Cars: Car profile

I have always been a keen driver, especially when someone else was paying for it ! So what cars have I owned over the years ? (in some form or another)

• Mini Clubman 1000cc (1980)
  Company Car. Engine kept having problems, rebuilt a couple of times. (don't know why, I never revved it more than maximum revs....)
  
• Austin Allegro
  Company Car. Surprising how many people you can get in an Allegro
  A different Austin Allegro
  Company Car. First experience of lift-off oversteer. Luckily Tree wasn't damaged..... car written off. Oops.....
• Citroen Athena
  Bosses car, used fairly regularly whilst I was "rested" from company car ownership..... first experience of 3 figure speeds (it was socially acceptable in those days) however was unable to think of suitable reasons to explain to boss why his fuel consumption halved whenever I drive his car..... so fun was seriously curtailed after various "discussions" on driving technique.
  
• Talbot Solara
  Company Car. Rubbish car, but permanently on the road again! Learnt about weight transfer when swerving to avoid truck pulling out in front of me. Luckily the barrier on the A3 Hook underpass wasn't damaged.... car written off....... probably did car loving humanity a favour though....
  
• Talbot Solara Series II
  Company Car. Very exciting as the first car I had from brand new. Also first one I had with 5 speed gearbox ! (it is some new fanged gadget, will never catch on..)
  
• BMW 316
  Company Car. Only had it for a month.... didn't want to give it back, as in those days it was cool to have a Beema
  
• Ford XR3i
  Company Car. Ended up with engine on fire when starting it one day, probably petrol leak in engine bay... write off of course (but not my fault this time !!)
  
• Ford Capri 1.6L Laser
  Company Car. First real experience of rear wheel drive. Also first experience of a big tank slapper.... luckily didn't hit anything, and my passenger ended up marrying me, so couldn't have been that bad :-)
  
• Cant remember what I had next (1990)
  Company car of some sort.
  
• Saab 900i auto (1990)
  Company Car. Working in London now. Daily commute, yuk.
  
• Saab 900s manual (1991)
  Company Car.
  
• Cannot remember (1992-94)
  Company Car. Some repmobile or other probably
  
• Rover 216 (1994)
  Changed company, this was obviously a company car !
  
• Rover SDI 3.5 V8 (1994)
  First car I owned myself. Changed company and decided to get car allowance. Only lasted about 7 weeks before it collapsed in a heap of rust and mangled bits (£50 for a car wasn't much even in those days)
  
• Renault 19 1.3 (1994)
  My car. Great car actually.
  
• Cannot remember (1996 )
  Company car. Doing high mileage so went back to company car.
  
• Renault Laguna 2.0 Sport (1997)
  Company car. Sport meant you got the "firm" seats (i.e. - your head doesn't touch the side windows when you turn the steering wheel)
• Saab 900 Turbo (1997)
  My car again. Changed company just as Tony Blair got into power... bound to hammer company car drivers, so I went for a car allowance. Very quick car (once Turbo has spun up that is, none of this namby-pamby low-pressure turbo rubbish)
  
• Lotus Elise (1997)
  "Our" weekend car. until wife wanted to sell her half..... Hmmmm, OK. Absolutely wonderful car though, would love to race one. (we all need to dream)
  
• Subaru Impreza Turbo (1999)
  My Car. mine, mine, mine.... one of the most reliable cars in the business, so why did it throw a rod through one of the cylinders then ? Complete engine rebuilt under warranty (luckily) Great car, but refused to be driven sensibly. I must be getting old as started worrying about my Driving License.
  
• Jaguar XK8 Convertible (2002)
  My car. Fantastic car, not just for posing in either. Only sold it to provide my racing budget (and some stuff for the house, but hey....) Might own another one again (or maybe an Exige would be better..)
  
• Land Rover Discovery Td5 (2003)
  Company Car. To tow my race car of course. Tax liability is a bit of a bugger, but you can't beat it for towing.
  
• Range Rover (2004)
  Company Car. Temporary arrangement from May-Sept. Unbelievably, you cannot buy a new Discovery at the moment !
  
• Jeep Grand Cherokee (2004)
  Company Car. Temporary arrangement from Sept 04- Apr 05 Auto gearbox, but fantastic V8 petrol engine. Great for towing and not bad in a straight line :-)
  
• Subaru Forester 2.5 XT (Mar 2005)
  Own car Can tow 2 tonnes and goes like stink as well

Gambling: Blackjack elimination tournaments

I have recently taken to playing the occasional game of Blackjack online, especially after a long Poker session (http://www.ultimatebet.com/blackjack)

Started playing the cash games, but found I either won a little or lost a lot! so now turned to the Elimination tournaments. These last up to 30 hands and are playing for a prize pool rather than putting cash in each hand. At the moment am having some success at the $1 games, so just a bit of fun really.... although there is some high standard of tournament play even at this level

In the main, anyone with good understanding of how to play a tournament (rather than playing normal blackjack) should do well, so will keep you posted as to progress in future posts

General: Harry Potter

Went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/

Despite going to the 5:30pm showing, there were about half the audience who were couples without children in tow, so just goes to show the wide age range appeal of Harry (I am not the only big kid :-) )

The film itself was pretty good, no big surpises if you saw the previous films (and read the books of course :-) ) but certainly fan's will thoroughly enjoy the film and not such great fans (like the missus) will sit through it and enjoy it, so overall a winner I think

Cars: TVR at Brooklands

Today was a bit of a "Sport" day :-)

Went to the TVR club day at Brooklands Motor Museum (http://www.brooklandsmuseum.co.uk/) to begin with and had a good look (and listen !) to the TVR's that were displaying. There were all shapes and sizes so was very interesting to see. We wandered around the lines of TVR, then they all went and lined up for a photo shoot on the old banking, so we went up to the bridge and took some photo's then had some lunch before wandering around the rest of the cars. I was hoping to see the going up the hill, but didn't look like they were schedules to start until mid afternoon, so ended up leaving without seeing that spectacle.

There was also a Mercedes Club day happening at Mercedes World next door, so had a look around at the exhibits outside (and watched listened to the AMG rides round the track) Lynn wanted to look at the cars in the showroom, so went in but the GP was being shown on their TV's so didn't hang around long

Went home and watched the GP that I was recording, which was also great entertainment, then it was just a case of watching the end of the golf.

All this sport is very tiring so will have to have a little rest now !

Music: Bullfrog band

Simon and Lil came over for dinner this weekend and had happened to see that there was a Rythym & Blues band playing at the Four Horseshoes, so suggested we go over for a swift half and see if they were any good

As it turned out, the band was great and all had a really good time watching the band

Their web site is at http://www.bullfrogband.co.uk/ if you want to check them out

Poker: Home Tournament : July 2007

Back to the normal Pot Limit format this month, but a good turnout (14)

Not sure what has happened but everyone seems to have taken a sensible poker pill this month.... :-) Although the action was frantic as normal, we had very small (comparatively) number of rebuys and still had 9 people going into the last 20 minutes ! Everyone was playing good poker and some weird luck was going round this time....

For me, it was mainly bad luck of course :-) I was playing normal style tonight and three key hands ruined my chances... one was against Joe, when I was all in and ahead with Joe looking for one of 8 outs post flop.... of course he hit on the River to complete a middle pin straight draw. Later on Andy W was all in against me and I was way ahead with A-2 in my hand and A on the flop, I then hit a straight on the turn, but the river put a straight on the board so we had a miracle split rather than me winning. In fairness I did then hit one bit of good luck when all-in against Joe with my J-5 against A-9, despite a 9 on the flop I hit runner runner to double up, although I was short stacked which was why I was playing J-5 in the first place :-) My last hand I was A-Q against Bill with 8-2, but the 2 hitting the flop was enough to take me out the tournament.

Talking of Bill, he took out 8 players.. partly though loose aggressive play and partly by pure luck (some people may say) His huge pot sized bet on the River convinced Andy he was bluffing but when the cards came over, he did have a hand (compared to Andy's A high if I remember correctly) but he also flopped a flush, a nut flush, Full House... the list seemed to go on. The chips were certainly moving around the table though

When we did eventually have a final table, the players fell quite rapidly. Alex had managed to cling on to maintain his 100% record of points scoring so far but went out in 8th place this time. Roger made some brave moves as lowest stack but ended on the cash bubble (4th)

The final hand saw Bill and Simon both needing to win at least the blinds in order to win, but as Jon had nothing to loose by going all-in as short stack, we saw all the chips in the middle (except the odd chips Simon had left over) It could have gone to any of the three, but Bill took the lot by hitting one of his cards to make pair 8's to take the tournament win and the lead in the League table as well !

Very close, tense (and in some ways odd) game but highly enjoyable (and cheap) night out

League positions are still very open, so anyone can still get a good run to win ! Roll on next month...