http://topgearaustraliamates.wordpress.com/

It's basic, I haven't had time to play around with it yet, but it's a hell of a lot easier to work with than blogger.com.

THAT'S IT!

I've had it. I have wrangled with this site for months. Most people (including our guru, the MOS-man himself) have lots of trouble posting comments.

Blogger.com sucks. I'm going to look for a better alternative. One that lets you put a paragraph break in, so you don't look like some stream-of-consciousness dipstick who doesn't draw breath.

Hmph.

WOO-HOO!

And another motorsporting Aussie kicks butt & takes names... beating the Yanks at NASCAR, no less!

From his site www.marcosambrose.com/index.asp:

09/08/2008 AMBROSE TAKES FIRST NASCAR WIN AT WATKINS GLEN

Marcos Ambrose has scored his first NASCAR win with victory in the Zippo 200 at the Watkins Glen International road course in the NASCAR Nationwide Series in New York state today.

Ambrose is the first Australian to earn a NASCAR victory and his historic feat on the 2.45-mile road course lifts him into the top 10 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings.

(If this paragraph break doesn't show up on the blog, after the 3rd attempt, I'm going to spit the dummy BIGTIME!)

Now, if Mark Webber would just read the article in Top Gear Australia (issue 2), and make some uncomfortable but necessary changes (ie, suck up to the teams with race-winning cars), we'd rule the world in sport-on-wheels.

(Repeat paragraph-break tantrum here.)

To hell with the Olympics. This is real sport!

My flights are booked!

Kristabella? Annemarie? And anyone else who cares...

My flights are booked. The 3rd Un-Annual Un-MOS drinks, aka the Inaugural Top Gear Australia drinks are on.


I arrive in Melbourne at 10.15am on Friday 7/11 and depart at 12.15pm on Sunday 9/11.

YAY!


Now we need to seriously decide on t-shirts. No, Annemarie, don't worry - the Stig thing isn't a joke to be played on someone who isn't Aussie born-and-bred. It's a mysterious thing, the Stig... who is it? Why is he? How did he become such a Top Gear icon?

And how the hell do you get a job as a mystery-driver anyway???

Oh, never mind all that... I'm going to Melbourne, nah nah nah nah nah nah.

Freebay Alert!

I know, it's a lousy picture, but I can't help it. I'm an office-admin goddess, not an IT goddess.

But check out page... hang on while I get the mag off the scanner and see... BLOODY VW CATALOGUE, STOP FLOPPING AROUND & GENERALLY GETTING IN THE WAY... 76.

(Insert a pause while I rip the VW catalogue out and throw it in the garbage. I do like that sticky wax stuff, though. It's like blutack without the residue. Very clever invention.)

Right. Where were we? Page 76. Freebay. And I quote, "A 1:43 scale Evo X, 'The Devil at Your Heels' DVD and a Porsche pencil/scrapbook set as a job lot this month. All funds to the Leukaemia Foundation, silent bids to topgear@acpmagazines.com.au."

Go on. Bid. I did a bit of charity stuff in Canberra, many many moons ago, and spent a day at a Christmas party for kid sufferers. And it also took the life of the son of a good friend. He was 15. It's a bloody awful disease, so this is a bloody good cause.

And I may have been told by someone who might know (whose initials might be SC) that the bids so far are underwhelming. The Leukaemia Foundation needs better support than that, don't ya think?

I'm sending my bid in now. And, let's be honest, you don't want to be outbid by a pathetic 40 year old single mother, do you? Get your moneybox, count the contents, and then bid. Now.

PS: I typed this about 3 hours ago... then KT rang. I drank more wine while talking to her, so technically any spelling/grammar mistakes are her fault. Coz I'm pissed. And utterly incapable of editing.

Official uniform?

Whaddaya reckon?

I think Benny has come up with a winner. (It's a vast improvement on his suggestion of putting moss on the table for the Inaugural Un-MOS drinks!)

Stop whinging, Benny, here's a new one...

... the only problem is that I have no idea what to say. Um. Nice weather we're having, isn't it? Oh, that's right. Sydney-siders are sick of rain, and I have no clue what the weather is like in either England or Italy. I guess that's put a dampener (boom boom - it's raining here in the boondocks, finally, and I couldn't help myself. Sorry.) on that topic.

I've been wondering about TGA on tv. I really can't see how it can compete with the original. The more I watch the original, the more I think 'nah, can't be replicated or duplicated, even in an authentic Aussie fashion'. Isn't it due to launch soon? I've forgotten, with all the excitement and success of TGA mag.

Anyway, I'll watch it, form an opinion, and then no doubt rant about how much better it would have been with the Corbster in the lineup. I am such a journo-groupie. (Not in that way, Mrs MOS, I just like his view of the world, and the way he puts it across. His view, that is. Oh dear. Maybe I'd better shut up now.)

Anyway, must fly. Today's to-do list is horrific: haircut, queue for 7 hours at the RTA to register one of my parents' trucks, deliver the newspaper to Nanna, shop for the influx of 10 year old girls (Grace's delayed sleepover/birthday party, as we were in Sydney on her birthday), pay the solicitors bill (ouch) from the legal crap that daddyo brought on, collect payment for an invoice (can you believe that this particular 'business' still pays everyone in cash? Including their staff??? Hello, Russells Stock Feeds, welcome to the new millenium - not only are there funny bits of paper called 'cheques', you pronounce it 'checks' not 'chey-kews', but you can use your computer, it's a box connected to a thing called the internet, to access your bank account and put money directly into someone elses account! Amazing, isn't it? I hope the sarcasm isn't too much), drop in the overdue DVD's & PS2 games to the video shop (why do we still call it a video shop when they don't have videotapes anymore?). Oh, and I have to fit in a few hours work at my favourite job too. At the moment we have a wicked 1950-something Dodge truck parked in the yard.

You know what I find amazing? Open the bonnet of the Dodge, and there's room to sit your butt on the panel with your legs inside the engine bay, to work on it. Open the bonnet of my car, gulp, Heidi the Hyundai, and you'd be lucky to fit a straw anywhere within the engine bay. (Not to mention the fact that you wouldn't dare sit on a panel. Hell, Dane running down a hill and slamming into the door - deliberately - dented it!) But Heidi struggles up hills (doesn't it, KT? Especially when you're racing a train), and the Dodge just powers on through.

I know the Corbster isn't a fan of old cars, but I am. They just don't make them like they used to. Sigh. I would happily swap reliable performance for general all-round coolness. The cost of replacing a tie-rod end now & then is a small price to pay for being able to cruise around in a cool old car. Don't you agree, Benny?

PS: I'll tell ya what else is cool. VB-Misser & Annemarie are converted to semi-revheads thanx to TGA mag, despite being not-very-interested-in-cars. Yay! Welcome to the club, girls. Oh, VB-M, can't you make it to Melbourne in November for the 3rd Not-Annual Un-MOS drinks? Or should that be the Inaugural Top Gear Australia drinks?