a more senior position, to whom I can voice my displeasure.

So, after re-iterating my story again, and being placed on hold for at least another 20 minutes, I was still being advised that I had asked for a new card, filled in a marketing offer, or that the marketing people had sent me a new card, due to my not using mine in (now) 6 months! After the supervisor finally working out that she didn't know how to answer my question, she told me she'd look into it further, and call me back...

10 minutes later, I get a phone call from Dad... Amex had called for me at their house, despite having confirmed my mobile number 3 times... So I call back Amex, and she's gone home, my card is still on hold - although the operator I'm talking to now can activate the card I have in my wallet - how, I don't know, seeing as I've been told earlier that it was cancelled, and that all the senior staff are in a meeting, but someone will call me back (I'm still waiting 4 hours later)

Where to go from here?

Well, the way I see it - I get my personal Amex re-associated with their Membership Rewards program, I transfer all the points away from Amex, to the Qantas Frequent Flyer Program, and cancel my personal card, and give my corporate card back.

And if ANYONE from Amex does ever decide to call me back, which I doubt will happen, I'll no doubt have to go through the entire process all over again.

To me, offshoring ANY kind of helpdesk to a service center where English is NOT the first language is a huge risk to a business.

The first person I spoke to was in Sydney, and spoke the same English I do, and understood my requirements 100%, and fixed my problem.

The following 3 people I spoke with are no doubt located in Singapore or Malaysia, and were struggling to understand what I was saying, let alone what I wanted.

The end result? American Express lose my custom, and I pass on the word as to how bad their customer service is.

Very disappointing, and I'd really like someone to yell at who has a sufficient grasp of the English language to understand my problem!

Krispy Kreme Opens in Melbourne

That's right folks, the doughnut that everyone used to go to Sydney for is finally available in Melbourne, just a short 15 minute drive from where I live...

For a chain that first opened its doors in New Orleans in 1937, they have taken Australia by storm, and I am quite surprised that Melbourne is only just getting it's first store now, after opening it's first Australian store in Penrith (West of Sydney) in 2003.

They are pretty good doughnuts, and I'm looking forward to getting my free "birthday dozen" from last year, which I got a coupon in the mail for, just for being a "Friend of Krispy Kreme"

I can't believe the hype around it though. Reports on the news tonight indicated that there was a traffic queue of over 1 km, with people waiting to buy their doughnuts, and I even read yesterday, that you could camp out over night, waiting for the store to open this morning, as the company was putting on entertainment, and providing bean bags, and the like for people to make themselves comfortable for the long haul...

Jen and I'll most likely mosy over on the weekend, or at least before the 30th of June, to pick up my free dozen... I had planned to organise a mini-cruise for the WRX Club for this weekend, to go and buy some, and see them being made, but figured it's best to do it in a few months when the hype has died down a bit...

Then again, when I look at these pictures, I'm tempted to go for a quick drive, just to see how long the queue REALLY is!!!