some hot rod going ons

Tuesday may 19th, 2009

Today started in a most perculiar way. To start, I awoke around 6am and wandered to the toilet, only to find the back door wide open. I went into immediate ninja stealth mode and made my through my sisters house to ensure all was safe. I flicked on the lounge room light to find someone curled up on the couch. I couldn’t see who it was, but figured they had arrived in the middle of the night and just hadn’t closed the door properly. I went back to bed.

I was then awoken at 7.30am by my loving mother. Who shook me and asked, ‘Where is my breakfast’? I then explained to her that I had made it the night before and could be found in the cupboard in a box with ‘cornflakes’ written on it. Got to love ya mum….ha.

Once mum took off, my sister, sue and I headed over to the town of Sale to meet up with my other sister Sandra and my niece Rochelle who is due to drop a baby in August. Was great to have lunch with them, after which, I looked into different mobile phone plans etc to see if it was worth getting a new phone, or another sim card. Im yet to decide on what option is best.

Shopped around a bit looking at jackets etc for the mountain, but decided to hold off a little bit before I buy anything. Went and opened a new bank account here, and then back to Maffra (my hometown), where I grabbed a ‘working with children’ form from the post office. Over here it is law to possess a WWC card if you are to be employed in any job that may involve contact with children on a prolonged basis. And seeing as I may be working alongside kids on the mountain, I have to get one of these cards.

Its now close to tea time, so im just typing in my daily report and then heading off for tea. My 14yo niece Elizabeth (Lizzie) is an amazing cook who has lots of potential to be a top chef if she wanted too. But alas, she wants to be a lawyer first, then wants to be prime minister of Australia. And frankly, I don’t doubt in any way that she will achieve her goal.

And im off to eat. Laters.


Wednesday 20th may, 2009

Today was a pretty relaxed day (as are all my days at the moment). I fell out of bed, which was the couch last night due to my snoring and my niece not getting any sleep the night before when I invaded her lower bunk bed, haha. Once I was up and showered I took off for a walk to the other side of town to my mums place where I would then acquire her car to use for a week or so. During my walk I stopped in at a local clothing store and grabbed a warm top as I only have a jacket with me here and the chill is enough to need a bit more warmth.

My mum wasn’t at her house, but my step dad Norm was there hand painting the number plate on the car I was to borrow. Somewhat confused, he informed me that it was due to the plate being quite old and worn and he was worried that Police may pull me up on it. Well, im pretty sure they will be even more attracted to a number plate that had been crudely hand painted, so will be interesting to see how many cops pull me over.

Came home to my sisters and did some house cleaning, grabbed in the washing etc and then had a delicious stirfry for dinner, yet again cooked by talented niece, Lizzie. Yum. And now reporting in before I head to bed soon to get a good sleep on the couch again.

Tomorrow I’m off to Melbourne to spend a couple of days in the shed with my brother working on his 1932 Ford Roadster. I can’t wait to get into it.

Till tomorrow, seeya.



Thursday 21st May, 2009

So I awoke all fired up about getting to Melbourne and hooking into my brothers roadster, but my sister sue gave me a heads up that I should wait an hour or so as by all reports there was a white out on the roads. Basically, it was foggy as hell and you couldn’t see much in front of you. So I had a nice slow start, saw the nieces off to school, had breakfast and then made tracks.

Sue wasn’t joking. The fog was insane and I could barely see 15 metres in front of me. I kept the pace a little less than the speed limit as I was in no hurry. Fast forward an hour or so, and I was STILL driving in dense fog. Go figure, but it was odd as it was 11.20am, not exactly normal fog times. As I got closer to Melbourne it wore thin and before I knew it I was standing in the shed with my brother John. I whipped down the road and got us some lunch, and then we tore into it.

We had great progress as my brother worked on the body and I made up the MDF interior panels, plywood floor panels and dropped the rear end off the chassis, amidst a few other small jobs. It wasn’t till around 11pm that we decided that we had done enough for the day, as tomorrow was a full on day if we were to have the body completely prepped in time for priming it on Saturday.

I head inside, enjoyed a hot shower and was asleep in no time.


Friday 22nd May, 2009

After a very broken sleep, I woke up feeling very sore. My back, arms and legs were killing me (I’m not used to working a normal day, LOL). I scoffed me some toast and shot into the shed where it was all guns blazing to get the roadster done on time for priming tomorrow. Johnny worked hard finishing off the body, getting all last pin-spot holes filled with skims of bog. I focused on making brackets for mounting the trim panels, some sanding and taking the engine and trans off the chassis. And also disassembled the superbell front end and polished it up ready for sand blasting and paint.

By 6pm we had everything ready to go. The body was now on the home made dolly and with the help of a good mate Dave (doesn’t everyone have a good mate named Dave??), we put the body onto the trailer ready for tomorrow. We chin wagged with Dave for a bit and decided it would be best to grab a couple of Jim Beams and head over to his place to sit in the spa and watch a DVD. The best part? We could do both at the same time. Yes, thanks to the wonders of good design, the spa bath in part of the entertainment room, so we sat in the spa for a good 4 hours and watched a couple of movies, including the Aussie classic car flick “Running on empty”. Pure brilliance.

Dave and his lovely missus Mel, are salt of the earth folk, and a pure pleasure to spend time with. In the shed Dave has his 55 Ford Customline, a 34 Ford coupe, and a Hemi powered Model A Roadster in the works. Bloody awesome.

Its now 3am, im tired, I look like Grandpa Simpson but with teeth, and im ready for bed. Enjoy the pictures, I reckon the one of the three of us blokes in the spa could become quite the scandal pic for Womans Day Mag. Haha.


Saturday 23rd May, 2009 (and some Sunday too)

Today was a more relaxed affair. With the car all ready for primer and loaded on the trailer I went for a lonely wander to the local Mall to look at stuff. There was stuff there, and then I left, pretty awesome really. Caught up with my Dad and said ‘hello’. He said ‘hello’ back. That was pretty much it, not bad after pretty much 7 years of not talking. Stubborn old bugger. Hahaha.

I then grabbed the Melways (Melbourne map) and took off into the unknown to catch up with my mate Jason who was part of the USA trip in august last year. We went for a cruise to his Mum and Dads place to have a look at dads 36 Ford 5 window coupe and 56 Ford Victoria, and stupid me, forgot my camera. DOH!!!/ oh well.

Back to Jasons and we decided to start cracking cans of Jim Beam. And lo and behold, we drank much, and then we walked (or more staggered) down to the shops and got some mean arse pizzas and stocked up on Jim Beams. We then sat for the rest of the night, drinking, jamming tunes on the guitars, watching tv and youtube searching drag racing, bmx stunts and bands. A farkin cool night if I may say so myself.

Got to bed round 3am, up at 8am and then showered and hung round a but and then made tracks back to Maffra. And here I sit, writing this and uploading pictures. Its bloody warm outside and it’s another great day in Aussie. I’m about to jump in the car with my sister and head back towards Melbourne to pick up my nieces from their Dad. Stupid me, if I had thought about it, I could have picked them up from there and bought them home. I just wasn’t thinking. I need more Jim Beam to help me I think.

Hope you’re all well back home or wherever you may be.

Rock on.

Me


pictures to come a little later. or you can check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85493&id=627921924&saved
if youre not patient enough