92% to go…
Well, quite depressingly, I’ve still got 92% of the world left to (which means I’ve visited only 19 countries so far). Although hopefully that number will increase over the next 18 months or so with a trip or 2 more around Asia.
Head over to http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedCountries and see how much of the world you’ve been to. The bar has been set (albeit not too highly!)
MG Midget for sale in West Yorkshire!
Well I’m going to be in Japan for another 18 months (more on that later), so I’ve realised that I need to get rid of my pride & joy. I have a 1979 MG Midget in red I am looking to sell. It’s a 1500cc convertible with wire wheels and is in very good condition. I have been its owner for the past 5 years, but I was away for the whole of 2003 so the car was only driven once a week to keep the engine ticking over during that period. I have also been away since August 2004 and the same thing has happened. It’s been off the road for about 6 months now, but my father takes it up and down the drive every week to keep the engine ticking over. I would get it MOT’d and taxed if desires, although it rarely needs anything doing to get it through the tests. When I purchased the car it was in show condition, and is only a little below that now.
The car has a little over 94,000 miles on the clock, but the previous owner conducted a full mechanical rebuild on the car throughout the 90s. Details of this rebuild, including photos descriptions and invoices is included. Everything on the car is stock and nothing has been modified. The only addition is a roll-bar just behind the headrests, which is removable if necessary. It even comes with the original driver’s handbook.
The only minor aesthetic problems are a few bits of rust appearing at the edges of panels, and a button missing from the hood cover (used when the top is down). All in all it’s a great little car to own and drive, and is surprisingly sporty for a car that’s over 25 years old.
My specialist MG insurance has it valued at ?f3500, but as I need to sell it quickly I’m looking for ?f1500. Pics of the car are here:
World’s largest squid caught off New Zealand coast
This is a hell of a catch. New Zealand fisherman working in the deep waters of the Ross Sea near the Antarctic. The 10m/33ft, 450kg/1000lb Colossal Squid, or Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni in Latin, had latched itself onto one of the toothfish that had been caught. Now this squid had been down at around 1,800m/6,000ft when it was originally hooked, which gives you an idea of how deep these lines and nets go when they are fishing in the really deep waters. When it got to shore, it was obvious the squid was in distress and wasn’t going to last too long. So the fisherman managed to get a cargo net around it and bring it on board. This is the biggest Colossal Squid to have ever been caught, and it’s certainly an amazing sight, as you cans see from these photos. Japanese chefs are licking their fingers in anticipation of all the sushi that could be made from this, and Godzilla is once again on standby incase the Colossal Squids team up with the great white sharks and frilled sharks in a water-based attack on Japan!
I think in this case a picture says 1,000 words, so here are 3,000 words worth (courtesy of the NZ Ministry of Fisheries). Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
The Japanese can make anything cute!
Well, there are hospitals with cartoons on them, “Keep Out” warning signs on premises with pictures of rabbits holding out their paws, and even the roadwork signs have pictures of flowery meadows on them. But this time the Japanese have gone one better. Whoever said war can’t be cute has obviously not met the Japanese Self Defence Force’s (SDF) new mascot, incredibly named Prince Pickles!
If you think this is some bizarre joke then think again. The bigwigs in the armed forces have obviously been on some team-building weekend in which far too much sake was drunk. Then one evening someone came up with the great idea of having a cartoon character to promote the armed forces in Iraq. Everyone knows that what Saeed needs after his home has just been destroyed by another fight in Baghdad is for Prince Pickles to come bouncing down the road with his disturbingly big eyes!
That’s all for now, but I just wanted to share that little image with you. And to cop it all off, they still can’t spell defence properly!!! More later…
My car has died, quite impressively
Firstly, apologies for not writing anything for a little while. Last week was pretty hectic and I’ve had a few things occupying my mind and time. But I’m back at my computer now and without further adue, let’s get straight into things.
Well last Saturday my friend Mutsumi came down from Tokyo for a week, visiting family and me. We had a good week actually and last Sunday we headed up to Nago to see the cherry blossoms. They are much pinker (is that a word?) in Okinawa than in other parts of Japan, and you can hopefully see that in the photo below. But the weekend was so tiring. It started with me getting up at 5am to listen to the first Superleague game of the season (a loss at home to Warrington, incidentally), but then proceeded to have only 15 hours of sleep over the next 3 days, while driving for over 14 hours. It was certainly a draining time.
Okinawa cherry blossoms Kyoto cherry blossoms
But then we get to Tuesday night, and I was about to go from my apartment to the shops for some food. I put my car into reverse and started to let out the clutch, when something made a slight grinding sound. I thought I hadn’t got the gear in correctly so I checked and let the clutch out again. This time the car moved backwards about a foot and then just stopped. Something was obviously wrong so I got out and wandered around the car. when I got to the passenger side, I started to realise what had happened. Basically, the front left wheel had dropped off! And not simply the wheel had dropped off, but the driveshaft to this wheel had just broken off the main shaft, meaning the wheel was hanging on my the shock absorber. This is not good! It was awful too - there was brake fluid draining from the snapped driveshaft, and it looked like my car was bleeding to death! I wanted to go get a bandage and wrap up its gaping wound! I was really annoyed as I live out in the sticks and need a car to get anywhere (e.g. the bus to Naha takes around 1 hour and there is around 1 bus every hour; if I was driving it would take around 20 minutes).
