And this week's comedy beer is...

...Efes Pilsener. Turkish - 5%. Unusual taste but nice - very nice...

Regards,


djp

And this week's comedy beer is...

...Yanjing Beer. From China. 4.5%. Kind of watery-tasting, but not unpleasant. "The Beer of High Official Manifestations", by all accounts, which probably means that it's served at high-level Communist Party beanos.

Regards,


djp

Out with the old, in with the new(ish)...

Momentous occasion today...

...I traded in my 16 year-old Lexus LS 400...



...for a 2006 Toyota Prius...

Bit of a change, wha'...?

I've been the proud owner of two Lexuses over an 8 year period. The first one was a bit of dog, to be honest, and I moved it on after a few years when I just couldn't keep up with the maintenance bills. The second one, which I've just traded-in, has been much easier on the pocket in terms of maintenance.

While we were planning our house move, I decided that I wouldn't make a long commitment to keep the Lexus - just go from NCT to NCT and see what happens. The next NCT test would have been due next April...

...but then bits started going wrong and the cost of repairing/replacing them would have been more than the car is actually worth. And sourcing used parts for a Lexus is not any easy thing to do, particularly when online retailers can't or won't guarantee that the replacement part is a matcher for the part being replaced. And the only way to find out if the part matches is to go through the process of physical replacement - the hard and costly way...

In addition to this, I suppose I was starting to get somewhat guilty about driving a 4-litre V-8 behemoth in these environmentally-conscious (not to mention recessionary) times. So a few months ago I started the process of looking for a newer car, either a hybrid (essentially a Prius - I could never warm to the notion of the Honda Civic hybird for some reason) or a big diesel automatic.

As time wore on, the maths won me over to the Prius - the road tax for a big diesel would have been significantly more expensive than that for the Prius (though still cheaper than the Lexus) and I'm not entirely convinced about diesel-engined cars. A mate at work has a 2007 BMW 520d and he's getting impressive fuel economy (c. 42 mpg) and I'm sure the engine sounds fine when in motion. But I still think an idling diesel engine sounds like someone rattling spanners in a rusty bucket. Big diesel engines sound much better at idle, but then you're back to the tax issue, innit?

I'd had a Prius on hire in France a few years ago and was very impressed with its fuel economy and, in fairness, taking into account the purpose for which it is designed, its performance ain't half-bad.

So I pulled the trigger and made the change this morning. Initial impressions?:-

1. While not exactly going "like stink" on the motorway, it gives a good account for itself acceleration-wise
2. The stop-start system is wonderful and makes a hell of a difference to fuel consumption
3. The cabin seems to be roomy and comfortable
4. The boot isn't great in terms of capacity, but no small-medium sized car has a big boot, to be fair. And having once owned a Vauxhall Carlton estate, which had a pretty hefty cargo space, I was never particularly impressed with the boot in the Lexus, to be honest. Plus, I have to say that the days of family holidays with a fully-packed car are unlikely to be a feature of the future. Time marches on and that...
5. Not mad about the design of the back of the car - looks rather narrow and that spoiler affair is a minor nuisance. Having said that (a) I don't intend spending too much time looking at the back of the car (b) as evidenced by the photo above, if you come at it from a particular angle, it doesn't really look that narrow (c) they seem to look wider when seen on TV...
6. Speaking of which, three of my TV heroes drive Priuses:- Dr. Cal Lightman, Larry David and...er...Brian from Family Guy
7. Costwise, I'm already getting a significant discount on my car insurance from having switched from the Lexus. The cost of taxing the Prius for the year is cheaper than the cost of taxing the Lexus for three months. And I reckon my spend on petrol per month should at least halve. So, I'm hoping to save at least €200 per month with the Prius.
8. So, fuel economy -starry, bud? After driving about 50 km today, including two short sprints up the M7, and two or three trips in and out of town, my average consumption at the moment is 5.4l/100km, which equates, in terms that Jeremy Clarkson would understand, to a smidge over 52 mpg. I always reckoned that if I got a decent run on the motorway with the Lexus, I'd get around 23 or 24 mpg. Around town, I reckoned I'd get the same level of fuel economy as you would in an ordinary family car which had holes drilled in the petrol tank...

So far, so good. But there is a twist to the tale - I have already advised Mrs. P that as soon as I can find a decent and affordable Lexus hybrid, I'll be switching back to the prestige marque. That won't be for a while, I'm guessing...;-)

I still think the Lexus LS400 is a beautiful car, with the sweetest-sounding "lazy" V-8 I've ever heard. I would occasionally delight in driving into a multi-storey car park, wind down the window and just listen to the engine as I slowly (and very bloody carefully) ascended the ramps. Sad bastid...

My love-affair with the LS started in 1989. I was flying to the US for a wedding and the in-flight magazine carried an article on a new Toyota car that was going to take-on the Mercedes S-Class. There and then, I vowed that I would get me a piece of that action, and some thirteen years later, I duly did.

I've had no real regrets about owning Lexuses. OK, the bills could be shocking (and were occasionally hidden from Mrs. P) but the sheer joy of owning a big, luxurious car was significant. Plus there was the satisfaction of being able to "scratch that itch". Not many people are able to do that.

Alright, I have one regret - that I couldn't afford to take the Lexus off the road for a few years and wait for it to become a vintage vehicle, with all the financial advantages attaching thereto. It would have been nice to be able to put a few bob into doing up the car and, you know, taking it for the occasional run at weekends and on holidays. Unfortunately, my name is not Croesus of Lydia, and while I could probably scrape few bob together to do a few jobs on the car, what would happen if, next April, having put a grand or two into the car, it failed the NCT irreparably? Naah, the wise thing to do in this case was to jump before I was pushed. So, on balance, no regrets...

Beep-beep,

djp

And this week's comedy beer is...

...Birra Moretti. Italian. 4.6%. A light-tasting beer - almost, but not quite (thankfully) tasting like alcohol-free beer. Pleasant...

Regards,


djp

The things I have to do, eh...?

In an effort to watch tonight's Magners League match between Edinburgh and Munster, I had a choice between watching it with an Irish Gaelic commentary on TG4, or a Scots Gaelic commentary on BBC Alba. Neither channel offers simultaneous commentary in English.

I started off watching the match on TG4, but the accent of the co-commentator was so harsh and unpleasant that I switched to BBC Alba. Even though I understood even less of the Scots Gaelic commentary than the Irish Gaelic, the Scottish commentator had a soft and pleasant voice. Plus there were some interviews in English that were not expected.

Looks like I'll be going back to BBC Alba when the need arises again.

Regards,


djp

The triumph of optimism over experience?

As seen on my morning walk today...

We'll know the outcome by 6 this evening. May the best team, eh?

Regards,

djp

Cash purchase

I was in Limerick buying shoes for a wedding I am attending in the coming week.

I hate shopping for clothes generally - shoes are a particular problem for me, in that I have rather wide feet, and modern footwear fashions dictate that you need to have narrow and very pointy feet in order to get anything remotely "trendy". I also have a thing about not buying terribly expensive shoes, in that (a) they're only going to get scuffed and worn and/or (b) at some stage I am going to get sick of wearing the damn shoes, and it'll be easier for me to chuck out an old worn cheap pair that I'm sick of, rather than an expensive, "good" pair that I'm sick of...

...or maybe I'm just a tightwad (there are other types of "wad" that one could be, I suppose - a "tight" one isn't necessarily the worst type...).

Spent hours roaming around Limerick and couldn't find anything that ticked the various boxes:-

1. - right colour to go with my suit
2. - right price
3. - looked nice
4. - actually fit

Eventually, I headed out to one of the out-of-town shopping centres and got what I was looking for, so much so that I even bought a second pair as part of a special offer.

But that, in itself, was not remarkable. What was remarkable was that while I was waiting to be served in the shoe shop, some chap came to the counter to make a purchase and gave a €200 note to the shop assistant. €200 notes are as rare as hen's teeth in Ireland, and the shop assistant wisely went to her manager to get approval to accept it. One minute later and the shop assistant apologised to her customer:- "Sorry, sir, my manager says we can't take a €200 note..."

"Oh, that's alright", sez yer man, and without further ado (or resort to other literary cliché), he extracts a big fat roll of banknotes out of his trousers pocket and peels off a couple of €100 notes...

Now, in these recessionary times, I don't know too many legitimate professions whereby a young looking guy wearing sports/leisure wear can make cash purchases using large-denomination banknotes carried around in his pocket. He certainly didn't look like a drug dealer or other variety of criminal. But I thought it prudent not to make eye contact with him nonetheless...

Regards,

djp

And this week's comedy beer is...

Crabbie's Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer. 4%. A bit sweet, but not terribly "ginger-y". Certainly nothing like the ginger ale they serve in Ikea.

Regards,


djp

And the ringtone for September 2010 is...

..."First Day", from the Futureheads' superb eponymous debut album.

Regards,


djp

My Top 10 iPod tracks - 010910

1. (-) - Adventures Close To Home - The Slits
2. (-) - Detox Mansion - Ben Gott
3. (-) - Acceptable In The 80s - Calvin Harris
4. (-) - Help - The Damned
5. (-) - Bust - Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards
6. (-) - Burn (Live) - Deep Purple
7. (-) - Set The House Ablaze - The Jam
8. (-) - Echo Park - Joseph Arthur
9. (-) - Snowblind - PlusMinus
10. (-) - Take On Me - a-ha

Regards,

djp