Well, flight isn’t exactly true, but the final drive of the Impreza doesn’t sound as good.

Back in 2005 I got the old girl to replace my even older Subaru. And she’s been a great car ever since.

Mechanically I’ve barely had an issue. The paint may have fallen off (as did the muffler) and the driver’s seat is partially collapsed, but I’ve spent many a mile in the old girl.

Since getting the Forester, the Impreza has had very little use. When Chris was working down the West Coast he did a bit of work on her and was using her as a get-about. The bits he’d tacked on are probably worth as much as the rest of the car, so in return for some work he did on Oscar, I said he could have the old girl.

So this Christmas I took the old girl for her final trip with me. Down to the Tasman Peninsula where Chris can take ownership.

It’s slightly odd - I’ve done an awful lot of travelling in the old Impreza, and as much as I loved driving it, I’m not that attached when it comes to letting her go.

I’d love to get my old Subaru back (my first car) - and Oscar the Pajero means a lot to me, but the daily drives just aren’t that special. Same with the Forester - if it was replaced with an equally good vehicle, I wouldn’t mind all that much. It’s odd which cars you get attached to, and which are just tools.

That said, I still have fond memories of her - I hope Chris gets her back to some of her former glory and gets some use out of the old girl. She’s a bit rough, but her heart is still strong. Farewell old friend. 

   

So - I recently got a score from Lego.com.

For those who don’t know, Lego Dimensions is a console game (xbox, playstation etc) where you can use certain Lego figures and models to play the actual game.

For people that don’t have the game itself, it’s basically a way to collect Lego minifigs. You see, Lego gets some licenses especially for the Dimensions game, and that’s the only way to get those minifigs.

Unfortunately it’s an expensive way to get the minifigs.

The "Fun Packs" which contain one minifig and a small build (ET, Mr T, and Tina Goldstein from Fantastic Beasts in the photo above) generally sell for around $25 each. That makes for an expensive minifig, but it can be the only way to get them.

The "Team Packs" with two minifigs (ie the Gremlins one above) are around $40.

The Level packs (like Sonic) are $50 as they contain more game content even though it only has one minifig.

The Story Packs are the biggest of the lot and contain only a single minifig, but a lot of in-game content and a model that goes on the actual gameboard device when you are playing. They’d set you back a whopping $70. 

So if you want both available characters from Fantastic Beasts, that’s almost $100 for two minifigs (and a few small models you may or may not want).

Essentially you’d have to be a major fan of the figures in question to even consider it, and even then it’s only worth it if you also play the game, and maybe not even then.

Now that’s a lot of explanation just to set the stage.

You see - something went wonky on the Lego.com Australian shop. I don’t know if it was an error or if it was some massive discounting that they didn’t really advertise or what - but the prices for the newest sets were massively lower than normal.

I checked some of the other Lego.com sites - and it seemed to only be the Australian version of the store that had the discounted prices. The Yanks must have been kicking themselves.

The $70 Story Packs I mentioned earlier, well they were down to $16!

That’s insane - especially for a brand new product - it had only just been released.

The older sets were still their normal prices, only the new ones were crazy cheap.

In addition, the team packs which are normally $40 were down to $13, and the Level Packs which are normally $50 were down to $10. That doesn’t even make sense.

The $25 fun packs were down to $7, which doesn’t seem like much of a markdown in comparison to the others.

This all coincided with my workmate wanting to place a Christmas order - so we easily reached the free shipping threshold - twice! That meant we could split the order in two and get two of the free gifts (they actually had two promotions so that was 4 free gifts in total).

I just wanted to take a photo of them all together before I break open the boxes. 

For anyone who missed out, sorry - but the prices are all back to normal now.

 

Time to rejoice, as I finally have a proper aircon unit in my house.

And not just any aircon, but a fully ducted system!

Of course, since installation the only really warm day was when I wasn’t home - but this thing should be awesome when the heat rolls in (or equally the cold).

 

Look at the size of that thing! The unit that went in the roof was far larger than I expected - those things on top are rolls of duct tape for scale.

 

The installers had to remove part of the roof to get it in - took them from 8:30 in the morning until approaching 7 in the evening - was a big job!

 

This is the outside section. She’s not small either.

Now I just need to wait and see how much the power bill is impacted...

 

My cousin Hannah got married the other week to a chap called James (or maybe David, but that’s another story...)

In addition to the fact that my cousin getting married is awesome in and of itself, my Forester was part of the wedding procession!

 

 

Wow - as of Dec 4th, I’ve been with TT-Line for 10 years.

Long Service Leave, here I come!