Well I got the Audi back yesterday and I can't stress how happy I am to have it back allbeit one or two things still need sorting.
The first thing is that I was expecting this whole repair to cost in the region of 700 alone for the head gasket and I knew after that I would need new tyres immediatley or I would be fucked by the police and in general as they were balding.
So when the repair bill came in at 460 I was fairly happy, obviously it is not what I wanted to spend near on half a grand getting the car running again. The tyres were another 130 quid for some fantastic BF Goodridge profilers I coulda prolly saved 50 quid on front tyres and gone budget but these are what keep you in contact with the road and it really is not worth risking your life for 50 quid.
Whilst at it I got a 4 wheel laser alignment for another 30 quid, and this was needed as there was alot of uneven wear.
New bulbs and new number plates yet to come as I want to car completley up to scratch if I am not buying a new one.

I have gotten used to the Megane over the past 2 weeks which has been a life saver as I did not need to rent or buy a step in car. It is odd as everything in the Megane is very very heavy and getting back into mine it is refreshing that it is so light and easy to drive.

Due to being carless nothing has really happened over the last few weeks, but I do have the Birmingham meet that myself and James have sorted out, sorted in the sense of we are all meeting at the train station and then gona go for shops/food/booze but should be good as I have been bored silly latley. Hopefully you will see a bit less of me online and I can get back into the gym.
   I know I said that I was gona get back into the gym more but for obvious reasons I have slacked off, also I put on a few lbs and been eating loads, this stops as of tomorrow and I am gona carry on where I left off.

Also watched a few great movies over this weekend, American Gangster, The twilight samurai & Zatoichi's Pilgrimage. All three were great but if I had to pick out the best one it would be Twilight Samurai as it is the best film I have seen in a long long time.
Here is a link on imdb if you want to check it out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0351817/

Now I am off to get work stuff sorted, have a beer/jd or two and watch top gear!

OK so sunday the day was spent looking at cars, my first major dissapointment was that I can not find in a Mazda mx-5 I am too tall and wide!
  I did however test drive a brutal/mental Renault Megane R30 225 bhp and wow is the only words to describe it and I was all buy ready to buy it, and was thinking about how to raise the funds when common sense kicked in a bit.
 
I needed a new car for reliability, why do I need that because my job is 30 odd miles away and I rack up a hell of alot of milage and need a car that works. The other option is don't travel as far for work, but I enjoy my job alot so I thought ok move closer to my job.
  So I had made the decision to fully resurect the A4 into its fullest and then some more, this time any improvements will be non power related, .....sorta maybe a new exhaust but it will be getting a few imrpovements at somepoint.
First thing is first a new headgasket and skimming is gona cost me a good 500 plus, and then new tyres as mine are mega bald on the fronts.
So untill then I owe my Mum big time for lending me her car and I wont have mine back till next wednesday.

And then another change of plan that I wont go too far into atm but my arm has been twisted to avoid getting a place of my own untill a later point and prolly the end of next year.
In which time I shall be trying to clear as much debt as possible and somehow trying to get spare cash through ebay.

So far a bit of the same in this update as usual car bleh bleh and me gettin a house but somewhat of a route plan change, which I think is something to be happy about but at the same time disheartening as part of me desperatley wants to get out there on my own right now.

An on another note and a big wakeup call in a way, near my work today on a really crappy road a 17 year old lad in a hot hatch killed himself by driving too fast and loosing control and driving head on into a vann and snapped his neck from the impact. This more or less happened right outside my office and shook alot of people as well as the road being shut by police.
When I do get the car back making sure it is 100% safe is right up there, might cost a bit more or it might cost nothing but my life is not worth scrimping on and I just need to remember it is alot colder atm and I can't drive like it is still summer.

Well yesterday my car died, it seems the slow water leak that has always dogged they car and was a suspection bad pipe or bung plug................was a pin hole leak in the head that is no longer a pinhole leak. The waterr light came on about 5 mins before work, and I thought bah fill it up in a min as normally the light comes on with loads of warning.
The bastard thing was at the redline when I looked! 120degrees plus!!! so I was about 2-3 mins from work and went in at tickover in 5th as stopping was not an option on the roads I was on.
Oil in the coolant resovoir confirmed it is the head, I am now lookingg at a repair bill of 500-700 if no other damage occured.
    I am going to fix the car and move onto something much newer and lower milage, but funny how my car has suddenly affected my future next year.
I am going to be moving to Leicester within the first 6 months of 2008 and that is now decided, I need to get a place of my own be it sharing a house or my own flat but atm I am spending 200 plus on fuel a month and maybe 100 a month on general maintenance, add the 150 a month I pay to my mum and that is rent money sorted there! Or morgage.
  
I am gutted in the sense that I love my A4 tdi and it is one hell of a car, but I got my moneys worth from it and will fondly remember it as it did me proud. But I also like alot of other cars and I think now is perhaps the time for me to move onto something I have been eyeing up for a while.
I will post pics and stuff on here once I have made a choice and sorted the nessecary funds to obtain whichever car.........in other words I am not gona jinx it till I have it, I can tell you thou I want a petrol again.

I owe my Mum big time for all the help she has given me this weekend, she straight away when I got back from work (with the help of the AA) took me out to look at cars and I very nearly ended up with a 13k 207 gti but I got talked outa it just about.
However I get the feeling my Mum wanted me to get one particular car more so than usual as it was a good deal, but she wanted it more then me, perhaps something to do with the glass roof and keyless entry etc.....

I am also missing some of my friends/mates and someone in particular atm as not seen as much of them and I did not get the time I wanted to spend with them at expo or just in general, I am gona try and fix this a little bit with a good old piss up in birmingham next month.
Starting in the German market, and then moving whereever the hell the wind takes us!

I made my mind up! I am gona change or more like I am gona become the person I know I like to be at times and try not to slip into my lazy form.
  This kind of leads on from I am going to start doing more stuff with ebay to make some extra money, but also along the lines of I don't want to be as lazy and know that if I want to make more money I am going to have to work at finding/selling stuff to make it happen for me.
  Also in the work sense I found out I got my appraisal in the next two weeks which should be interesting as I want to find out why I should be looking to stay with the company and what they can offer me to further my career there, otherwise atm I am spending 200 quid a month on fuel to get there plus all the maintenance that I need to carry out on my car due to the high milage, and I have just been told to stick it out as it will pay off in the long run. This is also to do with the fact that if I am getting my own place next year then I want to know I am moving to Leicester with a good reason.

This also means more of me not so much hitting the gym, but doing things like getting my diet right. But I also gotta make sure I am doing things with plenty of time to spare and not leaving things to the last minute. I just want to get 100% on top of the issues that seem to bite me on the ass on occasion and be in control of what is going on.

First thing is first I got a figure I want to clear of my credit card within the next few months and I am gona have to be really strict not to make any huge purchases or buy stupid things that look cool but infact never get used, my DS is sorta a point in case for this. Great lil handheld console but I hardly ever play it.

I need an action plan and above is sort of rough action plan!! Now I leave to put some of that into action!

OK I just lifted this from an Audi forum and sums up my general feelings on the car atm. I love it but fucking hell it can be an arse to work on.


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It looks like mine and Matt's trip(s) to the USA are on next year, he has been invited back to Camp America so I may well be going over there to meet up with him for a week or two around septemeber....Gona have to be carefull to plan that around Alcon

Also I have decided on a money making plan for next year, pain in the ass I gotta wait tbh, but I am gona start buying and selling stuff on ebay. Mainly retro games, but might look into car parts also as can be a good way to boost up some income.
Basic plan is get bargains at bootfairs, and put em straight on ebay!

I am being a lazy fucker this week (and swearing alot!), not gona do weights but I am gona get in 5 hours cardio somehow..........but I already skipped monday and today.
 I am noticing the muscle gains I have made over the last few months which I am very happy with, but I have slipped on my diet big time and I need to get that back on track which I kinda started again today. The gains are not great but I am looking leaner which I am happier with but I need to trim off and get my cardio just a bit more above my current level.

Thats it for tonight...................wow I was actually concise for once!

The weekend was awesome, and the pics  are tagged/uploaded on my facebook of MPH, the guys from Top Gear did their thing rather well and it was fair to say that saturday at MPH was fairly fucking awesome with me getting as many freebies as I could........which was basically some shampoo, bag, shot of whiskey..............EA sports stuff and just other randomness.

And my original plans for sunday did not happen, however it is fair to say that the alternative was probably better and worked out just aswell.

On a not so bright note, my car is misbehaving and needs a few things sorting big time and I can tend to the main issue this weekend.
The fucking injector needs reseating which i put down to a dodgy washer when I uprated them, typical I put in a new part and it is shit!
I need new front tyres and also that rear driver side disc is fucked due to the caliper being on bent before.  Meh Some time this weekend on it should put things straight.

Meh I am watching superbad whilst typing this and I keep loosing attention, so gona finish now and do something properly later.

Interesting day today for what I expected to be just another friday at work that was gona be boring. Work was slow again but getting to work and having a bacon, sausage and mushroom torpedo.
  The journey to work however was a little entertaining and different, the first thing I must explain is that occasionally I may drift slightly over the speed limits on the rare occasion.............. well on the way to work today I had a BMW 5 series pull up behind me and on came the lights and I thought that I was being done for speeding a bit over the limit and had resided to the fact that was the end of my "clean licence"
So sitting there with the same feeling like you are in school and the head master or you boss or when you think you are about to get the shit kicked outa you, I wind down the window and I am like as polite as I can be. But the guy was like you know you have not tax disc, and I was like oh shit that fucking thing has slipped off again. So I picked it off the car floor and promised to get a new disc asap and he was really nice and just said to get it sorted.
So I was just told to get on my way and was rather happy at it just being thatm, so there you go a policeman told me to go and get a fancy new tax disc

Work was ok today also as had a conversation about what I would like to do with my career and the obivous thing has been that getting a DAPS qualification with allow me to proceed alot further in my long term career in the quarrying industry then just the short term promotions and in the short term of the next 2-3 years I will be gaining viatal expeiance that I can use once I get the degree.
So this descion has kinda cemented the fact that I need to move towards leicester and be closer to my work and it also means that I can at somepoint revert back to have a pertrol car and hopefully get something like a v6/v8(I wish for a v8 audi) but in the mean time a 155bhp diesel will do me.

Nothing really to coment on other then being very happily semi pissed or as I like to call it merry, had a beer, 3 bottles of bulmers and a shot of aftershcok..............so that explains any shitty grammer tonight..........or explainis it in general.

So tomorrow morning is MPH and I am looking forwards to this alot, expensive cars I can only dream of owning, sexy girls who look hot as untill they open their brummie mouths with alllllllllright chiiiiiiiiiic, and Jezza and the gang putting on an awsome show and me trying to get as many freebies as possible.

Also on a tv comentary I am really enjoying all my tv shows atm as all seem to be on form, with 30 rock had me lolling myu socks off tonight, and the same with scrubs...............I best call this quits as I am correcting an awfull lot.

I am bored, I don't know why I am bored but I am..... I think it has to do with chaos and my relationship with it.
I seem to be at peace when everything is crazy and stuff is going on all the time like people talking, stuff kicking off at work or just having the tv on, whilst on my laptop and surfing the net (can I still call it that?) and chatting on msn.
When I am not juggling things like crazy or not active doing something I find it difficault to switch off, and I never used to have to be doing something all the time. I used to be fine just doing nothing but maybe it is a good thing and maybe not.
So chaos = good,  peace = bad

I am very much so enjoying the cars new found power, especially sitting in 2nd at 30mph at around 2k revs or something like that with a chav or boy racer in a 1.4 trying to do his best racing impression and then I floor it leaving them in a cloud of smoke and a big smile on my face whilst being pushed back into my seat.
My new lights have all shown up now, all that is left is to spend a while fitting the new HID xenons and the new sidelights and I should actually be able to see at night!
 
Another thing this week is that I feel incredibly unmotivated, just been not feeling like doing stuff like I normally would and I don't know if this is down to the time of year or what. During the day at work I can't find enough to do as things are a bit quiet atm and I would rather be doing reports then clock watching for half a day.
  Get home thou and I am a bit like meh don't want to go to the gym, don't want to play ps2, don't want to read etc....
I gotta snap outa this as it only heads one way, hopefully this weekend should be a good opportunity to do so, I will be getting Matt from the Station in Leicester tomorrow and we are off to MPH on saturday morning with a possible awesome game of monopoly involving JD, whiskey, sambucca and whatever else.   Not sure on the rules yet, but I am sure we will improvise.
 
On sunday I may have a very awesome plan to be hatched, but pending not being hung over and a few other important bits and bobs it may or may not happen so can coment on that, or not as it was next week.

First thing is I am gladd I have finally gotten around to this blog, and it might be a slightly long one to catch up.

At the moment things seem to be slowly moving forwards for myself, I had a flu type virus when the London Expo was on (also odd at the may expo earlier this year I was getting over a bad cough) this made things really crap as I went down thinking I was nearly over it and taking enough pain killers would get me through it..................I was wrong and ran a huge temperature and prolly not 100% with it and not myself.
   Over the 5 or so days I had the virus I lost 8lbs!!!!!!!!! which I regained quickly after but that is alot to loose in such a short time.
I am gutted that I was unable to go into the expo as I found out the main guy behind Afro samurai was signing dvd's  and I really loved that series, perhaps he will be back there next year when season 2 has been released.
    I think being with kat helped makes things more bearable and she was great considering the state I was in and I promise to all of you I will be myself next time and do my best to get pissed!!!

Just after recovering I gave myself a good few days and took it lightly back in the gym and then got straight back into it, I am now starting to make noticable progress and my fitness is getting back to where I was at my peak last year.  I have a bit to go and I need to get more cardio into my week but I am starting to feel fit and better in myself.
Strength wise I can feel things coming on and the weights are slowly going up but mainly I am starting to get my body to do what I want it to and the progress now is going to be more depentant on my diet then the gym work. This is mainly fine apart from I really struggle to get 200 grams of protein a day. For example that is 8 chicken breasts a day!
  My weakness in my back is reducing and I am making progress there also which is something that seems perhaps small but I am happy with it.

Generally recently I have found myself bored silly as everything other then the gym costs so much! And I am trying to reduce my outgoings where possible so I can afford to go to big events like MPH and expo/Ireland etc......    but it is frustrating not to be able to do stuff when you want to.
So thank f*** for Lanma that relieves me of this boredom on tuesdays when I am not working the early shift that has me leaving work at 4pm so I can't be arsed to go from Whitwick to Rugby and back to the City Centre.
  I have resultingly started watching more US tv shows which I now have quite the weekly list of shows to watch and are all highly enjoyable and I gotta thank Leon for some great gems like reaper where the devil is actually oddly likeable.

I have just realised I comented on expo a week or two ago, gona leave it now thou.

I will be onto the car stuff in a min, so those of you who do read this and are not interested in my biggest obsession can skip it however it is worth reading I feel.

On a planning note I need to sort out what I am doing with my holidays next year. I already know I am prolly going to 3 or 4 cons and need about 6-8 days holiday held back for cons.......Althou a few I might have to leave untill the friday night to show up to as I only have 22 days holiday to use.
So perhaps 3-4 days for cons and stuff because I want to do a bit of touristy stuff in the USA with my brother. Looking to flyout in september as his camp USA finishes and then we rent a mustang, or something fast in a straight line that can't corner and drive across a few states and make our way from California to Ottowa (Canada) so that might be a few more weeks and it looks like I am left with 7 days to play with all year! 
Oh and there is the Ireland trip right at the begining of the year....

Next weekend me and Matt are off to MPH at the NEC and looking forward to this as it is sorta top gear live as the crew do a one hour show.
There will also be all the usual car stuff, 100's of supercars, loads of stuff I can't afford and girls in tight outfits! Like I said can't wait

And today was a good one, I finally got the Audi remapped although I was very hessitant as the car is about 10 years old and 137 k on the clock it has always run well.
The problem was thou one of my injectors has decided to become loose, I upgraded these earlier in the year and it seems the seal on it has gone and loosened itself a bit blowing some air out. However this was not an issue and may of helped gain some power.
   I originally had the car on some rollers earlier this year and it made 110 bhp and 170ish ft/lb of torque which was ok considering the age and milage.
   Today it made 106 bhp, which I put down to different rollers but still a good figure. I spoke to the guys at Chipped UK and when I said I was hopefull for 150ish bhp they were doubtfull as they felt the injectors would help but not that much.
The beast went and made 155 bhp and 222ft/lb of torque!!! get in 
The guys  at chipped uk were happy as was I, and the drive home was alot of fun, and I think I will need to do something to improve the brakes a bit at somepoint, also the suspension is next on my list.

 I have also just ordered some HID's and nice new sidelights for the car that should imrpove visability alot and make it look a bit better when I am flooring it at 155 bhp :D

So that is it for today, all really positive at the minute, just gotta keep pushing on with stuff.

Current Mood: accomplished

A few weeks ago it was broken to me that my Mum is selling the house in spring/summer next year and that I have two options for a place to live.
The first is that I can rent a place with my parents whilst they decide where they will buy their next house........now this means still driving to leicester and spending over 200 quid a month on fuel which is kinda a no no.
   And the second which is obvious from the above it move towards Whitwick and get my own place in some shape or form, and at first I quietly panicked at this though however I am now quite excited by the idea of having my own place again and being able to do what I want when I want.
It is however the means to getting a place, I do not know if I should look at buying a flat or renting one and this is gona take some thought becuase I want to live comfortably and be able to go out on occasion and go on holidays/cons/expo's etc.......

So it is this that now has me clearing my credit card as soon as I can, and trying to be better with money, and somehow I have already justified the purchase of a 32" flatscreen lcd waiting to go in the living room of unknown place next year.

If I do get my own place closer to work it does allow for an interesting shift on things car wise, the first shift is that I can get a petrol like a V6.
  And another thing is that I really need to book a holiday before I get a place as I would like to get away to USA next year with Matt as we discussed doing.

But will see what the future brings untill I hit panick stations and hopefully I got long enough to save some cash, pay off some bills and get a few trips in between!!!
   
Best work on getting a payrise/promotion at work then!

Current Location: Dark
Current Mood: enthralled