A few weeks ago I found a kitten that had been separated from its mum. Earlier this week she became eligible for adoption, and I took her home. She's much the same affectionate and needy cat as she was on that magical day, but she also doesn't seem phased at all when I go out for the day, which is great.
That's all 
On Friday I went to the pub to meet some friends and get some fancy "Good Beer Week" beers, and on the way I heard an incessant mewing from the garden of a dilapidated house on Barkers Rd. There was a tiny kitten in there calling for mama. I tried to say hello and got hissed at for my troubles, so I let her be.
But she was still there when I walked home, and when I checked the next morning too. And still crying out for help. Something had to be done.
I don't have a pet, so I contacted a mate who's got a cat carrier and we plucked little Hami from the garden and took her home. Gradually over the morning while I was meant to be working from home, she went from fearful and hissy, to purring and affectionate, to meowing whenever I wasn't in the room to comfort her. She also became very playful and exploratory for a cat who was anchored to that spot in the garden! She ate a little chicken and some kitten food, though we estimated she was too young for it at 4 weeks based on weight.
It was a very rewarding day, but young kittens need specialist care, so I took her to a local vet. They said she had fleas, and had maybe missed a growth phase from living on the streets. I reckon she'd have been in trouble without human intervention - she spent 14 hours straight in the exact same spot and didn't seem fit to finding her own food.
Maybe in a few weeks I'll be taking her home again. Who knows
there's a motorcyclist in my building. it's some sort of cafe racer thing. it actually is a harley, but not what you'd picture as one. every morning i hear him start it up and leave, every evening i hear him arrive home. fair enough, motorbikes be loud.
but what i hear is him doing his best. he doesn't loiter around letting it idle to wake up the apartment building. he doesn't rev it hard when he leaves. but he does make a concerted effort to get out on the main road as quickly and quietly as possible. he understands that there's a time and a place to rev the thing past 10k RPM, but it's not his neighbourhood at 8am on a Monday.
he's a local hero
A while ago the MR2 was stricken. A long while ago. Two full months ago it went to the Toyota Whisperer for repairs, and there it stayed.
(Is the workshop's trailer, not mine. I don't have a trailer, or a second car. The MR2 is it.)
The problem looks bad but the fix isn't really. Make up a plate, weld it in, coat it with underbody coating. It was the making of the plate that took forever, and all I could do was sit on my hands and wait. Fortunately the man I took it to is the right man, and seems to have done a great job.
The bad part was losing my car. For me, like many of us, a car isn't just transport. I can't imagine not having a car, and the MR2 is part of who I am - even if it is a douchebag sports car. It was carefully chosen, and it's about the only car in the world that fits my needs like a glove. Having it gone for a month was like being unable to listen to music, or forced to eat nothing but soylent milkshakes. It was life without a big chunk of its joy. I felt like I was no longer an MR2 owner, photos of my car made me reflect on when I used to have one.
But now it's back. A slow drive home in heavy traffic in the wet is all it's done so far. But I've got a mind to give it a good wash and take it somewhere nice. Somewhere I can bring the 3S-GE to its redline, stretch its legs.
It hasn't rained in more than a week, and it just dumped 12mm in 20 minutes. Not heaps, but a short timespan and everything flooded. Including my car port!
The MR2 has pretty good clearance, which has helped me out so many times. I never want a proper low car.
I actually forgot to post on the exact date, but here we are a few days later. Some of you may remember my initial post from when I found a stray kitten. Well, the rest of the story is that she went to a vet, then a foster carer until she was of adoption age (8 weeks), then to my home. I said in the original post that I am a cat person but wasn't looking for a pet, but she's mine now and she makes every single day better. At the point of that post I'd been dating a vet for 2 months or so, we're still together and she's helped ensure Hami has the best of care
Things are working out alright.
Here's a photo of Hami sitting on her favourite paper bag, next to the bed she never uses.
Here are a couple videos from the day I found her. Yes she was filthy. Had no idea what I was doing, all I knew was she needed help.
The Elise is, or was, a car built the old way, but in the current day. To the end it was a well thought out package, good engine, light chassis, convenient features, and not much more.
In the 90s, this was the stuff you wanted. There was some whizz-bang stuff around for sure, the occasional party-piece digital dash or automatic climate control, but the "infotainment" system wasn't the point and the car wasn't an extension of your phone which is an extension of your computer. The best cars were the ones that combined the right engine with the right body, to produce the right package. The Viper and the McLaren F1 and the NSX, the 3 and 5 series of the time, the Lancer Evo, the Ferrari 550 and so many others.
This all changed maybe a decade ago as cars moved more and more into their role as tools. Hybrid, EV and CVT came along, dulling the experience to hit different goals, and more than ever cars were prized on the size and resolution of the screens within them, and the ability of the software that ran on them.
But the Elise didn't change, it kept to the old way. Some would call it outdated, but some would say it stuck to a working formula, eschewing the needless pivot that modern cars took. It's not part-EV or full of screens or tech, but that's intentional - because leaving those things out is still a good idea, and putting them in would compromise the formula.
More than just being an example of a bygone approach to car design, the Elise was true to itself. It didn't become an SUV with the name of a sports car (hi, Eclipse, Mustang), it didn't adopt the name of an old unrelated race car to extract profit (looking at you, 718 Cayman/Boxster, McLaren LT), nor did it bloat in size (3-series) or call itself a coupe while actually being a 4-door SUV (dammit, Mercedes). 'Til the end, the Elise was the Elise - sub-1000kg, bonded aluminium chassis, fibreglass body, high sills. Difficult to get in and out of, a bit cramped and noisy, but fantastic - and a hole in the car world that will never be filled.
Older Jimny. Dude fits a bike and kayak into his parking space because he has a small car. Really tells a story about the sort of life this legend lives
I move the guitarsso she'll stop fucking with it and she decides to sit on it
Spotted near work. Didn't say TURBO on the steering wheel.
Concave window though hnng
@john-norris let's be real, you're paying for the italdesign more than the numbers.
boy those turbo 5s sound like shit haha. the CGT and LFA are perfect though
@Roadkilled not sure if that conti is garish or tongue in cheek
crazy how fast it all happens. you think it's going to be like this, but it's all over in 3.6 seconds
@DSM_OR_DIE damn i just had a look at your list of cars, good stuff. i think the idea of a mid-engined car covered in dirt is just so cool, more so if it's a gullwing'd kei
@theturbomrt who needs a snorkle when your car breathes from the sides?
My mate who's been living in Townsville for years is now in Canberra, closer to home. We picked a random national park that was between Canberra and Melbourne to catch up and do some camping.
We ended up in Burrowa Pine National Park, not far from the border and the mighty Murray River. It was lovely, saw some wombats and wallabies, and did some walks up some of the mountains in the park.
I also took the MR2 across the small river crossing into and out of the campsite. It went without incident but I still feel like a bad person for having done so.
10pm in Wodonga, more than an hour from the campsite. I had planned to cut the driving and spend a night near Wodonga, but the campsites around there were inaccessible.
We've both had these cars for years, but they've never met up on account of them living so far from each other.
The crossing. It's not so bad, if you avoid the drop on the right and also don't stray too far left.
Dirty MR2, clean Jimny. Yes it legitimately gets me excited that I take my car to campsites. The MR2 has clearance, AWD isn't as important as you'd think, I get by just fine.
From Pine Mountain. The Murray is in that green valley
Up Mount Burrowa
Views from Burrowa. Can just see the snow-capped Kosciuszko Ranges to the right
shit that's pretty wild