Category: General

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.

The order tracking page still says ‘On Order’ but, inpatient fool that I am, I called 1-866-ASK-MINI and they said that is ‘Scheduled For Production’ but with no confirmed date yet. Getting closer!! And it looks like I got my seat cover change made just in time.

Saw this cutie whilst browsing the classifieds for MINIs:

You can check out more pictures and details of it at thecarfactory.net. Let me know if you buy it!

I don’t know if I was high on the joy of impending MINI ownership but I never knew until this weekend that the term of my loan is a whopping 66 months. I had it in my mind that it was a 4 year deal – five and a half years is a crazy long time to be making payments on a car. Now, its quite likely that the value of the MINI will stay high enough to pay off the loan in a trade-in before the time is up but I’m still shocked that I signed such a thing.

And I’ve ranted before about how Bank of America sends me monthly statements where the amount to pay changes based on how much ahead of the schedule I am. My most recent ‘demand’ was for $0.00 so they must be getting worried I’m going to pay the loan off too early. I’m not overpaying by much each month but I do hope to knock a few months off the loan schedule.

one of these

According to CNN we’d better get ready to pay $2.35 for a gallon of gas in May. Well, I don’t know where these people live but I haven’t seen a price that low in weeks. I’m typically seeing $2.50 and upward for regular unleaded; yesterday on the way home I saw $2.99 for the premium stuff. So if the average is lower than $2.35, does that mean its still under $2 somewhere in the country?

I have always been in two minds on the issue of speeding (which is a nice way of saying I am a hypocrite). I rarely go above 80 no matter what the prevailing speed is. I hate being overtaken by other MINIs, it makes me feel like I am some kind of wimp, too scared to risk a ticket by letting my MINI go as fast as it wants. On Friday, a red MCS overtook me, we exchanged a wave and I figured I’d come out behind him. When I got to 90 and I wasn’t keeping up I decided to drop the idea.

I usually hope that people who go speeding by me will get a ticket. I’m jealous of them. I need only to step off the pavement 5 foot from a pedestrian crossing and I’d be done for jaywalking, I’m probably the only person in the country who can’t put a European plate on the front of their MINI because the police stop me every time I try: I can never get away with anything.

But mostly I think either speeding laws should be enforced or scrapped. Clearly most of the public thinks they are a joke and if the police aren’t interested in enforcing them then strike them down and lets get racing.

Finally updated this blog to version 1.5, hopefully it all still works but if you find something not working right please let me know. And in the meantime I’ll be working on a new theme for the presentation.

So at the dealer Friday I’m sat minding my own business, reading the BMW-oriented magazines (golf and resort living) when I catch a piece of a conversation taking place in front of me. What I heard was “ninety-two thousand”. Looking up, the male half of the couple says thats more than he wants to pay and could he look at the 3-series instead. Minutes later he’s sat in the car (a lunking BMW convertible) telling his partner that this is the one he really wants. She says he should have it. Later on I walk over and check. Yes, that car had a sticker price of $92,000. Talk about shock and awe.

In other news, it is reported that Brecht’s have eliminated their market value markup on the new MINIs on their lot. Although I’ve kinda decided to stick with my baby I might go take a look see, if they had exactly what I want I could be swayed….

One of the reasons for staying with Sarah is I think she looks about as good as a MINI can get, the chili red, the stripes with JCW signature, the flag roof. There’s seldom a day where someone doesn’t compliment me on it. The convertible MCS wouldn’t ever look that good.