WARNING!jawaproSun 28/11/2010 08:54 PM
Batten down the hatches! Raise the shields! Secure your Wi-Fi! Brace for impact!
Turkeybrain and Team No-Spoon are invading Devonport!
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Long WeekendjawaproSun 28/11/2010 08:50 PM
Twas a long weekend in Devonport for the Show Day - but I sort of wasted it by sticking around here and doing housework and stuff. But it needed doing, and with the Invasion planned for Monday, it needed doing quickly.
Wasn’t a total loss though - went driving with Dad and the family on Saturday for a few hours. Not real 4x4 country, but a nice drive anyway. Driving in the wet is fun :)
I also finally built my Lego Dino Chopper. Not only is it probably the coolest helicopter Lego has ever produced, but it also completes my Dino Attack collection. I own all the sets now.
Ironically, there was also a Dino 2010 series that was sold in Europe instead of Dino Attack. It’s essentially the same sets, but without the guns. Instead they have nets and things to capture the dinosaurs. Europe is pacifist, and the US and Australia get the guns. Interesting...
It’s an awesome chopper though. I bought it on ebay a few months back and hadn’t built it yet. Took a while - but you gotta love the result.
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Another 4x4 TripjawaproSat 20/11/2010 11:00 PM
This week has been interesting.
I wouldn’t call all of it a good week. I sort of had it out with my friends and things have been somewhat stressful since.
Good to clear the air - even if they didn’t all like what I had to say.
Not sure what will happen longterm. For the first time in 4 years, I've been considering if I still want to live in Devonport.
The immediate upshot of it all is that they had another 4x4 trip this weekend, and I was actually invited this time.
Can’t say I was overly good company - but I still had a great time. I got bogged, but so did everyone. I’ve got the smallest and least aggressive tyres of the group - so I was quite impressed with Oscar's performance overall.
Tim got stuck by pushing into places we knew the other cars wouldn’t go. A couple of times he had to doctor his car before it would keep going - and one time at the bottom of a big drop it died entirely and it took about 3 hours before it was going again.
I got water in my brake warning sensor, so the warning light is on most of the time, but we checked the fluid and things and it’s fine.
Jason’s winch got a workout. Strangely some of the time that was because Jason himself got stuck in places I’d already driven through. The big Patrol with larger aggressive tyres couldn’t always make it the same places I did. Poor snuffy.
Anyway, instead of posting a running commentary of the entire trip - here are a collection of photos.
Tim's bogged - 3 minutes after we leave the highway.
Tim playing in a hole.
Tim playing in a hole.
Bec after she sat in the mud.
Tim playing with his engine in a hole.
Tim still playing in a hole.
Tim on the diving platform.
Dive!
Dive!
Oh dear, we're stuck!
The engine don't go no more.
Comfortable working position
2hrs later: This tree looks good.
Lets jump off!
Wes
James
Prepare to slingshot winch!
Tim's turned around and running again.
Full steam ahead!
I think I can I think I can.
I can't.
At least Tim's still smiling
Ready to winch!
Pulling Tim up
He's out!
Stupid moment - all three cars get stuck.
I think it's called mud.
I drove through here fine - but Jason got stuck and had to winch out.
Tim got out with some shovel work, pulled me out, then I was Jason's anchor as he winched out.
Reach for the sky Oscar!
According to my tiltometer - this was 40 degrees.
Hmm - maybe now would be an easy time to change the oil.
Balancing Act
Jason didn't even get that far!
Recovery time.
Not as exciting as Oscar, but still pretty cool.
Cath wasn't so sure about the angle.
Crossing a pond
Time for a wash...
Oh yeah - last weekend I went to the V8s. Couldn’t really afford to, but Mum decided to shout me. Thanks Mum!
And Emma came through last night to go to the movies.
Apart from that - not much has happened lately.
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Not such a good weekjawaproThu 11/11/2010 08:21 AM
Well, this week’s sucked.
Last week, the police pulled the body of one of my mates from the Trevallyn Lake. They identified him on the weekend.
Karsten, you’ll be missed mate.
I hadn’t seem him much in years, but you have to wonder if more of us who’d thought of ourselves as his friends had kept in contact, maybe he wouldn’t have killed himself. Tom was the only one who really kept in contact with him, so he’s feeling pretty devastated.
Spent the weekend doing family things, trying to take my mind off it - it helped. Coming back home, I thought that my friends up here could help too - we’d been planning an upcoming 4x4 trip, and what better to take my mind off things?
Well - that would have been the case, but that 4x4 trip we’d been planning, well - they went and did that on the weekend while I wasn’t here. It was half my idea, and I didn’t even warrant an invitation. It’s finally dawning on me that they keep scheduling the trips when I’m away because at least some of my friends prefer it that way.
So that pissed me off - as you can imagine. And things went downhill from there.
I’ve been feeling sick too. I can’t sleep, can’t eat - I haven’t had a proper meal since Sunday lunchtime. There’s no point forcing yourself to eat food you can’t stomache when you’re just going to puke it back up. Guess it’s saving money though. Oh, and there’s something wrong with my leg, but I’ve got no idea what that is.
I got a pay increase at work, so a nice little extra into my bank. That means I’m only going to be about $400 in the red this month. How many bills is it possible to get in a single month? I’ve been living frelling cheaply too, and I still can’t keep up.
I’m dead tired, but I can’t sleep. That’s going to make me useless at work, and I’m already having enough trouble staying civil.
So basically, life’s sucked this week.
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Long Weekend - and fuel pumps...jawaproMon 01/11/2010 08:35 PM
Now that’s a good long weekend!
Saturday was spent helping the Coles’s move house. Can’t say it was overly fun - but it was productive at least. After that, the day ended with a Nerf war at Tim’s and a movie.
My Longstrike has been modded now. Shoots almost as awesomely as it looks! Still not as good as a Longshot in terms of distance, but it’s a fantastic all round gun, and looks better than any other Nerf.
While we were at Tim’s we used an air cannon to shoot apples at trees (knocked great chunks out of the tree) and to clear blocked drains. I’ll post some video when I get a copy.
The next day, after church, Tim decided to head bush to try out his new bulbar.
After driving over his own bulbar on the highway last time we’d gone, he’d ripped it off and attached a bit of pipe to the font of his bus. Tested it by running into trees - it’s nice and tough.
Little deeper than I really wanted - but the bottom was solid so there was no risk of stopping. Could do with some extra clearance though.
Jason’s Snuffy might be scared of scratches, but it had a breeze on this sort of going. Everything was soft - so no damage to the paintwork.
Remember a few posts back where I went out to the Great Bend? Well, we were back, but this time it was under water. Where Tim’s maverick is turning around is normally a parking area, now it’s part of the river.
Now this is where things went south.
It was a steep hillclimb, that Tim drove up first. Next went Jason. I was last, and due to a combination of bottoming out on the ruts, and a lack of grip on my tyres, didn’t make it all the way. I was sooo close. Nick backed Tim’s Maverick up to give me a slight tug, and then I’d be away.
Remember how my Pajero had issues starting last week? We’d traced it to a dying fuel pump, but decided to see if it kept doing it before we replaced it. Well, it did it twice during the trip, and both times kicking the fuel tank bought it back to life. But on this hill it died for good.
My car stalled, and wouldn’t start. So Nick was trying to tow a dead weight up the hill, which was never going to work. Jason turned around and tried to winch us both up. Started out ok, until the Maverick died too. Like my car, it had lost fuel. Jason tried to winch both dead cars - but that was asking too much of poor old Snuffy.
The hill might not look steep in that photo, but check out the angle of the trees out my window.
I was stuck in the car, with my foot firmly on the brake, so I couldn’t get any better photos.
Eventually we gave up, and backed down the slope very slowly. It’s not fun doing it in reverse with no brake or steering boost (engine not running).
Tim and Jason were my eyes as we backed down, and eventually we made it. Then they left to help guide the Maverick down, while I tried to get Oscar going again.
No matter how I kicked the fuel tank (I’d read about this on the net, it normally gets the pump working again) it wouldn’t start. I took the back apart to get at the inspection point, but even tapping the pump on top wouldn’t get it going again. She was dead good and proper.
The Maverick finally arrived at the bottom of the hill, and once on the level it was able to get some juice into the lines and started again. Mine would have too if the pump hadn’t died.
So once again Jason came to the rescue and towed me back to Tim’s place. Tim would have, but he was running on fumes, and high-tailed it out to a petrol station to make sure he’d make it back.
On Monday, Repco was open (thankfully) and I bought myself a new fuel pump. Between Tim, Dad, and myself, we got the new pump installed, and Oscar was away. Ok, ok, so it was mainly Tim and Dad, but I did what I could.
With Oscar running again, I went for a shake-down with Mum, Emma, and Dad (he had his Maverick - a cleaner and straighter version of Tim’s).
We headed back to Brushy lagoon, and to an old Copper Mine site. Sadly I didn’t take any decent photos today.
Oscar seems ok again, aside from a bit of a noise in the front diff somewhere. Well, that’s something to break next time - can’t have it going for too many trips without a breakdown now can we?
It was a nice day to spend with the family, and to celebrate Emma’s birthday which is in a couple of days, but she’ll be in the wrong end of the state.
So it may have been exciting, and involved fixing my car once again, but I think it was an awesome way to spent a long weekend.
Thanks for the tow home Jason - that’s two now...
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