Living with a Nissan Tedious

As documented previously, our car needed repairing after a minor traffic accident.

I’m glad I paid extra on our insurance for a hire car, as we have been driving one for the last two weeks while our own car was being repaired. While we appreciated the convenience and the niceties of a new car, the one drawback was the car itself – a Nissan Tiida. To make matters worse, it was an automatic.

When launched six months ago in Australia, Nissan decided it would be a good idea to pay Kim Cattrall $1 million to orgasm while driving a Tiida for their advertisements while proclaiming it mnade her feel “really good inside”. This made sure that guys figured the Tiida was a girly car, while Kim Cattrall’s sexual overtures and past character, Samantha Jones, from “Sex and the City” ensured girls viewed the Tiida as a slut’s car. Sales have therefore been non existent, except to fleet company buyers such as rental businesses picking up new cars at cheap prices. Why not? They don’t have to drive them.

I have recreated my underwhelmed reaction when handed the keys of the Tiida below. Note this is a simulation only, and does not capture the full vulgarity of the Tiida’s shape – particularly the sedan.

[coming as soon as I download the pics off my camera!]

Getting past the ugly slut thing, the Nissan was a quiet and comfortable car. It was also well built and didn’t miss a beat in 500 km of driving. The seats are good and there is far more leg space than you’d expect from a small car in the rear. Especially with someone as midgetary as me driving. See, I can be nice.

Now here’s what I didn’t like:

• It’s butt ugly.
• The ride was compliant enough but it got choppy at highway speeds inducing a mild seasickness on undulating roads.
• Any attempt at handling prowess was routed by the lack of grip from the cost cutting Toyo tyres. Any type of driving enthusiasm induced pronounced understeer and tyre scrub ensuring the driver (i.e. me) soon gave up.
• The auto moaned up and down the gears and acceleration was often preceded by an alarming deceleration as the box changed all the way back to first gear. Accelerating out of a corner often induced an unwanted and unneeded change of gear which produced torque steer on the loaded and otherwise boring and lifeless steering. Avoiding gearbox dramas by selecting the gears manually was impossible thanks to a unnecessary and awkward overdrive button located on the side of the gear selector.
• The radio was awful quality.
• The dashboard may have been inspired by a 1984 Nissan Bluebird.
• The rear seats didn’t fold down. This is inexcusable in a small car!
• The fuel economy was bad for a small car. Just under 10l/100kms including plenty of highway driving.
• It had a nice feature of turning the dashboard lights on when the outside light suddenly dulled, for example entering a car park. Yet, it didn’t turn on the headlights. That seemed odd to me.
• And finally, did I mention the slutty-girl-car image problem already?

Now Hertz have their Tiida back, and I have my own car back. But I will say this for the Tiida. It made me realise how loose and sloppy our cars have gotten and how nice a new car feels, and how great toxic new plastics smell. In fact, it inspired us to go and test-drive something we would like to own. More about that in a separate post.

Dreamweaver Equivalent for Free

Anyone who wants to use a WYSIWYG HTML editor that has the power and coding cleanliness of Dreamweaver but doesn’t like the price tag of the Macromedia/Adobe product, I have a solution for you. No I’m not talking about NVu or the like of free HTML editors.

This is  a fully featured product called “Expression Web Designer”. I’ve only been using it for an hour, but so far I’m impressed. On first acquaintance, it seems as powerful as Dreamweaver, and easier to come to terms with. It’s currently in Beta – hence the free price tag. The Beta will expire in March 2007.

There is a catch however. Expression Web Designer is a product of the Evil Empire.

For those who can walk on the dark side,  I recommend you take a look.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Yes, as well as being William’s birthday, it is also our wedding anniversary today. Eleven years together and seven years married.

I love you baby .

Ain’t she a honey!?

Happy Birthday William

William is one year old today, almost to the minute as I write this.

I can’t believe that twelve months have gone already. What a journey it’s been and what a difference there is in William. Wow he has changed our lives so much, and has brought so much joy with him.

Don’t go to this Site!

www.miniclip.com

Unless you want to waste a motherload of time!

Phuey

I hope to be able to post some positive news on this blog sometime soon, but today it’s going to be a series of grizzles!

My car blew a head gasket the other week. That’s something I would normally fix myself, but given my time constraints these days and the fact that I need car, I had it fixed by a real mechanic. $1200 and a week later it was supposed to be all better. I was pretty happy about it too as it’s a long walk to William’s day care and I had no desire to keep making it.

So when I jumped into the car and noticed a strange knocking when the engine fired up, I was concerned. After a few kilometres it was sounding awful and all I could do was drive it carefully home again. This was of course Friday afternoon and the mechanic couldn’t come back out until Monday. Just to be safe, and to be prepared when the mobile mechanic returned, I decided to get a second opinion as to what had gone wrong. First thing Monday morning I drove to a nearby workshop to see what the mechanic there thought was the problem.

Waiting at the traffic lights at the corner of the mechanics workshop I heard a loud bang behind me, followed instantly by a louder second bang and a solid whack in the back. Yes, some Einstein had failed to stop at the lights and had rammed the car behind me, which in turn slammed into me. Fortunately, the damage isn’t too bad and my only injury was a head ache for the day. The car still drives ok, although there is a rattle at the back.

After swapping insurance details with the other two drivers I got my second opinion and headed home, the car now sounding more than ever like a tractor at the front, and remodelled for the worse at the rear.

The problem was a loose timing chain guide which the mobile mechanic fixed, but now I’m going to be without the car again while it’s at the panel beaters. Grrrrrrrrr.

Much more worrying though has been William. We took him to the Doctor’s after he was vomiting and had diahrea for twenty four hours. But it hadn’t got any better and eventually last night Jo took him to the children’s hospital. I was extremely frustrated that I couldn’t go, but after cleaning up his vomit and poo for five days I had some of his symptoms as well and couldn’t travel.

It turns out he has Rota virus, which is a nasty gastro bug. He was dehydrated and they put him on a nasal feeding tube for four hours. Poor Jo got home at 4.30 this morning.

Today he has been much better, not quite as listless and eating and drinking in small amounts. Hopefully he will continue to improve again tomorrow.

R.I.P. Peter Perfect

What is going on? Two Australian legends have died this week. First Steve Iwin – The Crocodile Hunter – and now Peter Brock – The King of the Mountain.

This great Austrlian icon died in an accident while comoeting int he West Australian Targa rally.

I have been a huge fan of Peter Brock since watching the 1981 Bathurst motor race. He was a driver with a natural flair and ability unrivalled amongst his competitors. It was his amazing performances that got me interested in motorsport. Not ony was he a fantastic racer, but he was a very thoughtful and giving person who did much behind the scenes to help Australian sport, Australian society and road safety.

Clean Up Progress

On Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s, I take William to childcare for up to five hours. These are the only hours I really get to myself. In that time I try and squeeze in all the jobs I otherwise neglect, like grass cutting, car cleaning, house tidying, washing etc in those hours. Jo, is still facing challenges to her health, so I try and do as much as I can so that she can rest a little at night. Today I had a few clear hours that I had intended to dedicate to office cleaning. On Monday I went shopping for a desk and after consulting with the boss that night, I’ve decided which on one that should fit well. Now I just need to make room for it!

Well that was a nice theory, except today I had arranged for someone to come and work on Jo’s piano. It is showing some serious signs of abuse after being moved more than is good for any piano, let alone a delicate old classic. We know a very nice retired man who is a french polisher. He only charges a nominal fee as he does it for the love of it and have to a good old chat rather than the money. Our poor old piano now looks a lot nicer than it did, but I didn’t get anything done while he was here! Ah well. Maybe tomorrow.

The Shame that is My Office

I have foolishly accepted a challenge issued by Sherry to clean up and organise my writing space. A few AFWD members are joining in, although I have received special dispensation to take a week to undertake this task. Here are the truly embarrassing “before” photos of my office. This really is shameful, and this AFTER cheating (I cleaned up the black desk for about 3 hours before the photos were taken!!).

The theory is, that creating an organised and inviting working environment will help the work process of writing. Well I can hardly make it any worse can I?

Helen also undertook the task, but her “before” photo is nicer than I’m expecting my “after” photos to be!

What is Wrong with this Picture?

Perhaps you’re asking what IS this picture? It will shock, amaze and perhaps even disgust you.

This, Intrepid Web Surfers (IWS’s), is a magnified close up of my chin. As you can see, I haven’t shaved for a few days. Those thick dark fibrous filaments sprouting from my skin, are stubble. Now for the shocking part. Those light, almost invisible strands to the left of the photo, are also stubble hairs. Which means, shock, horror, gulp, that I’m going grey. And that means, ladies and gentleman, that I am officially getting OLD.

And that my IWS’s, is a very sobering realisation.

It makes me think of how far I’ve come and where I’m going. Of how it could be, that success continues to evade me… and how I shall trap the crafty bugger before it is all too late!