Both Diane and I have kerbed our cars. Needless to say, Diane managed this in a rather mundane way, where I suffered a racing incident at full left lock. In both cases, remedial action was necessary. Tractor’s front left:

And the SS’s rear left – properly kerbed!

I started with the tractor wheel – gave it a good wash and a sanding.

At this point I realised that I needed to go the whole hog and remove the wheel to paint it.

Prepared and ready to go:

Two coats of Titan Silver and a coat of lacquer later, and things were looking much better. Big thanks to Tom Titler for supplying these paints (back in 2006!). While I’m mentioning people, I should also express my apologies to Julian Lockyear, who sold me these wheels in immaculate condition and good faith (that this would never happen to them).

While this was drying, it was time to turn my attention to the M5′s wheel.

I think these wheels are actually made black, and a silver finish is applied to the front. In the above picture, at about 11 o’clock the blackness appeared after I used a bit too much Autosol metal polish. The spray cans soon sorted that!

Both wheels drying on the garage floor:

Ready to put the tractor back together:

And there we go:

Finally, a close up of the M5′s wheel:

Not perfect by any means, but a substantial improvement. Clearly a better option would be to have them professionally refurbished, but that would be more expensive and then I’d be really afraid of further damage. I think the best solution would be not to kerb the wheels in the first place, but sadly this requires more co-ordination than in readily available in our household.

I’ve been asked to document a curry recipe. The thing is, my curries are a bit like snowflakes: each is unique. So I’ve decided to document my curry of the ‘moment’ – I may well revise this to be month/week/day as appropriate later. This then is a recipe for a chicken and vegetable madras or jalfrezi, depending on your view. If it were up to me I’d cook it with prawns, but Diane doesn’t like them so I’ve made it with chicken. Again, normally if forced away from prawns I’d have chicken on the bone, but chose to chop chicken breast to make this recipe more obviously interchangeable with prawns.

So here’s a recipe for a curry for two – fairly hot. It is designed to be relatively healthy – I’m not aiming for the greasy thick curry house sauce tonight.

To start, chop some garlic. I chose three cloves; if you’re a pasty-often-unwell sort I’d advise eating more. If you’ve got a date, probably use less.

Then, peel and chop an onion.

Gently fry this lot up in vegetable/sunflower oil on a low temperature – cooking without colour at this stage.

Get two large spoonfuls of Patak’s madras paste in the mix. Make absolutely sure you buy paste not pre-mixed sauce – the paste is excellent; the sauce atrocious.

Chop 4 small cup mushrooms.

Add mushrooms and chopped cauliflower to the mix.

Now turn the heat right up to fry that veg. In the meantime, chop the chicken (or open the prawns!). Then once the pan is nice and hot, add the meat.

While you’re getting the meat cooked, get a nice big pan of water heating for the rice. Important to have plenty of water to prevent the rice sticking together. Sprinkle some salt in the curry dish, dump an extremely unhealthy portion of salt into the rice water. Also, add a splash of vegetable oil to the rice water. Only use Basmati rice; it’s expensive and absolutely worth it. No other rice will do! Half a pint of rice is about right for two people:

Once the water is boiling, add the rice. Once the meat is cooked, add the can of chopped tomatoes. Don’t let the chicken cook too much if it’s not on the bone – it’ll go all dry and chammy. Stir all this in.

Next, if like me you like it hot, add some chilis. I’ve chosen to top and tail them, and then slice them along their length. This gets all the seeds into the mix, but allows girls to easily remove the greenery.

Next, open the coconut milk and empty almost half the can into the now empty chopped tomato can. Swill that around to mix it all up. Then, slowly (important to prevent separation), add this to the sauce. If you like it hot, add less; if not, add more.

Keep an eye on the rice during all this. If a scum builds up as in the picture below, scoop it off with a spoon. Rice should be gently twirling in the water – not boiling too furiously (too hot), nor stuck at the bottom (too cold).  Rice needs constant attention to get it right.

Repeatedly check the rice – as soon as the grains aren’t hard in the middle, it is ready. Sieve the rice, then roughly chop coriander.

Sprinkle this on the curry.

Then serve and enjoy with a nice bottle of red. Chin chin!

Finally, avoid burning yourself on a pan while adjusting the gas – the injury rather slows down the eating, and then the “writing up”.

So, the day we moved in, Di’s new office looked like this:

Very green and gold! We’ve finally moved all her clutter in, and more importantly, backed the walls off to bare plaster, and changed the light fittings.

On Friday night, the other end of that room looked like this:

It’s been a busy weekend!

We’re waiting on a quote to get the ceilings skimmed, and we’ll get my 30th birthday ‘do’ out of the way before we consider starting the painting process.

Also, Diane has finished varnishing the spice rack Robin has made us, so we’re chuffed to see that in place:

It’s been a while, and I’m sorry car fans but next to naff all has occurred with the vehicles. They’ve both been regularly driven, in the usual style, but nothing to report. Well, I had a good trip in the M5 last Saturday: to Brighton to drop off Di, then to Heathrow to collect Robin – all very civilised.

At home we’ve had a bit of progress. We’ve now got 3 of 5 bedrooms usable which is nice. We’re cracking on nicely with Diane’s office. Preparing the walls for decoration takes ages but we’re getting there. This is the final end that needs doing:

Note the lovely green walls and splendid gold light fittings. The other end of the room, bare, looks rather better!

Decorating is of course rather an undignified process!

Outside matters are a bit more pleasant. We had a breakfast of fresh English garden apples (from our tree), and fresh Californian oranges (from Robin’s garden). How often do you manage that! Completely organic, not a pesticide in sight. Here’s Diane munching some cereal under our apple tree:

Note the minging old BBQ in the background. That’s not a BBQ – THIS is a BBQ!

I’ll be off out to get some gas for that later. On other matters, Robin has constructed this rather fine spice rack for our kitchen. The final job is to varnish it, but exquisite work from the Willis as usual, finely crafting this Californian Red Oak for our English kitchen.

Finally, I got Diane a new lens for her camera for her birthday that makes her look like rather a pro!

In case there’s another summer’s evening this year, I would like to be able to use the garden after dark. The existing lighting arrangements weren’t acceptable.

£70 for 5 lanterns, bulbs and cabling at Wickes, and we were off.

Don’t worry. It’ll be FINE!

Really chuffed with the result – a nicely illuminated garden. Now, where’s that summer’s evening…

Now, what else can I do to avoid unpacking?

I moved house today. Not a great deal has sunk in, except that Diane and I are now in a quite ridiculous amount of debt, and the government has received an obscene stamp duty payment that I have every confidence will be suitably wasted. In this post, I’d like to concentrate on the outgoing house.

Built around 1980, I moved in to 46 Tregarth Place 22 years later. It hadn’t had much love in that time. Original carpets and bathroom. The kitchen had one drawer and three cupboards. Woodchip on every wall. However, it had two bedrooms and a tidy garage, so I was chuffed.

I’m really disappointed I don’t have many photos from back then. Here’s one from Christmas day 2002 – Robin tending to dinner:

Note the nasty electric cooker, the complete lack of lower cupboards etc. Another shot of Tom and Robin from that night:

Yes, that’s yellow woodchip. Nice eh?

We left the kitchen in considerably better condition. Hardly showhome standard, but modern, no less than 6 drawers(!), properly tiled floor, under-cupboard lighting etc.

Okay, so the cooker may not look that great, but it was gas and it got things hot quickly. I loved it!

Here’s a photo of the living room from Christmas 2004.

Lovely blue woodchip, crap carpet etc. This is how it was left today:

The bathroom that Alex installed over Easter 2006:

2nd bedroom (Diane’s office)

Main bedroom (a *lot* bigger than our new bedroom)

Finally, garden shots:

In our time there, the house had a new bathroom, new kitchen, double glazing and new doors, new carpets, a shed, and a general all-round tidy. Lucky new owners!

Really enjoyed my time there – some crazy parties! When living in a terrace the general experience relies on good neighbours, and I had some really good neighbours. Overall, a good 7 years!

For those who don’t know, I’m buying my parents’ garage and driveway. Apparently there’s a house in the deal too, but that’s less interesting. I decided that in order to make it (the garage) into a good home for my toys I should clear it out, so I emptied the contents into the garden:

Over a decade of car and disco gear there! It was really strange to see the garage empty for the first time I first moved in as a child. I’d forgotten there was a window at the end!

We’ve even painted the floor a delightful shade of blue:

There was a lot of crap to take to the dump – two 330d fulls and one M5 full to be precise. I was amused by using the M5 for such a purpose, so took a couple of photos:

While waiting for the floor to dry I noticed the extension roof was a tad mossy.

So I decided to do something about it.

Quite a difference!

However, I soon realised that in order to reach the top I was going to have to do something rather more extreme than just standing on the bay window.

And for those hard to reach parts, I enlisted the help of my favourite jack handle:

Last weekend I went to Rock äm Ring – a German rock festival held at the Nűrburging. It proved to be a great boys weekend, with a squad of Bens, Brenden, Jonny, Pete, Richie, Steve and me. We took the Shaguar and the 330d:

I was pleased to make it from the ferry to Germany without stopping, let alone getting out of the car. After an entertaining meal out and night stop over in Aachen, we were up bright and early to make tracks for the ‘ring. Geddit?

The Lidl in Breidscheid is normally full of stickered cars, but not quite like this:

We moved to the circuit, where we’d paid a premium for track side camping. Initially it looked as though we were going to struggle to find a place, but eventually lady luck (in the form of some Swiss, eager to avoid the Germans) found us, and we had a place. Ringers: we were by the 3km mark (Hocheichen).

It soon became apparent that as the festival didn’t start until Friday, we should spend Thursday drinking. So Huge and I nipped out to top up the 330d’s tanks.

However, none of us were prepared for the Germans and their crazy drinking games. Good videos of the festivities on Brenden’s site.

We decided to play them at their own game. We even won a few times:

But ultimately, we were all wrecked by 4pm.

To the soundtrack of the German’s rock sound system, all kind of crazy capers commenced. Those lucky enough passed out by 6pm. The rest of us continued:

Eventually we’d had enough of the German’s rather gruff taste in music, so we unleashed the 330d’s system, complete with roof top ghetto blaster. We weren’t as loud, but the Germans soon bowed to our superior taste in music and switched their system off.

It was a great night. And an even greater hangover. In the morning we were all ruined. The Germans, of course, had barely noticed the previous night’s drinking.

We went for a walk along the circuit to get some currywurst, and stumbled across many unusual sights. This is perhaps the highlight:

We nipped up to the festival. During Papa Roach’s performance, a Jager balloon flew over.

The main stage area was HUGE. A capacity of about 70,000, and easily a 100K+ sound system. It rocked!

That night saw Placebo and The Killers as the headline acts on the main stage. Placebo (below), were many, many, many times better than I had expected. A great show, and immense talent. I was really impressed.

The Killers were frankly awful. No interaction, no show, just a dull, dreary performance of their collection of frankly bland ‘hits’. So I went to see Basement Jaxx on another stage, who were amazing!

On Saturday I felt slightly better, but the German’s insistance on playing their sound system until 6am in the morning had got the better of me, and my tent was leaking in the rain. I checked into my favourite Bavarian haunt:

Saturday night at the festival was amazing. We saw Machine Head (or Machine-F*cking-Head) as every moronic German shouted repeatedly for the rest of the weekend).

Then the Prodigy were on. No photos for this – it was full mosh-pit action. Hilarious stuff!

The headline acts for Saturday night were Slipknot. Heavy metal! The arena was at capacity, with everyone from front to back leaping around like loonies to powerful rock. Crazy Germans!

I was pleased to get back to the cafe that night. I ventured down from our room about midnight to sneak a quick beer (I’d been driving), and was delighted to find an on-road-cafe and more importantly on-form Lex behind the bar. “How is Neil?!” he asked. “Cold, tired and in need of a beer”. “Here’s a beer, and now you have thisch yellow shit on the housche!”. It was fantastic. We didn’t get to bed until 3, but apparently the Germans left their PA on until 7:18am that morning so we fared better than those who opted to stay at the camp site.

Needless to say, on Sunday all 8 of us were checked into the Cafe. The camp site was a mess – just look at the state of our neighbour’s site!

We spent a lazy afternoon in the cafe:

We popped out for a quick steak on a stone, at an alternative to the Pistonklause we found in Adenau.

And then came back to the cafe. We watched Billy Talent and Limp Bizkit on MTV, and were glad we didn’t bother returning to the festival to see them.

Great weekend!

The M5 passed its MOT first time without advisories today. Woohoo! Etc.

The M5′s native navigation system is incredibly slow and ugly. All the graphics for the computer and radio functions look rather 90s.

I had acquired a widescreen unit for the front of the car, but this didn’t really improve the on-screen graphics, and the navigation was still so very slow.

The navigation computer is a MkII CD based device in the boot.

I acquired a MkIV DVD based system on eBay, so pulled the fuse for the nav system, hauled out the out unit. They are both the same physical size, but the new MkIV unit has an additional connection (see below in red).

It turns out that this is for the GPS aerial. In standard form the car has a “Trimble” GPS module to which the GPS aerial connects. This information then passes to the nav computer along the main wiring. The MkIV computer has its own on-board GPS module, so I needed to locate the Trimble unit, and move the GPS aerial connection. This connection can be seen in the centre of the photo below. I tried to highlight this in red, but perhaps a different colour would have made matters clearer!

This done, it was time to get the new computer in place.

I popped the nav system fuse back in, switched on the ignition and waited. Immediately I got the nice ~BMW~ logo on screen that I am familiar with in the 330d. Next the interface came to life looking significantly improved. The only issue seemed to be that the car thought it was somewhere up north.

The GPS service menu (accessed by going to ‘SET’, moving the cursor down, then holding down ‘MENU’ for about 6 seconds) told me that there was satelite inteference. I wasn’t sure what to do at this point – I knew I had connected the GPS cable correctly, and there’s not much else that can go wrong! I nipped back to the laptop to do some research, returned a couple of minutes later none the wiser, but did find that the car had found a couple of satelites. It still thought it was up north though! Still, about five minutes later I was greeted with this display:

Bonus! Lo and behold, the map system is now nice and spangly, with the added bonus of it even knowing where I am!

Nice and smart in the boot too. Overall – *so* much better than before. It is really quick too – maybe I need to do the same in the tractor!