Weekend Away!

Mrs P and I went up to Amelia Island for the weekend and had a great time. Fernandina Beach is a really nice looking town with tons of victorian brick buildings, something of a rarity round here. As despite the hot humid weather, bugs and termites and annual hurricanes they insist on building houses out of wood here....mind you they made a pretty good job of the one below.

We ate in a couple of really good restaurants enjoying French cuisine on the Friday and then to a Spanish restaurant on Saturday. But it's back to normality now, the kids have returned from their vacation to Buffalo, Grammy is back from her amazing trip across the southern states and the last 3 weeks of the summer vacation are upon us.

The rise in oil prices is due to the Beast

The Beast went in to the garage today to find out where the oil is disappearing too and the results are back. Apparently it's a common fault with these engines and it's a leaking intake manifold gasket. Here's what needs to be done in all it's blogged glory.... it's either that or it's a $1300 repair bill.

Mrs P thinks I should get a new car....

Men in tights

Went to see Dark Knight on Saturday and it's a really good film. I didn't want to believe the hype surrounding The Joker as that's usually a recipe for disaster. However I have to say that the critics were right and Heath Ledger's portrayal is superb. Not convinced by Gary Oldman's portrayal of Commissioner Gordon but can't have it all I guess.

Other things happening this week are that the Beast is booked into the garage for some diagnostic work. It's getting through a load of oil and its not leaking out, nor is it smoking so I'm at a loss. Hopefully the compression check will give me some more details.

Chris Evan's isn't the only one who can do this as in other news I'm going to be a dad come next February. Picture below of the first scan! Happy? Me? Can't believe I'm managed to keep it to myself for so long with the grin I've had.

I've only been here a few days over a year and still can't believe how much my life has changed! Gone from a confirmed batchelor (eating beans on toast for a main meal) to a husband and dad of 2 with another one on the way. Very happy days

Seen it all now!

Last night it threw it down with rain and amazingly there was one of our neighbors out there washing his car! Couldn't make it up.

Spent a lot of this weekend looking for some new shirts for works. I know exactly what I want; spread collar and french cuffs and in colours other than blue or white (and especially not the blue ones with the white collars!). You'd think I was asking for the moon on a stick as my search became increasingly frustrating. ALL the shirts here are pinpoint collars (to make you look like a school boy) or button down (to make you look like an 80's throwback). In the end I had to get a couple from Banana Republic, but they were both in blue.

It's a hog alright

Here's the pic of the hog awaiting it's fate. There are some rashers and bangers in this lady!!

Down, down, deeper and down.....

Sunday I went diving with Kate and Ernie at Blue Grotto. We met Frank, Steve and a couple of others (can't remember their names now) and had a great time. It was my first dive since '04 I think and what better way to start than a 80+ ft dive into a cave system???? I can only thank the lord that Kate had an underwater flashlight otherwise it would have been even scarier!

Frank didn't hang around much at the end as he was in a hurry to check his trap as he was 'on the trail' of a wild boar. On the drive home Ernie received a picture message of the captured pig and Frank was considering it's fate, but having listened to the discussion earlier in the day I think it's days were numbered.

We watched The Mist last night and must say that I really enjoyed it and thought the ending was great, gruesome but great.

On the way to work this morning someone ran into the back of The Beast at a junction. Thankfully it was a low speed impact and there wasn't a scratch on the bumper (or should that be fender) to be seen. The man was greatful that there was no damage and that we didn't need to even exchange insurance details. He must have been worried though in case the old whiplash injury suddenly appeared!!!!

4th July celebrations

Last night we went downtown to see the firework celebrations for the 4th of July. The fireworks were scheduled to start at 9:30pm but it get busy so we headed out at 6:30 to beat the traffic. That was the plan however we queued for about 30 minutes to get into the car park and they shut traffic getting into the place several times before we managed to get in.

Shot across the Intracostal waterway, this has to be the best place to see the fireworks from...next year, next year.

Waiting in anticipation

Ooooh

Fascinated

Aaahh

Anyway the fireworks were great and we headed back to the carpark and that's where the trouble began....It was TOTAL gridlock and we moved exactly 3 car widths (this was accurately measured by the parking spaces we passed) in 45 minutes! The police were supposed to be organising/directing the traffic having "refined their traffic management policy over several years". Trust me a blind man would have done a better job. Add on to this the Beast is a little thirsty and being stuck in traffic does nothing for improving the fuel economy. Eventually we got out onto the main road and limped into a gas station with the onboard computer saying that I had enough gas for 3 more miles. Not sure how accurate this is especially as it said this when we weren't even moving.

Not sure what the plan is for today but I should be off diving tomorrow

Lightsaver

Just repaired the headlight switch on the Beast and saved myself about $70 in the process. The entire dashboard lights weren't working unless you pushed in slide dimmer switch and held it there. This makes it hard to drive so I took it apart and found the 10 soldered connections had all cracked and only made intermittent connections. So a quick touch with the soldering iron and we're now fully functional. Should mean that the headlights won't flash as I drive along now