A strange weekend in the sense that Sunday was far busier than Saturday. (It is usually always the other way around!). I will however, start with Saturday, it will not take that long and we can move onto the excitement of Sunday. I went to sleep around 2.30am on Friday night as I had been working on a web site for a client. However, I still somehow managed to drag myself out of bed at 7.30am to get ready. I had to head over to Amersham to get my A3 fixed. Car was booked in for 8.30am, I got there and was waiting in the chair before the Service Manager arrived! (He was only a few minutes late!) Once my car was patched up, I had to go into town. It was a journey I could have avoided, after all, I had been in town on Wednesday afternoon. I needed to renew my book at the library. I should have made better use of my time and got a another book out but I did not. I found out that the library moves to the Eden complex in June, not as soon as March 13th when it opens. The trip into town gave me a chance to capture a photograph of the escalator in the Octagon shopping centre. (For completeness, I’ve added to my previous post as it fits in with the discussion there). I got home around 11am and for the first time in several weeks was able to sit down and watch Football Focus. Before it started I had a chance to plan my afternoon and my weekend. Clean the car, a bit of web design, Eurovision and then a bit more web design, maybe watch a movie or catch up on Torchwood. It didn’t all go according to plan. Promptly at 1pm, I headed outside to hoover and then wash the car. However, I came to a problem straight away. My foam lance was missing the tube which enables the solution to be sucked up into the spray chamber. So I went into the kitchen and dug out a few tubes from old spray bottles, the first one was too thick and lose. My second attempted worked a treat and fitted fine. Great, I was back in business, but only a little McGuyver trick had been required. I spent a good two hours or so cleaning the car. It was a better effort than last week, perhaps because the car was generally cleaner. Afterwards, I went in for a late lunch while watching Soccer Saturday. Arsenal went down to an own goal. Perhaps my weekend would not be as good as I had hoped. Well the Gooners rescued the football but looks like we have thrown away Eurovision once again. Michelle Gayle’s song was perfect but for some reason the British public chose the bin man! Woo (You Make Me) would have done very well (but I doubt it would have topped the board in Belgrade). Andy’s song will be lucky to register any points! My Saturday evening was not very excited, I continued to work on the web sites and was in bed reading my book at midnight. Although I must have fallen asleep before 1am. I got up later than I wanted to on Sunday. This meant a bit of a rush out of the door at 10.30am, in doing so I left my camera at home but only realised about half an hour into my journey, when I was half way up the M40. I think I was too distracted by the new MP3 CD I had burnt to be bothered with my camera but never mind, I could take some photos with my camera phone. I was the 6th person to arrive, so got a free ticket into the museum. The Heritage Motor Centre is just a stone’s throw away from the M40 junction 12. There were bright neon signs, “Audi Meets” directing me to our car park spot. I met Calvin and Nick, the organised and slot my car in formation. I was given some paper notices, one which had put a smile on my face.

Thankfully there was a professional taking some photos. I chatted to Calvin and Nick for a short while, as more Audi vehicles arrived, mainly S4s, the odd classic and a couple of S3s. Calvin had borrowed a brand new A4 from his dealership which I had a look at. I then headed into the museum to take a look around. As I expected it was very much a British museum related to the history of British car manufacturing (but no DeLorean mind). I took my time looking around at all the exhibits. The Rover and Mini stands were of special interest. They also had modern cars like a Land Rover concept – Storm and Aston Marton Vanquish. After spending about an hour or so looking around, I went back outside to check out progress. I think there were around 30 cars by then, it was very busy with quite a few people around various vehicles taking photographs and chewing the fat. It was cold, so I headed back to the museum (my wristband enabled me free roaming privileges) and decided to take a quick look around some of the older exhibits before heading upstairs to the cafe for some lunch. The jacket potato and chocolate fudge cake went down very well, as I watched Sky News on the television at the back. It had just strike 1pm and I was planning how long before I left. There was not much really left to do, so I left around 2pm. I thanked Calvin and Nick for organising the event. It had been just a meet up really to chat and see a few cars no more. Calvin was trying to convince me to get a remap to 185bhp. Erm – maybe! (I am sure as Pav is reading this he is thinking, “Do it Terry!” (or words to that effect!)).

A small FlickR set with photos from my N73 but better professional photos to appear on the photos page at Audi Meets web site shortly. I will be going to their events in the future and the fourth is already at the planning stage. Same venue, but bigger and better with trade stands and more show cars. Hopefully in May the weather will have improved considerably as well. As I drove back down to Wycombe, I really enjoyed the new CD I had created. So, perhaps this is the ideal moment to discuss music. On Saturday morning, just before I was to go and get ready after breakfast a new video appeared. I was going to skip to the next channel when I saw it was just a car pulling up to a big mansion. On the side of the car were the letters NERD, so I thought it might be a video for the band, N*E*R*D. However I was wrong. A geeky guy came out of the car and approached the door and it was opened by one and only Mariah Carey. It was her new video for Touch My Body. It was then I realised that above NERD on the car was also Compu, the company the IT support person worked for. It slowly started to make sense. I was already expecting something different from the video from the opening seconds and that is exactly what I got! Sure enough, with the lyrics as they are, Carey could have done the usual cliche staged scenes. It is just pure fun based on the dreamlike fantasy of the CompuNerd employee. Some great moments and it is good to see an artist able to make fun of themselves. It reminds me a little of Jessica Simpson in her video A Public Affair. Directed by Brett Ratner (the same guy that directs Touch My Body, but also the Rush Hour trilogy!). My favourite part is at the end, as the computer guy comes out of his day dream, Miss Carey says, “The download speed was killing me! PLEEEASE tell me you updated to 802.11n!”. Fantastic! If you know nothing about wireless networks that comment will mean nothing to you. I need to do a shout out for my friend Nikki. Her musical tastes have recently been on fire! She sent me a link to a couple of You Tube videos and I subsequently downloaded the songs. Only one appealed to me – Cyclone by Baby Bash featuring T-Pain (the current collaboration king!). I only listened to the first few minutes on You Tube but got to listen to the song in full in the car on the way up and down to Gaydon. Fantastic! A great song! I have already recommended it to Dave but not sure if he has had the chance to get hold of it yet. Finally, from time to time to I go and check the Sadie Ama page over on Wikipedia. Mainly to massage my own ego, as I started the page early last year. I was surprised to discover it had been updated once again but this time with new of a new song. Deja Vu had leaked onto YouTube, so I went and did a search and had a listen. Fantastic! Go take listen yourself, one of the first upbeat songs she has done! Cannot wait for the album to drop, I’ll be first in line at HMV for my copy to be signed! Right, got to go and catch up on Torchwood as I did not get a chance to watch it over the weekend. Champions League football on ITV tomorrow night so will not get the chance to watch it otherwise. Oh and we have the final installment of our ongoing man versus machine saga. Will Terry defeat Pav’s FTP site once and for all? Or will SkyNet gain control and begin the events which lead to our Judgment Day. We shall find out mid-morning tomorrow.