Month: June 2005

Yet Another Music Post

Never one to be shy of stealing someone else’s good ideas I thought I’d copy the latest ‘craze’ started by Ian C and dbmini and list some of the albums currently gracing my iPod when out motoring. Current favourites are bolded:

  • !Cubanismo! – Malembe, Mardi Gras Mambo, Reencarnacion
  • Alabina – Alabina, The Album II
  • Alejandro Fernandez – Entre Tus Brazos, Mi Verdad, Me Estoy Enamorando
  • Alizee – Gourmandises
  • Arrested Development – Zingalamaduni
  • Basement Jaxx – Kish Kash, Remedy
  • Beautiful South – Painting It Red
  • Bond – Born, Classified, Shine
  • Communards – Communards, Red
  • Echobelly – On
  • Emma Bunton – Free Me
  • Evanescence – Fallen, Origin
  • Fish – Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors (thats the Marillion singer, not the band)
  • Human League – Dare, Secrets
  • Ibrahim Ferrer – Buena Vista Social Club
  • Janet Jackson – Control, Velvet Rope
  • Japan – Oil on Canvas
  • Jem – Finally Woken
  • Keane – Hopes and Fears
  • Kylie – too many albums to mention!
  • Lamb, Fear of Fours
  • M People – Elegant Slumming, Bizarre Fruit, Testify
  • Macy Gray – On How Life Is
  • Massive Attack – Mezzanine
  • Morcheeba – Big Calm, Who Can You Trust?
  • Natasha Beddingfield – Unwritten
  • New Order – Substance
  • Pizzicato Five – Made In USA
  • Portishead – Dummy, Portishead
  • Propganda – A Secret Wish
  • Rachel Stevens – Funky Dory
  • Robbie Williams – Greatest Hits
  • Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
  • Style Council – Singular Adventures
  • Swing Out Sister – too many to mention!
  • The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free
  • Toni Braxton – Secrets
  • Yazoo – You and Me Both, Upstairs at Erics

I have a lot more one-off tracks than albums but I think I’ve already listed enough.

Guess I Spoke Too Soon

The owners lounge still says ‘On Order’, the phone line still says ‘Scheduled but no date’ so I’m thinking I got excited for no good reason. Upside, though, is that I get to go through that excitement again when it really does happen. Its only three days until production month, so I have fingers crossed to see something change soon.

When I ordered the MINI I put some accessories on there, figured they were small and inexpensive. But according to this posting over on dbmini, just installing the aux input might cost me $125!! So I think I’ll remove all the accessories and do them myself. Only thing I’m not sure of yet is an alarm system. I say they don’t stop anybody from stealing the car but my wife thinks they make a great deterrent to the ‘casual’ thief. $499 plus install might be worth it?

Boy, You From Kentucky?

Coming into work this morning, car alongside me beckoned me to open the window. “Hey, does the UK on your plate mean Kentucky??” I gave him my ‘are you mad’ look and said that it was for the United Kingdom. He said “too bad” and drove away.

I met him again on the bus from the car park and he explained to me that the University of Kentucky is referred to as ‘UK’ so it wasn’t as crazy as I thought. Well, maybe not. But just in case there is still confusion here is a description of the United Kingdom which you will see has no resemblence to the University of Kentucky.

Small Crisis of Colour

So of course I am checking the Owners Lounge every day to see if my new MINI is progressing any, and each time I go there I see the picture of the cool blue convertible on the login page. It surely is a beauty, makes me wonder if I have made the wrong colour choice…. I do need to call my sales advisor and make a couple of changes, going to change to cloth seats, many people have pointed out to me that when its 110F (as it was yesterday), it is not going to be possible to sit on the leatherette without getting first degree burns to delicate parts.

I did email my advisor a couple of times but she doesn’t seem to be an email person as I’ve had no replies. Its been almost two weeks and they haven’t put the deposit on my card yet or sent me any receipt, confirmation, brochures as promised. I guess I need to get on the phone and see what’s happening.

Impatience

I know its only been four days since I got a production number and I know that my production date will be in July. But I sooooo want to see my tracking page updated with a scheduled production date. Looks like I am not going to be immune to the order wait madness, after all.

Finally, New MINI News!

It took a lot longer than I expected but a new MINI is finally in the works! Just got off the phone with South Bay MINI, having taken one of their July production spots, delivery hopefully at the end of August, maybe September. The final spec:

Dark Silver, MCS/C
Chrome Line Exterior, Grey Leatherette Seats, Anthracite Interior
Convenience Pkg, Front and Rear Fog Lights, Xenon Headlamps
DSC, OBC

Can’t wait to get entered into the system and start watching mine get built.

Where’s The New MINI News Then?

Yeah, ok, I said I’d have news pretty soon and so far there’s not been any. I really did think that by now I’d have news but as I sit here today I still don’t have any to pass on. I thought I would. Really, I did, I wouldn’t lie to you, dear reader. Maybe tomorrow.

A Little Jeep Time

The MINI has been making some nasty noises whilst braking recently so I decided to put it in the local brake emporium to check out putting in some new pads (and I am sure they will insist on discs too). So that meant taking the Jeep to work today.

[Update:] Rear brake pads were worn beyond use but replacement pads weren’t available or orderable!! Had to go up to Brecht and buy them over lunchtime and will take them back this evening… grrr!!! There are definite downsides to owning a MINI.

Of course today would be one of the windiest days in the mountains so not only was I struggling up the hill in 3rd and 4th gear but also keeping a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel to stop us from being blown off the edge. The Jeep has a 3.5 inch lift and 33″ tyres making it quite unstable. It does however allow for a nice view into the passing cars when the driver is worth a look. The mirrors were moved to allow the doors to come off but when I put the windows back in last night they totally blocked the right hand side mirror, can’t see it at all. This combined with a rear window that was almost opaque made for some careful lane changes on the freeway.

Despite only getting 80 miles on half a tank of gas I still got to work in under two hours and I actually had a lot of fun. It will be a shame to sell it but I only drive it 4-5 times a year and it seems pointless to keep it in the garage paying insurance, registration etc for that. And even more so when the value could be applied to the new MINI – news about that real soon.