28 September, 2010
Denise's last Tri of the year pt 2
15 August, 2010
Tch ...
Oh, yeah, and the posts on the 13th should have been published the other way round, with the picture of the car first, then the interior shot. I e-mailed them from my phone, but they didn't go straight away, and when that happens, it always seems to reverse the order that the emails were written in when it does eventually publish them.
Omigod! I hadn't realised that that had been FRIDAY 13th. Arrghhh! No wonder Denise has picked up my sickness!! Dan-dan daaahhhhh!!
Omigod! I hadn't realised that that had been FRIDAY 13th. Arrghhh! No wonder Denise has picked up my sickness!! Dan-dan daaahhhhh!!
This MX-5 is soooo much better than I expected!!
I had another blast in the MX-5, this time using the flappy paddle manual-style gear changers. Weeellll, previously I said that a manual mode was probably superfluous, but I was so wrong! I was expecting a sort of hatch-back style ride and a fairly mild power delivery, but no such thing. This baby FLIES!! Being rear-wheel drive, there's none of this pathetic scrabbling for traction coming out of a corner; it just gathers up it's bustles and shoves off down the road. It's like nailing a motorbike out of a corner, and having the front end go light: the drive continues, but the front is doing all the steering, and it can feel a bit light over the bumps. All a learning curve. When just accelerating hard up a straight road, if you hit the red line/lmiter, it just changes up for you, which was confusing at first, as I found my self flicking the up-shift just as it did it for me, resulting in changing up two gears at once. I guess you either short-shift, or let it get on with it, and take over again once you've finished accelerating. Bit of an odd one, though. Overtakes are effortless in a very short stretch of road, and it really really gives me back a lot of the stuff I loved about motorbikes. I'm getting sun/wind burned!! I really, really love this car.
The ride is firm, but when you get going, it makes sense, flowing over undulations and flying over potholes and drain covers. There is tremendous grip everywhere, but I'm still taking it easy out of corners and tight bends, as there is 160 ps of power going through those back tyres, and I don't want to spin in. There is traction control, but I haven't been driving hard enough to need it.
The seats are plush compared to Denise's old Elise, but they are still pretty firm, so they're nice and supportive. It's got all the toys: air-con, heated leather seats, and blue-tooth connectivity for the phone. You can set up a phone-book in the car (independent of the phone you're using) so you can call people by name. The voice-recognition is very good, and hasn't made a mistake yet. I've paired my phone with the car, and set up some numbers in the phone book, but I haven't used it yet. I usually switch my phone off when I'm in the car, but if we're going down to Yorkshire in two cars later this month, it might be useful to have it available should I need it. Also, I'll be able to let family know our progress. I don't like using the phone on the move, so I'll need to see how it goes. I did need to use my phone in the car the other day when I was trying to organise my insurance for the MX-5, so I had to stop in a bus-stop or use the speakerphone, neither of which is very satisfactory.
So, yeah, I'm really pleased I went for the MX-5 in the end. I think we're going to be friends for a very long time. I am SUCH a fuckin' petrol head ...
The ride is firm, but when you get going, it makes sense, flowing over undulations and flying over potholes and drain covers. There is tremendous grip everywhere, but I'm still taking it easy out of corners and tight bends, as there is 160 ps of power going through those back tyres, and I don't want to spin in. There is traction control, but I haven't been driving hard enough to need it.
The seats are plush compared to Denise's old Elise, but they are still pretty firm, so they're nice and supportive. It's got all the toys: air-con, heated leather seats, and blue-tooth connectivity for the phone. You can set up a phone-book in the car (independent of the phone you're using) so you can call people by name. The voice-recognition is very good, and hasn't made a mistake yet. I've paired my phone with the car, and set up some numbers in the phone book, but I haven't used it yet. I usually switch my phone off when I'm in the car, but if we're going down to Yorkshire in two cars later this month, it might be useful to have it available should I need it. Also, I'll be able to let family know our progress. I don't like using the phone on the move, so I'll need to see how it goes. I did need to use my phone in the car the other day when I was trying to organise my insurance for the MX-5, so I had to stop in a bus-stop or use the speakerphone, neither of which is very satisfactory.
So, yeah, I'm really pleased I went for the MX-5 in the end. I think we're going to be friends for a very long time. I am SUCH a fuckin' petrol head ...
13 August, 2010
My new MX-5
Interior shot
12 August, 2010
Zoom-Zoom news
Now I can reveal all, as the deal is done, all the hurdles have been jumped & all the obstacles negotiated.
A month or so ago, I got a letter from the Mazda dealer where I got my Mazda 6 serviced, telling me about a promotion they were running,so I thought I'd go along and take a look, just on the off-chance. The idea was that they'd allocated money to certain registration numbers on their records for preferential trade in deals.
To cut a long story short they offered me extra money off a 3-month old Mazda MX-5. It was too good a deal to pass over, and I felt it was my turn for the fun car (D has had two in a row!); and I needed something that would scratch the motorbike itch of ears in the breeze and good fun on the road.
So I am now the proud owner of a black MX-5 with a folding hard roof and an auto gearbox with paddle shift levers on the steering wheel.
The reason I didn't want to mention it beforehand is that I didn't know if I would be able to get it converted with a left-foot accelerator. That proved easier than getting it insured, as the AA's underwriters had never heard of this particular model. It's been out at least three months! They always claim to have the latest product lists, but they never do. It took them about four hours to sort it out. The time to go & pick up my new pride & joy came & went, without any resolution. I had until 5 today to get it sorted, otherwise I would have to wait until Monday. Finally they came through with a quote, which I accepted without thinking about it too closely, and I picked it up in time to be here for the arrival of our visitors at 5 o'clock.
I'll post some pics soon
A month or so ago, I got a letter from the Mazda dealer where I got my Mazda 6 serviced, telling me about a promotion they were running,so I thought I'd go along and take a look, just on the off-chance. The idea was that they'd allocated money to certain registration numbers on their records for preferential trade in deals.
To cut a long story short they offered me extra money off a 3-month old Mazda MX-5. It was too good a deal to pass over, and I felt it was my turn for the fun car (D has had two in a row!); and I needed something that would scratch the motorbike itch of ears in the breeze and good fun on the road.
So I am now the proud owner of a black MX-5 with a folding hard roof and an auto gearbox with paddle shift levers on the steering wheel.
The reason I didn't want to mention it beforehand is that I didn't know if I would be able to get it converted with a left-foot accelerator. That proved easier than getting it insured, as the AA's underwriters had never heard of this particular model. It's been out at least three months! They always claim to have the latest product lists, but they never do. It took them about four hours to sort it out. The time to go & pick up my new pride & joy came & went, without any resolution. I had until 5 today to get it sorted, otherwise I would have to wait until Monday. Finally they came through with a quote, which I accepted without thinking about it too closely, and I picked it up in time to be here for the arrival of our visitors at 5 o'clock.
I'll post some pics soon
11 August, 2010
Starting to mend
Ate something today: TWO slices of toast! Starting to feel a lot more human. I've got zoom-zoom business tomorrow (I hope), so I've got to be well enough to go out.
Not saying any more about zoom-zoom until everything's confirmed ;)
Not saying any more about zoom-zoom until everything's confirmed ;)
10 August, 2010
Sick!
I've been in bed with the most horrendous infection since early Saturday evening. The antibiotics the doctor have me have been making me so sick that I haven't had anything proper to eat since. Not great, as we're expecting guests, and are on holiday shortly therafter.
Coming soon: more Zoom-Zoom
Coming soon: more Zoom-Zoom
14 July, 2010
Annoyances, etc
I've just logged in to write this, and realised something really annoying about this website; something unnecessarily annoying: it will not, not, not remember my login details, despite ticking the 'remember me' box on the login page every time. When I log in on my pocket PC though, it does remember me! How come it can do that on the pocket version, but not when I'm logging on on my desktop PC.
I went for my first session with the psychologist yesterday. Fairly traumatic, having to go over everything again to try to see if they can help with my depression and stress. It was just an evaluation session, and all I did was fill them in on how I feel about this and that, and go over the series of events from my accident onwards. All the stuff about being in hospital when mum died and missing her funeral all came up, of course, and that was very hard to talk about with a stranger.
On the plus side, we paid off our mortgage today, so the house is ours, free and clear. Feeling a bit flat today, so this didn't excite me as much as I think it should have.
Don't know what I want to do today. Linda, our cleaner, is here today, so I'm hiding up here in my den, writing this. The weather is atrocious at the moment: while the rest of the country was getting a heatwave, we've been getting rain and gale force winds.
I've had a few frustrations lately, like the new lawnmower having to go straight into the dealer's for repair because it was faulty when it arrived (the cutting height doesn't lock at the front). Because I bought it from Amazon, I couldn't just send it back, and the dealer's got a backlog of work and is prioritising commercial customers. Of course, since it's raining today, I can't cut the lawn with the electric mower, which is both annoying and quite good at the same time. Other things have been bugging me, like my clumsiness, knocking my PC keyboard off the back of the desk, and then wondering why I'm not getting any response from it after picking it up and trying to use it, before finding that the batteries have fallen out and dropped out of reach and not being able to get down there easily because my prosthetic leg's in the way and all that kind of stuff that just makes me want to scream my head off!!!
So ... I'm left feeling a little on edge all the time; part of my depression/anxiety etc., etc. I wonder if this is why my phantom pain has started up again?
I went for my first session with the psychologist yesterday. Fairly traumatic, having to go over everything again to try to see if they can help with my depression and stress. It was just an evaluation session, and all I did was fill them in on how I feel about this and that, and go over the series of events from my accident onwards. All the stuff about being in hospital when mum died and missing her funeral all came up, of course, and that was very hard to talk about with a stranger.
On the plus side, we paid off our mortgage today, so the house is ours, free and clear. Feeling a bit flat today, so this didn't excite me as much as I think it should have.
Don't know what I want to do today. Linda, our cleaner, is here today, so I'm hiding up here in my den, writing this. The weather is atrocious at the moment: while the rest of the country was getting a heatwave, we've been getting rain and gale force winds.
I've had a few frustrations lately, like the new lawnmower having to go straight into the dealer's for repair because it was faulty when it arrived (the cutting height doesn't lock at the front). Because I bought it from Amazon, I couldn't just send it back, and the dealer's got a backlog of work and is prioritising commercial customers. Of course, since it's raining today, I can't cut the lawn with the electric mower, which is both annoying and quite good at the same time. Other things have been bugging me, like my clumsiness, knocking my PC keyboard off the back of the desk, and then wondering why I'm not getting any response from it after picking it up and trying to use it, before finding that the batteries have fallen out and dropped out of reach and not being able to get down there easily because my prosthetic leg's in the way and all that kind of stuff that just makes me want to scream my head off!!!
So ... I'm left feeling a little on edge all the time; part of my depression/anxiety etc., etc. I wonder if this is why my phantom pain has started up again?
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