From my head to your screen...

In case you're wondering

2009-09-06T15:08:00.003+01:00

You can now find my blog, and more at www.skybluefreelance.info

Things I hate...

2009-09-05T17:42:00.004+01:00

Overtly complex technology.

Like Wordpress, for example. I've recently gone and bought myself a domain name, and I've been trying to set up a wordpress site, and either I'm thick as pig-swill, or it's overly complex.

I've spent two hours looking at the control panel, trying different things, all of which means absolutely nothing to me. It seems complex, purely for the sake of being complex. Nothing is more frustrating than things being hidden behind techno-speak. It's enough to make me want to put my PC through the wall and saying nothing but four-letter words.

Not impressed with you Wordpress. Not at all. Uff.

2 posts for the price of one!

2009-09-04T13:45:00.005+01:00

Another ugly MINI...

Inspired by a back-to-front baseball cap.

It's common knowledge if you know me even a little, that I don't have much time for the MINI, I don't mind the early launch cars, but has times gone on, in my opinion there are much better small cars available. From the Alfa Mito, to the Fiat 500, to the Ford Ka, if you need a small car, there's plenty of choice.

This new MINI doesn't do much to change my opinion on the brand. Inspired by the designer's son, who often wears a back-to-front baseball cap (wicked!) the latest MINI concept will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motorshow in a couple of weeks. The roof looks a complete mess to me, but at least for the first time since 2001, the MINI has more boot space than the 1959-2000 original! And all it cost were it's tiny back seats! The good news is that the big-wigs at BMW have confirmed they're going to build it at Cowley (or BMW Oxford as it's now known) together with the new 4x4 variant (who needs a four wheel drive MINI? I mean seriously?) the Crossman. Uff. It gets worse. Bravely, BMW are also apparently entering the Crossman in the World Rally Championship. While it would be great to see extra cars back in the WRC, and brake up the Ford-Citroen love in, is the MINI really the car to change all that? BMW (in Europe at least) have always been wary of being in the original's shadow, and now it seems set to compare it's new car to the BMC original. An odd decision.

Well no doubt the new Coupe will be a big hit with the cool kids, but for my money I'd still be happier with rusty A-panels, and knackered rear subframes....

Racing games, and what I'd do to them.

New metal is all well and good, but where's the rusty tin?

Forza Motorsport 3 and PS3 rival Gran Turismo 5 are just around the corner, and it's made me think alot about racing games, and the things they're missing. Why not take the realism a step further and reintroduce used cars, but make them more real. Knackered paint, dents and scratches, all repairable at extra cost. Wings in primer because you had enough money to replace the panel, but not to paint it? Come on, that'd be great! You buy, say, a knackered mid '90's Astra and set about tuning it. But you need to do the ground work. Not just bolt a turbo on and speed off. Have things break, wear down and pack up. Sega GT 2002 on the Xbox touched on this with it's brilliant idea of used parts that were cheaper than new, but could go wrong. It also had the nice idea of photographing your cars mid-race, and then those same photos would appear, hung on the wall of the garage. Also, seeing a car you no longer wanter parked up outside with 'FOR SALE' on the windscreen was another nice touch. The devil's in the detail! Give us more little bits like that. Give us the original Mini (don't keep it just for the Asian release, please! Give us MkI Escorts, Cortinas, MGs, all sorts. Make them odd, make the obscure, just put them in there. Petrol-heads like me the world over will be forever in your debt!

In the meantime, I guess we'll just have to make do with what comes out, unless someone at Polyphony or Turn 10 wants to give me a shout.

From the Freelance Archive: Number 2.

2009-09-03T18:16:00.006+01:00

The one that got away: The MG TF GT
Words and Pictures by Adam Sloman

The recent relaunch of the MG TF has created a great deal of interest in MG, and its diminutive little sports car. There’s a lot of affection out there for the TF, and it’s something MG Rover were keen to capitalise shortly before their downfall. With this in mind, I arranged to visit Longbridge, and meet up with Tony Wells, MG’s Press Car engineer and find out exactly what the TF GT was all about, and why the car never saw production.

The TF GT at Longbridge in November 2008

When MG celebrated its 80th Anniversary in 2004, Peter Stevens, then MG Rover’s chief designer, said ‘We would love to expand the MG TF range with a high-performance MG GT which has inspiring handling, practicality and great looks. The KV6 engine combines a superb soundtrack with a surge of power and a wider performance envelope to drive within - perfect for a sports car.’ With design work recently completed on the SV, as well as the updates to the Zed cars the company was keen to expand the TF model range, and build upon its status as Britain’s best selling sports car. If the car was topping the cabriolet sales charts, what was to say that a fixed head variant couldn’t challenge the Audi TT or Nissan 350Z for sales? The obvious route was to repeat history, and turn the TF into a coupe just as Pininfarina had done to the MG B 1965, and so the TF GT concept was born. While the BGT added hatchback practicality and 2+2 seating, the TF GT is purely about performance.

The TF GT was unveiled at the Autosports Awards Luncheon in November of 2004, along with the stunning Rover 75 Coupe concept and received much positive press, here it seemed, was the ‘missing link’ in the MG TF range. The car today resides at the Quality Control Centre at Longbridge, with a trio of classic Minis that MG have saved as a record of car production and the British Motor industry at the historic plant. ‘So much stuff gets crushed, or smashed up when it’s finished with, it’s important to save some things, they’re part of our heritage.’

Before firing the car up, I took a moment to study the car and consider what was in my opinion, another great opportunity missed by MG. Tony explains ‘We couldn’t put this car into production as is, for one thing the pedestrian impact regulations would never allow us to have this front bumper, not to mention what a nightmare it would be over the speed-bumps!’ Aside from the deeper, X Power style front bumper, the rest of the GT remains very similar to the TF of 2004, ‘The car, as it is, is almost at production standard, the roof isn’t quite fully finished inside, but being a show-car this isn’t something most people would see’ Tony concludes. Much has been made of the space and access issues regarding the fitment of the V6, The main problem is down to width. The K-series is a 90 degree V6 and is therefore wider than the TF’s 1800 meaning the front of the engine intrudes on the fuel tank which sits between the engine and seats on the regular TF, making either a smaller or secondary tank a necessity, since the engine cannot be moved. Tony showed me design styling boards that showed MG were considering further alterations to the GT I spent the day with, incorporating a glass hatch back in the car, allowing access to the space behind the seats, and aiding the admittedly tricky engine bay access.

The addition of a tin-top to the range would have no doubt boosted sales.

Tony soon had the keys in hand a we were able to see the car in action. On start-up the engine tone of the V6 immediately makes itself known and marks the GT out as something very different to the standard roadster. We allowed the car to warm as Tony explains that it was the first time it had been started up in almost six months. ‘I’ve worked here for years; I was here when it was Austin Rover, Rover Group, MG Rover and now NAC MG. I’ve had stints with BMW, Volkswagen Group and Aston Martin, all of which were fantastic companies to work with, but there’s just something special about this place and MG.’ With the obvious rarity of the GT, and it’s status as a concept car meant a blast around the Birmingham was out of the question, the car lives a deservedly cosseted lifestyle so today the GT will enjoy a brief run around the factory grounds.
We moved out of the Quality Control Centre and towards what is affectionately known as ‘The Kremlin’ to see the GT in a more natural light. Although much has changed at the famous old car plant in its recent history, this is one part of Longbridge that any British car lover would recognise. If it weren’t for the factory-fresh LE 500s lined up outside awaiting delivery, you could be forgiven for thinking you had travelled back in time.
Once behind the wheel of the GT, thick, leather clad cherry red bucket seats hold you firmly in place, with matching dash trim and carpets, the GT’s cockpit is very well appointed, and easily on par with its contemporary rivals such as the Audi TT but with the added accessibility offered by the MG’s price-tag.

Unlike many concepts, or show cars, the TF GT is a real, working car, this isn’t just a fibreglass shell, designed to look pretty on a motor show stand. The car features the 2.5 V6 in place of the 1.8 K-series, tuned to develop 200 BHP, with a predicted top speed of near 145mph, giving the GT a harder edge than its convertible brother.
Although the pure brake-horse power figure is not particularly remarkable when compared to the various TF’s offered at the time, the real jewel in the V6’s crown is its impressive torque when compared to the 1800. The 160 VVC TF develops 174Nm of torque, compared to the V6’s 254Nm, a considerable improvement.
The fixed roof improving the cars aerodynamics, reducing the cars drag co-efficient, boosting performance further. A deeper, more aggressive front spoiler and extended tail spoiler add to the more masculine feel of the GT, along with 17’ OZ alloy wheels, compared to the 15’ or 16’ offered on the TF. The exterior lines are cleaned up by the removal of the exterior door handles, replacing them with subtle switches, located under the near style wing mirrors, which now include side-repeaters. Impractical perhaps, but a great show-piece, none the less.

Indeed, the car was so close to production with the wider motoring press reporting various exclusive scoops, and predicting launch dates of early 2005, MG Rover had even completed price-projections, and had begun considering trim levels as well as colour options, however the well documented collapse of the company in the spring of that year put paid to any further TF GT development and eventual launch.

Although MG does not currently have any plans to put the TF GT into production, and with the car near five years old, production in its current form may be considered a backward step. The GT provides a fascinating glimpse of what could have been if MG Rover had had a little more time and money. The GT could be the basis for an expanded TF range and would be an excellent way to appeal to a wider market at a more accessible price point than its more expensive rivals. Perhaps we’ve not seen the last of the GT after all.

With thanks to:
Eleanor Delahaye at MG UK for arranging my visit to Longbridge
Tony Wells at MG UK for giving me his time, and a very interesting day at Longbridge.
Rory and Lucy McGovern for the accommodation.

Originally published in MG Enthusiast, February 2009. All text and photography copyright of Adam Sloman. Please seek permission before reproduction.

PES Night draw complete!

2009-09-02T13:33:00.003+01:00

The draw for the September 11th PES Night is now complete and once again promises to deliver some tense PES action!

The draw was completed by Lindsey Cross and with all eyes on a returning Simon Williams, the draw lived up to expectations.

Group A

Manchester United

Middlesbrough

Coventry City

Arsenal

Group B

Manchester City

Tottenham Hotspur

Liverpool

Exeter City

With the returning Williams at the helm of Manchester United, there's sure to be plenty of interest as he faces off against current champions Arsenal, and Carl Langley. Matt Cook's role at Middlesbrough will be filled by the PS3 as Matt spreads the joys of the English language to Eastern Europe. Adam Sloman's Coventry City again look to have their work cut out to get out of the group.

The blue half of Manchester will hope Russell Brammer becomes a tad more sensitive with the 'shoot' button, and makes the most of City's star studded forward line.

Although rumours at the City of Manchester Stadium persist that City's Middle Eastern owners are beginning to run of patience with 'The Muscle' and he may not be in charge of City, come kick-off.

Finalist Mark Galliford will look to go one step further this time, and bring the title home to Anfield, while Stuart Pickard's switch to Exeter City will guarantee local interest. The plucky Grecians are sure to relish the chance to take on some of the games biggest names. Making up Group B is Rory Meakes, who's steady progress at the last PES Night could make him the one to watch.

The PES Night takes place on Friday 11th September, kick-off 6.30pm. Don't forget to check back for all the excitement!

Sheds of the past...

2009-09-02T12:46:00.007+01:00

Almost ten years ago,in February 2000, I passed my driving test. Within nine months I'd had my first accident, and the Mini was no more.

So I ended up with this:

Not a System Porsche Ibiza, this is the closest I could get on Google Images

A SEAT Ibiza.

A System Porshce, no less. For the princely sum of £70 I bought myself a chunk of the finest motoring 1980's Spain had to offer.
Silver paintwork with 'PORCSCHE' slapped down the sides and on top of the engine, 1500cc, 62BHP, alloys, foglights, electric windows, all the toys. But my god it was a mess. The bootlid latch was broken and so it came fitted with a rather sporty red and yellow striped bungie strap that stop the hatch opening permanently (although it did make an effective air-brake, at least eight years ahead of the Bugatti Veyron). The washer jets didn't work, despite me cleaning the whole lot and replacing the jets, the clock display only worked when the headlights were on and the entire top end of the passenger wing had rotted away, which flicked water onto the windscreen when it rained. No need for those washer jets after all. So much brake dust had burned into the wheels they'd gone black. Permanently. The car was nasty, floating around Devon's B-roads on a cushion of blancmange is not an experience I wish to repeat, with the wiring from the cigarette lighter sparking together when I went round a left hand bend, electric windows permanently lowered six inches, the gap being made up by half a roll of insulation tape.

Everything about the SEAT was hateful, the bad plastics, the funny rocker and slider switches it had as opposed to the stalk controls that every other car used, this was SEAT at its worst and clearly VW have changed the fortunes of the company in every way imagineable. The Mini, for all it's 1950s design flaws was the much better car, no question. Thankfully I didn't have the Ibiza for long, a £500 gold 1988 Mini Mayfair soon succeeded it. So what became of the Ibiza? I sold it, for £70, through freeads. Stupidly I didn't do the paperwork properly, and three months later I had a visit from the police, regarding the Spaniard. Believe it or not it had been used as the getaway vehicle in a raid on a building society in Cheltenham.

And guess who's name was still on the logbook....

The funny thing is though, they seem to have totally vanished from our roads, I know '80's SEATs were probably not huge sellers, but I can't recall seeing another one on the roads since I had mine. The car did live on in China, built by Nanjing Automotive (yup, the same NAC that bought MG) who (according to wikipedia) worked with a mobile phone company, called Ningbo Bird,(yes really, here's the link if you doubt me) redeveloped and relaunched the aged SEAT as the Nanjing Yuejin Soyat where it continues to be a popular. Despite several facelifts, it has proved that even the Chinese, with their rapidly growing Automotive industry, can't polish a turd.

Sunday at Silverstone

2009-08-31T22:09:00.011+01:00

Another trip to see the BTCC!

I spent Sunday at Silverstone for the latest round of the British Touring Car Championship and despite the pants weather, the racing was superb. Colin Turkington did the business in a superb third race, so hopefully the former MG ZS driver can keep his lead over twice Champion Fabrizio Giovanardi. Rockingham and Brands (which I'm hoping to go to) should be very exciting. 11 points isn't much ground Giovanardi to make up.

Personally, I thought it was much better value than my earlier trip to Silverstone, with tickets, including paddock pass, at £23.

I also bagged myself a rather snazzy scale Giovanardi VXR Vectra, for a shade under a tenner, so that's now plonked under my monitor on my new, IKEA fresh desk!

Of course I had to take my camera, and despite not quite having a long enough lens to get the real wow shots, I was quite pleased with some of them, so here's a few of my favourite shots.

You'll find more of my pictures, in nice, big sizes, on my Flickr. You can access it from the handy widget on the right of my blog.

All this BTCC stuff has also prompted a bit of a Forza Motorsport Xbox renaissance, and with Forza 3 due out soon I've created my own BTCC Honda Civic Type R, with rather fetching (if I do say so myself) sky blue flames, you could almost see me at Silverstone, on the grid with Johnny Herbert and Dave Pinkney...

I think it looks pretty close to the real thing, it took me a bloody age to do! Now I just need to make it go like a BTCC car and I'll be half way there!

I'd quite like to drive....

2009-08-25T18:13:00.006+01:00

A Citroen C3 Picasso.

Didn't see that coming, did you?

And neither did I, to be honest. As someone who's owned a lot of cars (18 Minis, 5 Rovers, a SEAT, a Renault, a Peugeot and my ZS) I've never been remotely tempted by the MPV segment, I spent a weekend with a Renault Megane Scenic and it was fine, but it didn't make me want to run out and buy one, quite the opposite. Yet, for some reason, Citroen's mini-MPV really intrigues me. Ghostbusters spoof advert aside, there's something about the car that I really like. It could be the fact that we've got a little one due in the new year and I'm a bit worried we won't have room for the baby, all it's stuff and our Jack Russell, but I also really like the styling, there's something funky about what is essentially, just a van. The spec looks great, 16" or 17" alloys, ISOFIX rear seats (something I've been thinking about more and more with Little 'Un enroute) glass roof (which might get a tad warm in the summer, mind) and little things like plug-ins for your iPod (well, MP3 player in my case-screw you Apple. My Zen's got four times the storage for the same money as the equivalent iPod and it does video better) all add up to a pretty appealing package.

The chunky leather steering wheel, combined with the part leather trim is a nice touch too, it's nice to have an appealing family wagon for a change. It feels like it's had some time and money put into it. Of course the carefully selected publicity photos may be hiding other issues, but it generally seems to have been pretty well received by the wider motoring press, from Top Gear to Fifth Gear all looking favourably upon the little bus.

There's a pretty good engine range too, with the diesels making an awful lot of sense, as a family car you're going to be racking up the miles in it, so cracking fuel economy combined with low carbon emissions means the Picasso is cheap to run and cheap to tax. It's practical without being dull or tedious, and that's something none of it's competitors can boast.

For my money, it's another successful part of Citroen's renaissance. For far too long in my opinion, the once legendary innovator in the industry has had to put up with playing second fiddle to Peugeot, and if you've ready previous posts on my blog you'll be familiar with my thoughts on Pugs. 205 GTi and a good diesel engine aside, I don't like them. Further proof of Citroen's improved range is the new DS3, I mean look at it!

It looks superb, and is sure to push the MINI for sales in one of the hardest fought market segments. The interior looks great too, certainly miles ahead of my previous experience with a small Citroen, namely my Brother's base model Saxo. Compared to the Clio I bought at the same time, the Saxo was undeniably cheaper, but boy did it feel it. I guess we'll all know a little bit more when the wraps come off it at Frankfurt in a few weeks time. Even the C3 looks like it's going to be massively improved by it's upcoming face-lift.

Back to the C3 Picasso though, I think I might have to slip my test pilots uniform on and wander down to the dealer for a nose, and maybe a test drive unless of course, Citroen fancy giving me one for a bit?

From the Freelance Archive number 1

2009-08-23T10:59:00.012+01:00

Occasionally I'll be posting up some of my previously published articles here on my blog. Here's the first one, from MG Enthusiast, December 2008.

Rallying the dream

By Adam Sloman

Rallying is one of Europe’s most popular motorsports, and MG has been there right from the start, from the MGA of the 50s, the MGB and Sebring of the 60s through to the MG Metro 6R4 of Group B fame, and more recently the MG ZR as campaigned by the likes of Tony Jardine and Gywndaff Evans. However for every works built, factory supported team there are people like you and me, giving up their free time, and spare cash to get out into the forest and compete against their friends and heroes. I joined one such team, to find out what makes them tick and what goes on behind the scenes, competing in one of the most popular clubman rally cars, the MG ZR. Chris Williams is someone who is very familiar with the ZR as a competition machine, having worked for MG Sport and Racing. The late Brian Griffin knew of Chris’ history in motorsport, and thought he was the sort of person S and R needed at Longbridge. Working for the company for two years up until the receivers moved in, Chris saw a lot at Longbridge, from the development of the SV, working as lead builder on the ZR-X shown at the Autosports show, co-ordinating Gwyndaff Evans in the Super 1600 class, before becoming team manager on the team’s last event, the World Rally Championship’s Rally Great Britain. ‘I started working for myself when the team I worked for (D.O.M.E motorsport and engineering) disbanded. I had already co-ordinated a programme involving Rob Gill, deputy editor of The Sun news paper and MG Sport and Racing, so when it was announced the team was ending I made a quick phone call to Ian Tilsley and Brian Griffin at Longbridge. Within a few hours they had managed a master plan for me to work at Longbridge’ All the work with MG’s hot hatch meant the car got under Chris’ skin somewhat and the collapse of MG Rover meant he was able to fulfil a life long dream, to relocate to the West Country and continue his work with the ZR, and his own team. ‘About a year after Longbridge had closed Ian finished his contract there. We had spoken while it was still open about starting up on our own. Ian asked me if I still wanted to this, it was decided that we would put our minds together and start a fresh in Bromsgrove. We started off running just a couple of MG TFs but within a small time we had moved into bigger workshops and brought an Artic race transporter and went on to do Porsche Carrera Cup, Clio Cup, Britcar and a small amount of rallying with Jim Ward. MG has a great history and I was part of the good times (and bad) of the last generation of ‘Works’ cars. One of my heroes is Stuart Turner. I have read his book and really think he is a clever bloke that also had a lot of right time right place things in his life. I feel that that was the same for me when it comes to MG S&R. Away from motorsport our family dream was one day to move to the South West, Sharon my wife had enough of me working every weekend and having no money, I was putting every penny I had back into the company. We decided to have a life changing experience and sell up and move to Somerset. It all happened very quickly. Within just over two months we had sold up and moved. I had decided to get out of the motorsport trade completely but it’s the only thing I know so I decided just to concentrate on the MG side.’ To this end Chris Wright Competitions (CWC) was born. Chris invited me to join the team on the Woodpecker Rally in Ludlow, Shropshire to see exactly what Chris and the CWC team were all about. I arrived in Ludlow on Friday evening, as the two cars were about to enter scrutineering. Scrutineering is the process where all competing vehicles are checked for a current MOT, valid road tax and insurance, before being tested for noise levels and strict compliance with the competitions rules and regulations. Although a strong emphasis is placed on success these are clearly guys who get along, and enjoy each others company, the sound of laughter was a common as that of an engine! The white car, driven by Jim Ward and Chris Williams has been in competition all season, where as the red car, driven by Gary Wright and Terry Moore is a new build, the result of many late nights and, prior to the event, had only covered twelve miles from the CWC Workshop to the MOT station! Jim began competing fifteen years ago, initially as a co-driver, ‘I could not afford to run my own car. As soon as I could afford it I bought my own car and started to drive. We ran the first car through my friends at Streely Motor Club who provided the crew and co-driver for me. I then had the opportunity of purchasing an ex MG Sport and Racing challenge car owned and run by the Lichfield Rover dealer which had stood unused for two years.

My love/hate relationship with the MG ZR started then! I think the ZR is ideally suited to the class system for the BTRDA due to its size and weight; it can also be made to handle incredibly well.

If only it had a little more power it would be perfect. It also has the benefit of being relatively cheap to run and repair even the way I break them and it still looks fairly modern. In our class we run against many different cars but the MG still seems to attract interest from young and old.’ Chris Wright explains ‘I have known Jim for many years, Jim once co-drove for me but I managed to turn the car over twice in the same stage 8 miles apart. After that I ran out of money so I stopped stage rallying. I later went road rallying in a single point injection Mini. That year we won the West Midlands Championship & came second in the Welsh championship. When we upped sticks to the country Jim was keen to carry on working with me.’ Jim’s co-driver is 19 year old Chris Williams, who began competing at the tender age of 16. Now, whilst studying Geography at Manchester Metropolitan University Chris is charged with getting Jim through forests and over gravel safely. ‘I have been into rallying all of my life due to my Dad, who has been co-driving for 32 years so I've known very little different. Rallying has been a big part of my life from a young age. I have been involved since I was a toddler sleeping in my pram while my parents spectated, marshaled or followed the RAC Rallies of old. I guess co-driving is in the blood so it seemed right that I started rallying too and follow on in my dad’s footsteps.’ For Chris the attraction of co-driving is clear ‘I love co-driving on events, it takes a special kind of madness to sit in a car with nothing to hold onto, head down, reading the pace notes, trusting the driver to press the brake pedal and turn the steering wheel at the right time hurtling along a forest track with trees and sheer drops waiting for you if you make a mistake. Most people I know think I'm nuts and I probably am! . Chris (Wright) is brilliant on event and anything we need doing gets done. Being the co-driver, you're the boss, usually what you say in the car goes. This is the first MG I've ever been involved with, my parents have never owned one and I'd never sat in one before the Wyedean back in February this year so I've never really thought about MG's before. It seems a good solid rally car and you can have lots of fun in them as Jim and I have proved this year. Chris is currently stripping a new one in preparation for next year. I guess I'm being converted into an MG fan.’ Both cars are 1400cc MG ZR 105s, competing in the BTRDA 1400 Championship. For Gary, the Woodpecker was a big deal, as it was the first time he’d seen the car since dropping it off at the workshop. ‘I’m really pleased with it, it looks fantastic. I’m especially delighted with the build quality, before getting involved with Chris I had been looking at some tired looking ex works challenge cars and there’s no comparison.’ Like Jim, Gary has had a long a varied rally career ‘I started competing again after a 20 year break in 2004 in an old Talbot Sunbeam, I then moved on to a couple of Peugeot 106s then a Citroen C2 which was a real flying machine but with the power came unreliability. We had seen friends using the MG week in week out with no problems at all, while we were not finishing events, that’s why we went for the ZR. The MG is a great low-cost rally car. It’s reliable, easy to maintain and the parts are fairly cheap to buy. All round it’s a great clubman’s package.’ The cars themselves are very similar to the ZR 105 you or I may see on the high street, or B-road, Jim explains ‘With only 105bhp maximum available we struggle a little against the likes of the Polo which has about 120bhp and as we run a completely standard engine we are probably a little way behind the other MGs but ours makes a noise and drives so we keep going. Rather than rebuild engines we have bought replacement standard engines this year either from eBay or from local scrap yards.’ With both cars passing the marshal’s checks the team preparations began in the best way possible, with a pint and a good meal! As everyone retired for the night all was set for Saturday and the rally proper. A cloudy but warm morning met the team ahead of the start with a few pre-flight checks left to complete, such as the fluid levels, tyre pressures and fresh intercom batteries for both cars, not forgetting the early morning cuppa. Jim adds ‘The Woodpecker is one of the best rallys in the BTRDA series and running with the 1400cc cars we start first and get the best of the stages, before the 4 wheel drive cars get onto them and cut them up. The rally is well organised and the stages are all fairly fast and flowing’ Jim and Chris were away first to Bringewood Forest and stage one of the rally. With the car en route to the first stage we leapt aboard the chase car and from Ludlow Racecourse drove out to Mortimer Forest. Jim and Chris soon arrived, Jim had found the car was under steering severely, so much so that he spun the car early on in the stage, and was now, understandably, somewhat wary to press on. ‘As soon as we got Jim into service, I changed a geometry setting and we cut the tyres a little and that cured the problem. We found out after that there had been nothing wrong with the car, Jim had changed some of the pace notes slightly so he was going into the corners too fast, hence the understeer.’ Jim added ‘There was more understeer than normal and none of the lift off oversteer that normally gets me out of trouble!! At service Chris managed to reduce the understeer and get the oversteer back so I was pleased with that.’ The morning stages passed without further incident, as the two cars left Shropshire for North Wales, and the Radnor forest stages. Radnor really is the heart of the Woodpecker, and is one of the longest stages in British rallying. A testament then to the work of Chris and his team that both cars completed the stage without incident. Aside from the minor mishap in the first stage, Jim and Chris enjoyed a trouble free run for the remainder of the event, said Jim ‘With the class being so competitive, the time lost in the morning could not be regained before the end. A couple of spins, caused by us pushing a little too hard, during the morning cost us up to about sixty seconds and resulted in us finishing third of the six MG ZRs in our class and 4th in class overall’ Gary took a different approach, treating the rally as somewhat of a shakedown for the newly built car. The afternoon saw the cars return to the morning’s stages, this time in reverse, allowing the spectators to get up close and personal with the cars as the event neared it’s climax. Jim and Chris eventually brought the white ZR home with a time of 56 minutes, 21 seconds, finishing fourth in class. Gary and Terry finished sixth in class, with a total time of 59 minutes and 42 seconds. With the rally over, and a finish from both cars, there was time to reflect on the weekend’s events, and Chris was pleased to see his hard work had paid off. ‘As for Gary’s car, that was great. I had built the car and only finished it on the morning of scrutineering (a big thanks to Dan Surridge and Matt Cotton for their much needed help to get the car finished on time. Without them it probably would not have made it) We had done no testing, we had only driven it to the MOT station that was it. Then it went straight into the event and had no problems what so ever. Gary had had a Citroen C2 S1400 for a couple of years. He hadn’t finished an event for 18 months until then.’ Gary was definitely in agreement with Chris, and understandably very pleased to have finished his first rally behind the wheel of the MG. ‘The rally was great. The stages were fast and flowing and the organisation was as slick as usual. The car ran without fault all day which is what we hoped for when we asked Chris to build the car, using his works experience.’ Jim concluded ‘Although I spend more than I should rallying, it is definitely for fun. However, when the first stage starts, I am convinced that I can win and tend to try too hard. There are lots of people who spend much more on their rallying but I can assure you that no one enjoys it as much as me. It has been said that on stage I will do anything to win and maybe that is right. I certainly suspend any mechanical sympathy I may have before the stage starts. I really enjoy the craic between the MG ZR runners on the events and with Matt Cotton. We are trying to restart a MG ZR Challenge for next year within the BTRDA championship, it seems that up to 8 or 10 MG's will be out next year. It should make for some great competition and more than a few beers afterwards!’ So, with the rally over, and cars being loaded onto transporters, spares and tools being packed away, why do all these people give up so much to compete? Chris Wright summed up everyone’s thoughts ‘I could make 3 times the money doing something else like stacking shelves in the supermarket but motorsport is in my blood so I just keep doing it.’ With special thanks to: Sarah Porter (Secretary of the Meeting) The Sixty and Worcester Motor Club Kevin Moore Please note, all text and photography contained within this article is copyright of Adam Sloman. Please seek permission before reproduction. Thank-you.

A quick post...

2009-08-23T01:13:00.002+01:00

Ready to walk yet Roy?

Todays football results:

West Bromwich Albion 2 Ipswich Town 0

Not quite the promotion push you promised, is it Roy? What's going wrong? Something to do with being £8-9million worse of than you were as Sunderland boss?

Could be....

Could be....

Just a damn good day...

2009-08-21T14:49:00.002+01:00

I love days off. Don't you?

Today's been an especially good one. I've put the finishing touches to my latest article for MG Enthusiast, walked the dog, seen the Mrs and it's just been cracking so far.

Also, my car has been picked for Car Of The Month, over on Keith Adams' cracking site, AROnline. Keith's site is THE place on the web for all things BMC, BL and MG-R, with a wealth of info and a great forum. Don't take my word for, go click for yourself. Go on, I'll wait here while you do.

I'm off to the cinema later to see the new Tarantino flick, so why not pop back tomorrow and see what I thought of it? No? Oh come on, don't be like that...

Oh, look! Over there! On the right, look!

2009-08-19T20:44:00.002+01:00

Regular readers (are there any?) will notice a little change to the ol' blog. I've added a nice little slideshow gadget showing off some of my photos that I've uploaded to Flickr. There's even a link to my photostream so you can and have a look at the whole lot. Give it a click now, go on try it.

Beneath that I've added some links to places were you can find other ramblings by yours truly, so try those out too.

That's all.

Class dismissed.

Everything and nothing!

2009-08-18T23:05:00.011+01:00

Well here's a post about everything and nothing...

I've just got home from St. James' Park after watching Exeter City draw with local rivals Yeovil Town. City were great, apart from only playing for 45 minutes. Talk about Jekyll and Hyde. Two halves, two teams. Yeovil deserved at least a point, if not all three and scored a stunning goal to equalise.

The thing for me about football is the people, my father in law is a season ticket holder, there's always the same people. Tonight was especially amusing, with the spikey-haired man (in a very loud purple cardigan) screaming at City manager Paul Tisdale for changes, as well as suggesting the club were in for a relegation dogfight (after three games!) add in a smattering of insults that I won't repeat here. Couple that with the fish-lipped lady in her 60's shouting words like 'impetus' and saying 'Oh! This is so frustrating!' in her best Penelope Keith voice all added up to a pretty funny night. If the footy is crap, at least the people will make you laugh. Cheer up you miserable gits, you've played two of the biggest sides in the division in Leeds United and Norwich City and come away with a lot of credit, and you've yet to lose at home.

You could've got panelled 7-1 like Norwich, or be starting the season with minus ten points, or, even worse, you could be in the Conference. Imagine that!

In other news, I've also decided I need to buy another Mini and go on a tour of Italy.

Walking to work while listening to Matt Munro's 'On Days Like These' while walking to work made me realise this is something I need to do. Yes, I know in the film The Italian Job it's a Miura being swung road the mountain roads while Matt belts out the song, but come on, I'm never going to be able to afford a Lambo, now, am I? Actually I doubt I'll be able to afford a Mini either, given the fact that Sloman Jnr is on it's way.

Which also reminds me, I really need to watch The Italian Job again. If anyone can give me a 'Yes' or 'No' on whether or not the blu-ray is worth buying, I'd appreciate that.

Coming back to football, I'd also like to laugh at Roy Keane, if I may, for a moment.

Ha ha ha.

Two defeats and a draw is hardly the form he promised Ipswich fans when he took over in the summer, is it? For the record, I've always had a soft spot for Ipswich Town, a great club, with a wonderful history, thanks to the likes of the recently departed Sir Bobby Robson.

Roy Keane is everything Sir Bobby wasn't, an animal as player, talented without a doubt, but his behaviour to fellow pros like Gareth Southgate and Alfe Inge Haaland still leave a horrible taste in mine, and many other football fans mouths. Not to mention his behaviour at the World Cup in 2002. I think Jim Magilton was badly treated by Ipswich and I hope Keane gets whats coming to him, sooner, rather than later. He spent a fortune at Sunderland to get them promoted and then bottled it, Ipswich don't have the budget and I don't think he'll get the result, either.

And finally:

I've pre-ordered Pro Evolution Soccer 2010. Here's the trailer for it!

PES Night-The Results!

2009-08-10T17:32:00.020+01:00

Another successful PES Night sees former Champion Carl Langley again taking the silverware.

The group games kicked off in earnest, with Coventry City facing Tottenham in a replay of the famous 1987 FA Cup final. Once again, the Sky Blues were victorious, running out 3-1 winners. With the opening ceremony and game over with, the respective teams then broke for pizza and beer, before the competition got into full swing, and the goals were soon coming thick and fast.

It was Arsenal who shone through at the group stage, however. With a 3-0 win over north London rivals Spurs, and tight 1-0 and 2-1 wins over the Sky Blues and Liverpool respectively. With The Gunners winning the group and Spurs out of contention after three defeats, the second place in the knock out stage went to Mark Galliford's Liverpool after a 3-2 victory over Coventry, reversing an early lead from City.

Best makes it 1-0 to Coventry

Group A ended: Arsenal, Liverpool, Coventry City, Tottenham Hotspur.

Group B proved to be the group of death we were all expecting, with PS3 controlled Everton causing more drama than anyone could have thought possible. Matt Cook's Middlesbrough shocked big spending Manchester City as Russell Brammer's boys failed to score, losing 1-0. The PS3 made it's presence felt beating Stuart Pickard's 'pool 2-1 with an injury time winner, the game looked destined for a draw after a heroic diving header from Steven Gerrard on 88 minutes but the Toffees had other ideas. Stuart was quickly able to make up for his opening game dissapointment by taking 3 points from Boro in an action packed 3-2 win.

PES and Pizza-a classic combo...

Russell Brammer was then up next to face the pesky PS3 and Everton in a game he had to win if he had any intention of making the all important knock-out stages. The atmosphere at the virtual Goodison was a hostile one, Brammer's comments prematch had clearly rankled Moyes' Men and in a bad tempered game Everton had three players dismissed. Despite the rampaging Tevez upfront and a three man advantage Russell's indulge of the dash button, combined with overly heavy fingers meant he wasn't able to hit the broad side of a barn with a banjo. Everton mugged the millionaires, winning 1-0 and taking three points. Man City were out and despite Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor, Bellamy and Benjani, failed to score a single goal. Thanks to Everton's heroic wins and draw against Boro, Matt Cook was also left ruing his missed chances in his final PES Night this year.

Group B finished with: Everton, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Manchester City.

Tevez-impotent under Brammer

The semis proved easy for Langley's Arsenal, undoing Pickard's Liverpool 4-1, comfortably booking their birth in the final. Mark Galliford proved to be the surprise package everyone expected him to be, and finally succeeded were others had failed, putting Everton out, 1-0, with a late, late goal.

Magners-The reason for Coventry's group stage exit?

With the evening getting on, and many beers drunk, the final kicked off at just before 1am, by which time the eliminated Brammer was tucked up in bed, no doubt telling his teddy his tactical traumas.
The final was a tense affair, Carl's cool passing being effectively dealt with by a hard working Liverpool side. Both teams wanted this, and it showed. Predictably though Carl won through, sealing a 1-0 win and taking another PES Night crown.

With the returning PES Night's return an instant success many will be gunning for Langley and Arsenal and no doubt there will be plenty gunning for him in the next PES session.

A tense final repeated the second Group A game.

The golden boot was taken by Arsenal's Andrei Arshavin, with five goals, followed by Arsenal team mate Robin Van Persie with four. Coventry City's Clinton Morrison, and Liverpool's Gerrard and Aquilani all scored 2. Arsenal also dominated the assists with Clichy providing four goals, and Walcott 3.

BBC Sport diagnosed with Tyne Flu

2009-08-08T13:09:00.003+01:00

Well it had to happen, didn't it. The BBC's sports department has caught Tyne Flu.

With the BBC winning the rights to The Football League it was only a matter of time. Following the Barcodes relegation from The Premier League last year its not surprising, but so far this week, we've had two Five Live Specials, a Football Focus extended feature, the live Football League coverage tonight, as well as extended highlights tonight, in the BBC's new footy highlights package, the cleverly titled Football League Show. Now, I have to say I think it's great the BBC has some live football on again, but the adoration for the club that was too good to go down is just starting to wear a little thin, and the season's less than 24 hours old. Lets see a spotlight on all the clubs, not just those that weren't good enough to stay up last year. Time will tell if The Football League Show can better ITV's The Championship (shoudn't be too difficult) and looks at all the clubs and not just the big names.

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the improved coverage from the BBC, and it's going to make the Football League alot more accessible, which can only be a good thing. Just don't forget the other 71 clubs, please!

I guess if it all gets too much I can switch over to Jeff Stelling and his chums on Soccer Saturday, a dose of Kammyflu will make me feel much, much better....

PES Night Update! Clubs learn their fate...

2009-08-07T12:02:00.006+01:00

The draw for the upcoming PES Night is now complete.

Not Simon Williams, not earlier today.

And the draw has thrown up some mouth-watering fixtures.

Group A

Coventry City
Arsenal
Tottenham Hotspur
Liverpool (Mark)

Group B

Liverpool (Stuart)
Middlesbrough
Manchester City
Everton

Coventry City manager Adam Sloman spoke of his relief at getting Arsenal in the group stages "Langley's a tough opponent, his Arsenal team is very hard to break down, I'm glad to get a game against him out of the way early doors, it'll be tough, but the lads are ready, there's a good mood in the camp."
Elsewhere in Group A, first timers Rory Meakes and Mark Galliford bring new blood to the championship and the danger of an unknown quantity. "Mark's a quiet guy, I like what he's done with Liverpool and they're always going to be well organised, stopping Gerrard and Torres will be the key"

Group B is wide open, with Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Manchester City and a PlayStation 3 controlled Everton all looking to make the knock out stages.

Matt Cook's experienced Middlesbrough taking on another newcomer, Stuart Pickard. Opting for Liverpool also, Pickard will, like Mark, look to maximise the potential of 'pools talismen. Russell Brammer's big spending Manchester City also be a threat, with Tevez, Santa Cruz and Adebayor all looking to get in the starting line-up, and on the score-sheet. The PS3 was unavailable for comment following the draw, but is sure to play with commitment, it's cold, calculating, clinical nature offering a stern test.

Group B is without out a doubt, this PES Night's Group of Death.

Keep checking back for all the highs and lows, tears and triumphs, goals and gaffs of the one and only PES NIGHT!

PES Clubs braced for the big draw...

2009-08-07T10:27:00.006+01:00

Arsenal, Liverpool, Liverpool, Everton, Coventry, Manchester City, Spurs and Middlesbrough were all awaiting to discover their fate as PES Night returns.

The eight teams will be drawn into two groups of four, with PS3 controlled Everton rounding out the numbers.
The draw itself will be conducting at 12:00pm, by former PES Night Champion Simon Williams.

All the news and the low-down on the sides, as well as exclusive access to the results, will be here on my blog. Because, yes, I am that sad!

Coventry City take on a City Select XI
in a friendly ahead of the PES Night.

The big kick-off

2009-08-04T12:54:00.003+01:00

So the football season starts in earnest on Saturday, with the 72 football league clubs ready for action, and of course, as per usual, I'll be off to the Ricoh Arena.

So what can Coventry expect from this season? Well, in all honesty, probably not much. Whilst many teams in the division have strengthened, once again, City have been forced to part with the family silver in order to balance the books, whilst, according to some rumours, continue to negotiate to buy the 50% share in the Arena, currently owned by the Higgs Trust. A sensible step in my view, however the much publicised sales of Dann to Birmingham City and Fox to Celtic have rankled many City fans, demanding answers for City's board of directors. Now if we can match the investment off the field with progress on the pitch, then club may finally take a step closer to ending it's self-imposed Premier League exile.

Pre-season has been steady, in unspectacular, with wins over lower-league opposition, as well as well fought draw against last seasons FA Cup finalists Everton. Notable absentees for the curtain raiser on Sunday are centre-back James McPake and winger David Bell, with a fractured shoulder and ankle problems respectively.

Transfer negotiations continue with City adding Bristol City's Michael McIndoe to the sqaud for the Ipswich game, to fill the left sided slot City have consistently failed to fill ever since a certain player went to Birmingham. Peter Gilbert is currently on trial with the club too, as Chris Coleman continues to 'crave a left-back'. Provided we're able to hold onto the likes of Gunnarsson and Westwood I think we'll be OK, add a little more quality and we may even grace the top 10, but for this City supporter the play-offs are a million miles away.

Across the rest of the Championship most of the media focus will no doubt be aimed at Newcastle United, the club 'too big to go down' are predicted, somewhat bizarrely by FourFourTwo to win the league, with Roy Keane's Ipswich Town second. Quite how they arrived at these predictions I don't know. With Newcastle's first game against West Brom live on BBC One (two ex-prem sides? Picked first for live TV? Surprise surprise) they still don't have a manager and after a 6-1 pre-season mauling at the hands of the mighty Leyton Orient, look ill-prepared for what is a very unpredictable league. As for Ipswich, well, when exactly did this miraculous change from also-rans to runners up happen? The media seems to be very impressed by the appointment of Keane, but lets not forget just how much he spent at Sunderland to ensure their promotion. He's not anything like the same sort of budget to work with at Portman Road and is unlikely to get it any time soon.

My tip for Championship success? I'll have to say CCFC. Sadly not Coventry, however, but Cardiff. On the verge of acheiving success in the last few years Dave Jones has done well with the Bluebirds and they've reinvested again these season, making them that little bit stronger this time around. If Chopra can find the net at their new stadium I predict a good season in the Welsh capital. Bacon Face's lad will continue to do well at Peterborough, and in my opinion, is likely to follow in the footsteps of Swansea, and look very comfortable at this level, if Aaron McLean continues his form from last term. 49 goals in 90 appearances speaks for itself.

How the other ex-Premier League sides copes depends very much on their management. Roberto Di Matteo earned himself a fine reputation at MK Dons last year, and I think he will continue that success with a West Brom side that knows the division well, he's inherited a strong Championship team from Tony Mowbray and the addition of Swindon's Simon Cox and Rotherham's Reuben Reid will give additional fire-power to what was a free scoring side last time out. As for Middlesbrough? Meh.

Thankfully ITV's rights ended last season, so it's good riddance to Matt Smith gurning from the touch line as the teams run-out. No more 30 minutes of highlights as the Ex-Premiership side they're showcasing that week draw 0-0. With the BBC in charge I'm hoping the quality will improve. 'The Football League Show' will air at the dead of night, after Match of The Day and show full highlights for the 3 divisions, so be preparred for one or two late nights. Still, with a combination of the red button, and highlights online, most fans should be able to keep upto date with their side. So here's to ten months of ups and downs, wins and loses, red cards and wonder goals.

And Coventry underachieving.

Again.

Love for my MG

2009-07-17T19:31:00.002+01:00

D'you know what? I love my MG ZS. It's a cracking car that doesn't really receive the credit it deserves. So I thought I'd dig around on YouTube, and stick up the old MG-R ad for the ZR and ZS from 2004.

A weekend in Holland

2009-07-01T19:54:00.001+01:00

Just got back from a superb weekend in Holland, working for MG Enthusiast. Great weather, cracking cars and lovely, open, friendly people. The weekend comprised a photo shoot on the Saturday, and a trip to a British classic car show. The ferry was a doddle, I convinced Sarah to see the new Star Trek in the onboard cinema (she actually thought it was OK) and the seas were nice and calm.

If you've never been to Holland, I recommend it, everywhere I went was spotlessly clean, the people speak better English than most English people and it's a beautiful country. Everything closes on Sundays-even the DJs aren't on the radio on Sunday!

The Dutch attitude to British cars is really refreshing too, we Brits are all too quick to put the cars we produced down, it's seems that while we lost our love for Rover Group and it's products, becoming quick to ridicule whatever rolled out of Longbridge, the Dutch kept a special place in their heart for MG-R. Pity we didn't.

Keep your eyes peeled in upcoming issues of MG E for the full story, I'm really chuffed with how the weekend went and can't say thanks enough to the guys for looking after us!

Don't you just love Bill Shatner?

2009-06-20T21:48:00.001+01:00

Much more than just James T Kirk. Thanks for being you, Bill.

I hate the Royal Mail

2009-06-17T12:47:00.004+01:00

I hate the Royal Mail.

The Post Office: Wankers.

I've just wasted a healthy portion of my lunch break waiting in that hole. Now, I should explain I was trying to do anything difficult, I was simply trying to get some Euros in preperation for my trip to Holland. So I have to go to a small computer terminal and tell it why I'm there, two or three clicks later I then have to take a ticket, and go and sit on a red sofa while I wait, for a dogs age to be called forward while two old farts struggle to order Euros to go out to Spain and die in the sun, or get ill and come home to sponge off the NHS, whichever comes first. Meanwhile two 'greeters' hover around like flies by a dog turd with robotic smiles asking 'Why have you come to the Post Office today?' Not for the customer service. Clearly. After ten minutes I asked why they've introduced this stupid system, to be told that it allowed them to count how many customers they get each day. How about they open all the counters up and just serve people? Is it that hard? I got bored of waiting, returned my ticket, telling the woman their count would be one over for today. I then walked into my bank, used a travel money cash point and withdrew the Euros I wanted in about 2 minutes. Job done.

It's not just if you visit an actual Post Office though. Deliveries are crap, too. I've lost count of the number of things I've sent to editors, CDs of photos, or copy, that have never reached their destination. The deliveries are a joke, since when was it acceptable for a postie to deliver at twenty to two? And to add insult to injury, give me a card to collect my post an hour and ten minutes after the collections office shuts! I won't be using the Post Office any more, it's irrelevant in 2009. I can buy and print postage online, I can buy car tax online, and as I now know (on the rare occassions I need it) foreign currency can be had much, much quicker and easier in the bank.

What is the point of the Post Office? Really?

So many games....

2009-06-05T23:32:00.002+01:00

Well E3 has been and gone and it's gonna be an expensive winter, look at all these games!

Play.com is listing Gran Turismo 5 as available from 25th of September but I'm pretty skeptical about that date. I just don't have enough cash! Throw in the fact that I'll probably want the new version of PES, uff. Too many games!

8 Minutes and 38 seconds....

2009-05-27T12:06:00.002+01:00

You can do quite a bit in 8 minutes, 38 seconds. You could

Boil two eggs

Cook a Microwave Golden Syrup Sponge Pudding (delicious!)

The light from our Sun (92.58 million miles away) can travel to Earth

A Honda NSX can do one complete lap of the Nürburgring in Germany

I can enjoy 8 minute Abs (or not)

Boil the kettle and make a fair few cups of tea, or coffee shoud I prefer

I could, if my stomach could cope, eat upto 103 small hamburgers.

I could watch this Battlestar Galactica catch-up video, called 'What The Frak'

Join Metro Detroit's Speed D8ing service

Brush up on my US History and name all the presidents in 8 minutes

Sufice to say, there's an awful lot that can be done in 8 minutes. It isn't enough time, however for my PS3 to boot and install Robert Ludlum's 'The Bourne Conspiracy'. Can someone from Sony PLEASE explain why PS3 installs, downloads and updates are so mind bendingly slow? I was planning to have a quick go on the game which I bought last week, before going to bed, but after almost nine minutes, enough was enough and I switched it off. The 360 has no need to go through all this, so why the supposedly superior PS3? It was the same with Fallout 3, after waiting an age for the install, the game had to update, meaning I had to wait almost 45 minutes from putting the game in the drive and actually being able to play it. That's worse than the good old days of my ZX Spectrum! I also fail to understand why I have to download a demo, and then install it. My friend Sam and I reasoned that perhaps PS3 demos were compressed, and 360 ones weren't but comparing the Red Faction demo on both machines shows they're the same size, so why the extra hassle on the newer machine? Someone out there, feel free to explain all this. In the meantime, however, I think I'll book a week off, there's a couple of games I want to install.

And now for a little self promotion...

2009-05-26T21:56:00.002+01:00

As I've alread said, I've become a writer for the website Den of Geek. Well quite a bit of stuff I've written has now gone live, so here are some links!

Terminator 2: Judgement Day blu-ray review

And you can find my reviews on the first six Star Trek films here

Keep checking the Den for more stuff from yours truly, and also for other great stuff on there, it's what the internet was made for!

In Celebration of...

2009-05-26T21:20:00.004+01:00

Ghostbusters

Probably the biggest influence on my young 80's shaped brain was Ghostbusters, the 1984 comedy that spawned a sequel, two cartoon shows, a comic series and numerous action figures and toys (most of which I still own) so why do I love Ghostbusters so much?
Well, I suppose a lot of it is down to the fact that it's the first film I remember seeing, I would regularly beg my Mum to let me rent the VHS from the local video shop, and Ghostbusters II was the first film I saw in the cinema, but it went further than that, I began asking for the toys. All of the toys. For some reason we always bought mine in Argos, the excitement of seeing that latest must-have roll down the conveyor belt couldn't be beaten. I built my own firehouse from a large cardboard box until my Step-dad gave in and bought me the firehouse proper. As an adult, Ghostbusters has achieved that sort of 'retro cool' that everything from the 80's seems to have earned, even the crap stuff. Well, with the game less than a month away, I'm really hoping it's as good as it looks, and should finally be the game to live upto the license (although I think New Ghostbusters II on NES was pretty cool). It's getting some good press, apart from the baffling lack of co-op, and the fact it's been pulled from Xbox 360 release until October time, luckily I switched my pre-order from Xbox to PS3. The graphics look great, and the cut-scenes are about as close to Ghostbusters III as we're likely to get until at least 2011 (and I pray that film is a good one, they're messing with my child-hood). Combined with the voice talent of all the films major characters, bar Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, and how can it miss? I'll give you my opinion on the game in the next few weeks.

Star Trek 2009 Film Review

2009-05-11T20:37:00.008+01:00

Well seven years after Nemesis I was back in the cinema for another Star Trek film

So what did I think of it? I enjoyed it, and thought it was a fine entry into the series, and has rejuvenated a series was in terminal decline. The effects are superb, I'm still not 100% set on the new USS Enterprise, but it certainly looks excellent. I liked the bridge, and enjoyed little references to the original show. I wasn't so keen on the shoe-horned product placement (Nokia and Budweiser, do one, will you) and the destruction of Vulcan seemed a little unnecessary, but I guess the writing team were keen to underline that this Star Trek is now set in a new timeline, where anything can happen.
On the whole I thought the cast were superb, Karl Urban stands out the most for me, his take on Dr McCoy capturing the essence of Bones perfectly. Eric Bana was less successful as Nero, there seemed little motivation for his villainous intentions, but hey-ho, we needed a villain I guess. There's some good fun in the film, McCoy's sneaking Kirk on board the Enterprise and his various ailments are enjoyable, and Chekov's struggle with pronouncing his w's is as funny as ever.
Sticking my Trekkie hat on, the whole 'alternate timeline' thing rankles a little, with a bit more effort I'm sure they could've fitted the story into Trek's sacred canon without making the fans scream too much. Engineering didn't work for me, it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the film's design ethic, it was far too big. Simon Pegg's Scotty was a little too silly for me, Mr Scott is a much better character than this script allowed. I thought Chekov was great, if a touch too hammy and I'd like to see more from the supporting characters in the sequel. Bruce Greenwood brings Christopher Pike to life, and rounds out the brief glimpses we saw from Jeffrey Hunter in The Cage.

Like any film, it has it's problems, but as an overall package I think it was great. It's no Wrath of Khan, but I would most certainly rank it as one of the best Trek films to date.

If you'd like to read more of my thoughts on Star Trek's feature films, check out my reviews at www.denofgeek.com and you can find more on the film at www.trekmovie.com and at www.startrekmovie.com

So, in conclusion, go and see it. If you're a Trekkie, bite your lip, relax and enjoy it. If you're not a Trekkie, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. I've deliberately kept this review short as it's best served by seeing it on the big screen, in fact, I think I might go and see it again!

It's the little things...

2009-05-06T20:13:00.002+01:00

Well, I started today pretty cheesed off, and that's putting it mildy. For the 2nd time, my Xbox 360 has succumbed to the 'Red ring of death' only this time, I'm out of warranty. The painfully American apple pie voice-over lady directed me to another very friendly lady who informed me that if I set up a repair my Xbox would be fixed for the princely sum of around £96, but I could get a substantial discount by doing it online, it which case I would 'only' pay £80 (I'm not sure Bill Gates would consider sixteen quid substantial) and so, not having £100 or there abouts to chuck around at the moment, I now own the world's most technologically advanced door stop. If you want to borrow any games, just ask. I'm currently undecided if I will buy another 360 (the pathetic 1 year warranty with the repair just adds insult to injury, if you ask me) or just chuck the whole bloody lot on eBay. Thing is, I like the 360, and I think it's better than my PS3 as an all-rounder, but this has really ticked me off. I dunno, time will tell.

Good job then that I have our Jack Russell to break my mood! I must admit I really didn't feel like taking him for a walk tonight, I just couldn't be bothered, but then the furry little bastid looks up and me and I know he needs that walk! 10 minutes later we're by the canal and he's running, jumping and leaping about like a madman, putting a big, dumb grin on the face of yours truly. A good run, a good swim and a bowl of kibble and he's happy. If only all of us were as lucky as that!

Come on in, join me in the Den....

2009-05-01T11:22:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that you'll be able to find more of my ramblings on the fine, upstanding website, Den Of Geek. I'm going to be doing reviews, list and opinions pieces, and I don't mind admitting, I'm rather excited! My first piece should be online next week, so make sure you log-on and check it out.

We aplogise for the break in programming...

2009-04-29T23:15:00.004+01:00

But I've recently had carpal tunnel surgery, been in a car accident, bought a new laptop, couldn't find 50p to put in the meter, and been getting very excited about the forthcoming Star Trek movie. Fear not though, gentle reader, for normal service is now resumed!

Stay Tuned for the next exciting blog entry!
(namely my review of Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, which I just finished watching! Plus I need to tell you all about Caprica, and Dead Space on PS3, loads of stuff!)

Drive Sexy? Jeez...

2009-03-20T20:25:00.004Z

I used to have a Peugeot. I didn't like it.

Uff, I don't know if you've seen that stupid advert for the Ugly Pug 307 Verve, set in an American Pug dealers, (incidently American's are spared from Peugeots since they pulled out of the US market in the early '90's) where a sexy brunette asks the Chiseled salesman to 'fact me' he then explains how they take a 'regala' 307 and 'pour on the goodies' strangely he fails to mention that crap build quality comes as standard. She then asks him if it comes in any other colour than black, to which he replies 'we have noir' except it doesn't sound like that, he chews up the English language to such an extend that I had to see the ad an unfortunate number of times before I realised he wasn't saying 'we have no R'. Learn to speak English man! I lost a lot of respect for Peugeot when they closed the Ryton factory, and even more with the crap cover version of Elvis' 'Suspicious Minds' on the current 206 ad.

Trouble is, I remember when Peugeot made quality cars, I'm referring of course, to the iconic 205, and immensee car, and in T16 form, a fantastic rally car.
Some of the '80's cars are great, and have a fantastic retro style to them, I'd love a 3 door 309 GTi, or a 104. Old Peugeot's had style, they were a bit different, a little bit special and that's something I can't say of the current Peugeot range.
The 406 in the BTCC was superb, and the Pinninfarina styled 406 coupe shows what the French car maker is capable of.
So come on Peugeot, ditch the stupid 'Drive Sexy' BS, ditch the big noses you seem intent on strapping onto every car you build, and start building cars like the 205 and 309 again, the sort of stuff I'd want to buy.

The Influence of others...

2009-03-19T22:37:00.003Z

A day in the sun with an MG BGT provides food for thought.

Life is a funny thing, isn't it. It throws up things you never expect, and people you count yourselves lucky to have met. Your mind wanders when you've got a spanner in your hand...

I consider myself very lucky to have met a person like this, in this case, my step-father (ignore the 'step' part). I guess we never really realise just how much someone else can influence our outlook on life, I thought a lot about this today as I wrestled with a knackered full pump on a car I've coveted since the age of six. My stepdad has in many ways, made me the man I am today. He took me to my first football match, and nurtured in me a love of the beautiful game, and for better or (mostly) for worse, Coventry City FC, he showed me a love of cars, of Minis and MGs, he taught me to drive, something I love dearly, especially when, like today, the sun is shining and there's a good tune on the radio! He helped me through some very dark times in my life, supported me, and believed in me. Most importantly he showed me the kind of person I could and should be, a role model, someone to look upto. And for that, I cannot say thank-you enough.

Fear not, my next blog won't be nearly as deep and meaningful, it'll be back to the normal, nonsensical 'ollocks!

Why?!?

2009-03-18T21:10:00.003Z

Why is fate conspiring against me? What mystic force have I disturbed?

Damn you Mario! Oh how you mock me!

It's not much to ask for, is it? A little bit of old school gameage? A bit of Mario, maybe some Double Dragon. No, it's not much to ask for, but for some reason, call it what you will, fate, karma, The Force, or simply bad ju-ju is acting against me, and stopping me from indulging in a bit of nostalgia with the world's best loved 8-bit games console.

I recently got the remainder of my consoles moved into our new house and after a few weeks sat in a box I decided it was high time to my NES on. So on Sunday, I digged out the pads, the machine and a handful of games. Now, where did I put that RF lead? Come one, it must be here somewhere, I want to play New Ghostbusters II. I seem to have the world supply of cables for the Dreamcast, but no plain ol' RF lead. Bugger. I was looking forward to that.

Fast forward to today and I managws to track down an RF lead, bizarrely enough, with a load of old Mini spares I was sifting through to ditch (the majority) or eBay (the minority). Excellent, I thought, I can finally have a game! Or not. Because now, sports fans, I can't find the chuffing power supply! Arrghhhh! Why? What the funk is going on? I checked every, even going up in the bloody loft and nope, no trace of it. And so the NES sits in front of the TV, game loaded, RF cable in the back of the telly, joypad ready to go, but with no power supply to feed it, that's all it will do. Uff. Damn you cruel world, DAMN YOU! Now I know how Catherine Devlin's kids feel, poor little gits....

Happy St. Patricks Day

2009-03-17T22:57:00.001Z

Forgive the stereotypical image, but it was the best Google Images could offer. So Happy St. Patricks Day to all the Irish in the world, enjoy it and have a pint of Magners on me!

The Ocassional Star Trek Movie Review, Part II

2009-03-17T22:33:00.002Z

And so onto the best in the Trek movie seires to date, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.

After the slow, crawling, tedious mess that was The Motion Picture, some might say, that from a critical sense, Star Trek was lucky to get a sequel. As bad as TMP was it made money. And money talks, so the invetible sequel was born. Serving as a follow up to The Original Series episode, 'Space Seed' The Wrath Of Kahn is a great action packed movie, with some really emotional kick behind it.
Made for around half of TMP, Kahn gets straight into the action and ditches the pretention of the first film. It feels so much more like Star Trek.
Kirk is struggling to deal with the fact that his youth is behind him, and he is no longer in command of his beloved USS Enterprise, the pride of Starfleet being reduced to little more than a training vessel. Kirk feels old, that like his ship, his best years are behind him. Kirk's past confronts him in the form of an old enemy, looking for revenge and in the form of an old flame, and a son he never knew he had. Without a doubt the quality of Kahn speaks for itself, the director, and producers had a much better feel for the source material, and from a lack of Gene Rodenberry's input (who wanted to make a movie wher the Enterprise crew save JFK). If you've not seen it, I can recommend it whole heartedly, a cracking piece of action cinema, and despite it's age the special effects still stand up to modern standards. Add in a great performance from William Shatner, pitched against a classic silver screen bad-guy in the late Ricardo Montalban. What more could you want from a movie, eh?

Pure comedy genius...

2009-03-16T21:02:00.006Z

I found out today that comedy is alive and well in Britain today...

Over the years Britain has given the world many Comedy greats, The Two Ronnies, Tommy Cooper, TV shows like Monty Python's Flying Circus, Only Fools and Horses, The World at War, alright, not the last one, you get my point and I could go on. But I won't, because today I found Britain's latest comedic talent. As is common for dog owners I had to 'scoop the poop' at which point the future star of British Comedy struck, speeding past in a clapped out Vauxhall Corsa, the bleached-blonde Chav Princess cried out 'Yeah! Pick up the dog sh**!' Hilarious. Sadly I wasn't able to catch up with her and find out how she was able to come up with this blindingly original, comedy gold nugget. Does she write her own material? How is she able to come up with jokes so quickly? Who are her influences? Sadly we'll never know, we may never enjoy her comedy genuis. Maybe I could pitch to ITV2 for a new show? Something along the lines of 'Stupid Cows Scream The Obvious From Cars'. Could be a winner. What do you mean, no?

I want one of those!

2009-03-14T22:12:00.003Z

An evening on eBay can be a frustrating thing...

Early MGF is suddenly appealing to me (pic. from Austin Rover Online- a most excellent website indeed!)

I don't know why but just recently I've developed a bit of a hankering for an MGF. In the past I sort of considered the F a bit feminine, but I've spent a few evenings on eBay and Auto Trader and now, I kind of want one. I've never owned a sports car, although I was once £50 away from a 1978 rubber bumpered Midget, and there seem to be some pretty clean cars at fair prices and open top motoring really does appeal to me.
The more I think about it, the F is a pretty interesting car, mid-engined, rear wheel drive (like all true sports cars should be) and with it's hydrolastic suspension, unique. Even the recently relaunched TF LE 500 appeals to me (although unlike many, I prefer the early F front end) especially in Raven black, with it's full leather and piano black dash, at the price that's an awful lot of car for the money, in my opinion. I really fancy an early one, in red that needs a bit of love, something I can get the spanners out on and generally have a play with.
The two main sticking points are they're still a bit too expensive for the 'just a bit of fun' and, mainly, more importantly, my wife won't sanction the purchase! I might push my luck with 'er indoors and find one for a test drive, maybe if we went for a spin in one she'd change her mind!

I guess I'll keep looking, maybe a bargain or even a freebie will come along! Of course feel free to get in touch, should you wish to donate an F!

Gabbin' about Games

2009-03-13T23:57:00.002Z

A random rant today, from the launch of the first big game of 2009 to yet another reason for the popular media to attack an industry I love.

It's been an interesting day for me today, games wise. Firstly I got my first chance to play Resident Evil 5 as you may know I'm a big fan of Resident Evil, since way back in 1996 when I played the original on the world's best consold, the Sega Saturn. I have to admit in all honesty, I'm disappointed. Graphically, it looks superb, I'm playing it on the Xbox 360 and it looks just great, but somethings missing from the mix. An hour in and I've yet to come across a single puzzle, nothing. Instead I've been led by the hand from one shoot out to another and if for a second I'm unsure of where to go? Well there's no need to bother with exploration, thought, or even trial and error. Instead a simple press of the right bumper will bring up a handy 'mini map' complete with a flashing cursor of where I'm supposed to be heading. It's a fine action game, not on par with Gears of War I admit, but it doesn't feel like Resident Evil, either. It's clearly trying to appeal to a broader audience and for me, it's not the right way to take the series. Running and gunning is done better by other titles, and it's not why I buy Evil games. I want action AND puzzles. Take away the puzzles and it's like Magners without the ice, it's good, I enjoy it, but it's not quite right, or as good as it usually is. So, after the near gaming perfection of 4, so far 5 has been a bit of a let-down, which, considering I placed my pre-order online in January 2007 is a bit a bummer really, lets hope it gets better.

I also had the misfortune to hear a 'debate' on video game on BBC Radio 2 on Matthew Bannister's (covering for Jeremy Vine) show at lunchtime today, as a result of government fitness campaign, targeting video games as, surprise, surprise, a negative influence in our society. You can listen to it yourself on the iPlayer (from around an hour in to the show) until Monday. To summarise, Mother of Four, Catherine Devlin doesn't let her kids play games. She states that in games, 'Problems can be solved quickly and are black and white, with no need for imagination' she goes on to admit she 'hasn't seen many games'. I'd recommend she takes a look at the likes of Mass Effect, or Fallout 3, deep, involving, well produced titles. She also states that video games have no place 'in decent society.' I'm not going to say much more on her or her rant, I'm 27 and I've been playing games since I was 5, I'd consider myself to be a well adjusted, coherent person and games have had a widely positive affect on my life. Small people like this ranting about something they no next to nothing about should not be given a platform for their ill formed views. It's obvious that there are certain titles that aren't appropriate for kids, that's why there's both PEGI ratings and BBFC ratings. It's all too easy to blame video games, it's clear that a child shouldn't be playing the likes of Grand Theft Auto, just the same as they shouldn't be watching Saw, for example (actually nobody should have to watch those films, there's much better horror offerings if that's your thing) anything can be harmful to kids if used to act as some sort of automated babysitter. It's a shame Mrs Devlin can't be a tad more positive and embrace some of the wonderful opportunities that gaming offers both her and her children, instead of treating them as some sort of evil to be banished from their lives. Someone, please, send them a copy of Super Mario Galaxy, for their own sake.

Snap happy

2009-03-11T19:44:00.002Z

A big part of my freelance work involves photography, something I've found I have an enormous passion for. Trouble is it turns out there's a lot more to taking good pictures than simply pointing and shooting.
I've invested in the kit to make sure my pictures are good enough for the magazines I work for, and I've had success in so much as my pictures have been published and I have to admit to being very excited at seeing the phrase 'Words and Pictures by Adam Sloman' but I want to do more, so I've decided I'm going to re-enter the world of Adult education. There's so much to the subject, people dedicate their lives to photography with some amazing results, photography shaped the 20th Century, and the more I see and read on the subject the more interesting I find it. So it's time to do some learning and start getting the most out of my kit.

Watch this space....

Do you know what grinds my gears?

2009-03-08T20:58:00.003Z

Yup, I'm back, and do you know what grinds my gears? Not being able to write full time. For alomost 12 months know I've been doing freelance motor journalism, and do you know what? I adore it. I love it. I've always enjoyed writing, considered myself creative, even something of a wordsmith. Back at school I freely admit I messed about, I didn't work hard enough, and only put in the effort with the subjects I was interested in, namely English and Media Studies, I left school, with not many qualifications and drifted from job to job, a career was not something I really considered, until I started writing again. Now I've got a taste for it, I'm addicted, the buzz from putting my thougts down and seeing them in print is incredible, and I want more of it. Question is, where do I go from here? I've got a steady, secure job, that pays the financial bills but not the emotional ones, so what do I do?

Well, first up, I'm going to take the advice of John Grogan, author of Marley & Me, and write every day, commit my thoughts to this very blog, I can't promise it's always going to be interesting, but in some small way I think it will help me to get into the mindset of somebody that writes full-time, and share my thoughts with the world. Every journey begins with a single step, and while I started my journey a year or so ago, I kind of feel like I've been sat at the roadside for a little while, so it's time to take another step!

So please, keep reading my blog, and feel free to comment!

Star Trek Movies. Part One: The Motion Picture....

2008-11-23T22:19:00.009Z

The Motion Picture, or TMP, was Star Trek's first foray on to the big screen, and will celebrate it's 30th Anniversary next year. Hmm, now were can I start? There's already been so much said about TMP, but here's my opinion. For my money the film is desperate to distance itself from the TV show that spawned it. There are several big issues with the film, and I'll tackle them one at a time.

The first problem, is the most obvious, the pacing of the film. Clearly keen to show it's cinematic credentials, (and if fairness, some fantastic work for John Dykstra and Douglas Trumbull) the film uses far too many, long, pondering fx shots of both the Enterprise and V'Ger. The film lacks any sense of pace, or urgency and with V'Ger nearing Earth and (surprise, surprise!) only the Enterprise in range, how about Kirk and co. shift their collective arses? No? OK, here's another pretty exterior shot instead. My next beef with TMP is Dr McCoy, or the lack of him. DeForest Kelley must've been so disappointed with his very limited role in the film, a few random trips to the bridge, seemingly for no good reason, and one scene in the officers lounge restricts a damn good actor to little more than a bit part. For me one of the strong points of Star Trek has been the friendship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy and the way the interact together.

The humour, the friction between Spock and McCoy, they balance Kirk's thoughts and make him the commander he is. This is almost totall absent in the film, and it shows. Infact, for my money most of the secondary characters are poorly served, with Checkov getting to scream, and the rest if the crew repeatedly staring in awe at the view screen, over and over again.
The film also seems to have been bleached of almost all colour, admitedly The Original Series was a bit of explosion of colour (as were many 60's TV shows, remember it was all about selling colour TV sets!) but I had no idea there were so many shades of brown and beige until I saw TMP, was there really any need to make it look quite so bland? Clearly someone at Paramount agreed with me, since the costumes were quickly brightened up for the next movie.

The new characters introduced in TMP are also given short shrift, Ilia and Decker are given little opportunity to explain their backstory, sa

ve the fact that Decker was stationed on Ilia's homeworld, and that her oath of celebacy is on record (and why is that announced to the bridge crew? I found out, but had to check online-have a look here, if you're desperate to know why-http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/DeltanThis relationship was reborn as the Troi/Riker relationship in The Next Generation, but given the time constraints of a movie, the characters are just plain awkward in my opinion, and when Ilia returns to the Enterprise as a robotic probe, I just can't help think of Harry Hill!

So with Spock uttering the word 'orrifice' far to many times than necessary (the neccessary number is zero, by the way) the film reaches the two hour mark, and stumbles towards its finale. V'Ger is going to destroy all the 'carbon units' (that's me and thee) on Earth as they are infesting the creators planet. Kirk works some of his old magic to see V'Ger, and realises it's an old Earth probe, Voyager 6. V'Ger wants to touch it's creator so Decker steps into the Quantum Leap accelarator (or at least that's what it looked like to me) and becomes one with the entity, thus saving the day, and meaning Kirk can keep the Enterprise.

And so Trek's first film is done, and I have to be honest, it was hard work watching it. Ralf, our Jack Russell pup, seemed to enjoyed the special FX and some of the soundtrack's stranger moments made his ears prick up, what does that say about the film? Not much I guess. To sum up I thing The Motion Picture is a fine piece of science fiction, but it's too slow, and too cerebral for Star Trek. I'm not saying Star Trek can't be intelligent, challenging or thought provoking, but TMP is just too clunky, and slow. Thank-fully it made a lot of cash, and spawned a sequel, but enough about that, for now, cos next up is my favourite in the series. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!

Another post on the blog of my existence....

2008-06-16T13:22:00.000+01:00

Well the football league fixtures are out, and as I'd been hoping, we start at home. I'm probably not covered to mention anything due to that odd rule about fixture lists, the picture tells you who we're playing, the rest are here. The list came out at 10 am today and I am proud to say that by 10:30 I'd enquired about when tickets went on sale and had pre-ordered my new home shirt!

Rumours continue to link City with a number of players, Iceland's Aron Einar Gunnarsson is apparently a done deal, while according to the BBC at least, we 'lead the chase' for Carlisle United' s Kieron Westwood. Annoyingly Freddie Eastwood has made a 'come and get me' plea to Cardiff City. The article amounts to little more than someone asking him if he would play for Cardiff, and with him getting nowhere at Wolves, his repsonse was obvious.
Eastwood seemed like a dead cert for the Sky Blues a few weeks ago, with Ray Ranson stating he was the kind of player City wanted, but negotiations seem to have turned somewhat frosty. It remains to be seen if the Caravan dwelling goal-scorer will ever been seen in Sky Blue, all we can do it wait and see. Of course none of us really know what's going on in the offices of the Ricoh, but it's the speculation that makes this time of year almost bearable!

That and Euro 2008, of course. The tournament seems to have hit is stride now, with some great football and even better goals. The Dutch victory over the French on Friday evening was particularly enjoyable, and will make the eventual self-destruction of the Holland team only more humorous! The wheat is now being sorted from the chaff, and the cut and thrust of knock-out football is nearly here!

A good summer for City fans?

2008-06-13T08:56:00.000+01:00

Well the summer is well and truly here, and despite the distraction of Euro 2008, my thoughts, at present, centre entirely on the coming season at the Ricoh Arena.

After such a turbulent season last year, with another manager gone, the threat of administration finally banished and final day survival at the expense of (ha ha) Leicester City, it seems that things may be looking up for the Sky Blues.

Coleman has already set about clearing out the dead wood from City's playing squad, which, given they're collective performance last term can only be a good thing. Yesterday's departure of Stephen Hughes will be almost universally welcomed, a talented player who gave four years 'service' to City, Hughes was a sensation in his first year with the club, a disappointment for the following three. A new look midfield seems to be a priority for Coleman, who has already signed Guillaume Beuzelin from Hibs, and if the Coventry Telegraph is to be believed, look set to sign Aron Einar Gunnarsson from AZ Almaar either today (Friday) or at some point over this weekend.

Today also sees the Milk Cup 1st Round Draw, I'll be personally hoping that we get Exeter City, away, it's a nice five minute walk from home, which would be ideal. I have to admit I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for the league fixtures to come out on Monday!

City celebrate their 125th anniversary this year, lets hope it's a good one.

ZS Central's March Car of the Month

2008-04-02T15:54:00.000+01:00

March - Car Of The Month - Black Beauty
Written by Adam Sloman

Another month, another saloon as Marty’s ZS takes the car of the Month prize for March.ZSCentral has a hugely proud saloon owning membership, and Marty’s car is another final example of the breed.Marty is a recovering Ford addict, having owned a string RS Turbos, 4x4 Sierras and the odd Fiesta for good measure. Marty was turned on to the MG marque when a friend bought a ZR 160. Initially Marty was tempted to join his mate with a ZR, but found the pocket-rocket a tad too small for his needs.
As with all of us, the aggressive looks of the 180 saloon combined with the V6 power had him hooked, and in 2007 Marty found his car.Rob Oldaker’s work on the car hasn’t gone unnoticed.“I think its fairly hard to find a V6 in a saloon chassis that handles as well as this one out of the box, MG got it very right. I love it because of its a bit of a 'sleeper' no one expects it to perform as well as it does.”

Thankfully for Marty economy wasn’t an issue so he’s able to enjoy his 180 without worrying about trips to the pumps. “Economy was never a concern it was all about the performance per pound, which I don’t think can be matched by any of the zeds competitors”
Marty has kept the ZS subtle, with Rover 45 headlamps, black grille mesh and a Renault Laguna front splitter. Some super-sticky Yoko’s keep it stuck to the road, regardless of how hard it’s pushed. The car runs a wing mounted open cone ITG air filter, with the bonnet raised slightly to aid cooling. Marty has custom made a carbon fibre engine cover and has plans to add more carbon fibre in coming months. More mods are set for the future, as Marty says “I havent really got going with it yet, there’s plenty more to do!”

Busy, busy, busy. A random rant...

2008-04-02T10:23:00.000+01:00

Well, it's been all change round here of late. The Mini (still) hasn't sold, but it's getting MOT'd tomorrow, so y'know, hopefully it will go soon. The damage to the MG still awaits repair, with Zurich trying to deny their responsibilty for the damage, not that I'm giving up or taking no for an answer! Good news, on the other hand, I am finally a published writer! Yup, yours truly has had his words printed in MG Enthusiast, a fine magazine indeed.

I've got more work coming soon so make sure you get out and buy a copy. I'm hoping to get some work with the Mini magazines too, should they like my work. Things were going great for my beloved Coventry City until bloomin' Sheffield Wednesday equalised a few minutes ago, three points tonight and I think we'd have been safe, still a draw away from home isn't too much to complain about, the agony continues for a little longer. It's non-stop for me for the next few weeks, I'm going to see The Enemy at the Ricoh on Saturday, leading an six man invasion of the Geordie nation the weekend after, and then Rory and Lucy's wedding is nearly here. Still, better busy than bored! See you all soon...

ps. This should've been up last night, but for some reason it went in as a January post. Weird, no?

The master of unlocking... Part One

2008-01-10T19:23:00.000Z

I've never really given it much thought until just recently, but I think I am something of a Resident Evil addict, and the thing is I don't even know when I became 'infected' by Capcoms survival horror series.

Resident Evil (Sega Saturn, 1997)

Initially I wasn't a fan. I borrowed the game from a school friend, but despite the positive reviews from friends and Sega Saturn Magazine alike, I just did not get it. The tank-track controls were annoying, the enemies frustrating, and the dialogue laughable. But then something happened. I found the depth. I died, and would try again. And again. This game had me hooked and although I am ashamed to admit I never could finish it (the hoofin' bloody great snake did for me everytime!) but it showed that the 'survival horror' as it had become known worked, and millions of gamers around the world lapped it up.
The characters were great too, whether you played as Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield made all the difference to the action. Chris was hardcore, with a smaller inventory, but better weaponry. Jill could carry more, and had that all important lock-pick, that made her the (to quote Barry Burton) 'The Master of Unlocking'

The mixing of herbs to create various regenerative medicines, the weapons from Beretta to shotguns, to grenade launchers were all classic. This was a game that played heavily on the world of George A Romero and his Dead films, a world I began to explore as a direct result of Resident Evil. I will never forget hitting the ceiling when those two dogs lept through the window at me. I still own a copy of the original on the Saturn, and as soon as other gaming commitments allow I fully intend to come back to the very beginning and finish it!

Resident Evil 2 (Sony PlayStation, 1998)

The sequel to Resi (as I'll call it from now on) arrived in 1998, but later saw release on the N64, Sega Dreamcast (a Saturn port was allegedly in development, but was dropped when Sega's black beauty went into decline in the west) and Nintendo Gamecube and PC, considerably upped the ante in terms of production values.

A great deal of development was complete on Resi 2, when for some reason, the original sequel was scrapped (some suggest Capcom felt the game too similar to the first title) and so the game was taken back to the drawing board as it were, and several changers were made.

The game moves the action from the mansion into the zombie ridden streets of Racoon City, a midwestern town in America, introducing us to Leon S Kennedy, a rookie cop on his first day in the job and Claire Redfield, sister of Chris Redfield from the original.
I will always remember Resident Evil 2 with real fondness, I will never forget playing through the game with my brother, in my bedroom at our parents house, me on the joypad, Wayne weighing in to offer advice on particular puzzles, although the box said '1 Player' this was most definitely a two player game. Two heads were better than one!
Improved enemies, more interesting environments (and an abandoned Mini parked outside the hospital) made this such a rich game, and for the first time in my Resi history, I finished it! A classic, must have for any serious gamer, and with Capcom releasing it on so many formats, it can picked up for next to nothing.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (Sony PlayStation, 1999)

The final appearance of the franchise on the original PlayStation (if you exclude the frankly woeful Survivor) and perhaps the easiest Resi game I have played.
Featuring Jill Valentine and her escape from Racoon City, the first chunk of the game taking place before the events of Resi 2, the second after. Persued by the titular Nemesis, a creature created to destory the STARS tem, Jill encounters Carlos Oliviera, and they work together to escape the City and Nemesis.
The game sort of acts as a finale to a trilogy, resolving much of the story, and explaining the fate of Racoon City.

The game, like it's predecessors, was ported to PC, Dreamcast and later the Gamecube, and although was less of a commercial success than previous games in the series, it still got great reviews, but to me, it seemed smaller and shorter than Resi 2 but it certainly didn't distract from the gameplay.

Currently one of only two of the series missing from my collection. I need to play it again so I can write about it here and bore you all some more. If you find a cheap copy for the Gamecube, let me know!

To be continued...

In my next post I'll look back at Resident Evil 0, the remake of the original game on the 'cube, Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.

MG ZS Central's January Car of The Month

2008-01-09T11:01:00.000Z

I've joined an MG ZS forum, these places are great for info, problem solving and just general chat. Since becoming a member I've started writing a 'Car of the Month' feature to futher my journalistic leanings.

Here is January's offering:

January - Car Of The Month - Dutch Master
Written by Adam Sloman

During the 1960’s when BMC’s Motorsport Department was home to the all conquering Mini Cooper, the key phrase within the team was ‘race on Sunday, sell on Monday’. It was a mantra that shifted dozens of Minis throughout the 60’s and 70’s and many other manufacturers used their motorsport successes as a springboard to additional sales.

When the former Rover Group became MG Rover, it was no different, when MG decided to take the ZR rallying and the ZS saloon onto the touring car scene.It was this exposure on the BTCC circuit that led Willem to a dealer in Rotterdam and his ZS saloon.Willem paid a shade over £9000 for his pride and joy, a little over two years ago and has continued to subtley modify and improve Longbridge’s finest.

A stainless steel Peco exhaust, combined with a 52mm throttle body, PiperCross Viper air-in take and filter gives Willem a very useable 125 BHP, while the exterior is made more purposeful, courtesy of the ZS 180 bodkit, 17” Dezent N alloys, Rover 45 headlamps (for the near essential clear indicator conversion) red braked callipers (complete with X-Power logo) are complimented by Mintex brake pads and discs. 20mm Eibach X Power springs improve the MG’s already great handling.

Willem says he loves the aggressive look of the ZS and this look is further accentuated by the Bonnet and bumper extensions, when you see this Z, you know it’s not something run of the mill-the level of care and detail gone into this car is there for all to see.
The mods continue in the cockpit, with blue aluminium pedals and transparent sunstrip adding to the MG sports interior. Willem has extensively modded the in car entertainment, with full Sony X-Plod system, comprising a new headunit, uprated speakers, front and rear together with a CDX MP3 exchanger, 600w sub and 500w amp fit to blow the glass out.
Willem is rightly proud of his car, and admits that for him, it is almost perfect. Future mods are therefore limited, but he admits he is planning to introduce some blue neon lighting to the cars interior and is considering going for some different side skirts, and possible fitting the Xtreme rear spoiler.
All in all a fine addition to the Car of The Month line, and a great example of our favourite MG outside the UK.
Stay tuned for February’s Car of The Month soon! - Be sure to nominate your favourite members car in the forum.

Retro-tastic. Number one in an occassional series...

2008-01-08T11:30:00.000Z

Sega Rally-Sega Saturn, 1996

Another true Sega arcade classic, that doesn’t need any introduction, however I will try!Featuring three action packed courses with a variety of environments, including tarmac, loose gravel and dirt, Sega Rally is a game that succeeds by making you feel like you really are at the wheel of a 300bhp plus rally machine. It is the games handling that is it’s biggest triumph, twitchy and first, sublime with practice, ten years on, in my opinion, Rally is still the king of driving titles.

The game offers a choice two cars initially, the Toyota Celica GT Four, and the Lancia Delta Intergrale, motorsport enthusiasts will be impressed and the amount of detail and, despite the games age, just how cool these cars look. This cool factor is further enhanced with the addition of a third unlockable car, the Lancia Stratos, a Ferrari engined, rear wheel drive monster from the 1970’s.

Control is simple and accessible, with the ‘B’ button being your accelerator, and ‘A’ and ‘C’ throwing out the anchors. If you opt for a manual set up (which I recommend) changing up and down are handled by the right and left shoulder buttons respectively. It’s also worth noting the game is fully compatible with the Saturn’s steering wheel. In Arcade mode the game is split between Championship mode and Practice. Championship mode sees you compete against fifteen NPC racers and the clock, across three tracks, desert, forest and mountain. Finish 1st on the mountain course and you can unlock a fourth, and extremely challenging track, Lakeside.

Practice mode allows you to choose one course and do just that, practice! Away from arcade mode, the obligatory Time Attack mode is available, and this where, for me, the games longevity lies. Desperately battling to shave vital seconds off you lap time is something that will keep you coming back time after time, a real ‘one more game’ kind of thing.

The two-player split screen battle is great fun too, with out taking too much away from the games strong graphical display, this title really gets the best out of the Saturn, an example of how good Sega’s machine truly was. There is also the ability to tune and customise your vehicle to your own specs, altering the suspension, steering and blow-off (ooh-er missus) valve on you vehicle of choice. A superb soundtrack keeps the atmosphere of the game alive with some great tunes that you’ll be humming for months to come, matched with some suitably chunky sound effects, this is not an area of production where the development team skimped or cut corners.

There’s loads to unlock with the extra car, track, mirror mode and more all waiting you to uncover. With the imminent rebirth of the franchise in the form of Sega Rally on Xbox360 and PS3, it’s amazing how well the original game stands up, even more so with the disappointing Sega Rally 2 on the Dreamcast, thankfully the latest game shows none of these signs, and it’s similarity to the original Saturn title shows just how strong this game is.

The Good: The closest thing to having an arcade cabinet in your home, a sublime title.

The Bad: A few more cars would have been nice.

The conclusion: A must have Saturn title. 95%

Where the hell have you been?!?

2008-01-07T18:00:00.000Z

As the more observant of you will have noticed I have been somewhat absent from this place over the last six months, I'm sure you've all been in pieces. So here's a quick rundown of what happened since I last blogged

I got married on the 14th of July, to Sarah. A simply amazing day that I can't really explain, if you've done it, you'll know what I mean.
We honeymooned for two weeks in Malta, saw an international football match, went snorkling and generally had a brilliant time.
We chopped in our Peugeot 206 for an MG ZS 120 hatch.
I discovered two superb new shows in the form of 'Californication' and '30 Rock'. Shame on you Five for moving the latter to 11.35 pm...
Coventry's seemingly never ending take-over strategy finally ended, when Ray Ranson's SISU Capital group took control of the Sky Blues
An excellent second half to the year in the world of video games with Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, Guitar Hero III and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles all giving plenty of gameage hours in the Sloman household. The previews of Gran Turismo 5 have me tempted by the PS3, find me another five games on the system and Sony, we'll talk.

We spent our first married Christmas at home, which was great, it was nice to spend some quality time together, we always seem to get wrapped up in something it was good to relax.

So that's the last six months in nice, tidy bullet points. Don't worry, I won't leave you again...

Talking the talk...

2008-01-07T17:44:00.000Z

Since I claim to have some sort of ability with the written word, and it being a New Year (eight years since the millennium and where are the flying cars? The subservient robots? The meals in pill form?) I thought it high time I began blogging more regularly-don't panic, I'm not about to go all Hank Moody on you-I'm not that cool and Sarah wouldn't stand for it, but what I will be doing is trying to express myself through this crazy thing called the Internet.

I'll still be talking about the same old stuff, footy, cars, games, TV, family, I'll just be doing it more often. Which, depending on your point of view could be a good or a bad thing.

So, here we go!

Sentimental young fool...

2007-07-08T21:06:00.000+01:00

I spent the day at the Rover P4 Driver's Guild 'Great Western' today and my sentiments about the British car industry came bubbling back to the service, this youtube vid sums things up nicely, I think!

5 Months, what the hell has happened?

2007-07-05T08:33:00.000+01:00

Well it's been five months since I last blogged, which the Dr says is quite normal. No, now is not the time for jokes. Now is the time for an apology-I really have let things slip around here, well, no more. It's time I took my responsibilities more seriously. After all, I get married in nine days!

So what's happened since March when I last blogged?

Arse end of March-Erm, I'll be honest, I can't remember a lot, it was a while ago now! I do remember myself and my groomsmen, or posse as I prefer, had our suit fitting at Moss Bros.

April- This month saw the arrival of my niece, Megan Louise, and brightened up all our lives, she's a dear little thing-I'm very proud to be her Uncle-and, after 3 months, I've found out that I can still make babies laugh!

May-Was my birthday, and for the first time in the last few years, nothing when wrong! In fact, we were able to save a huge chunk on the wedding when the bank repaid my bank fees-happy days! May, as usual also saw the London to Brighton Run, which was ace, minus a smelly and blowing exhaust on the Mini. Still at least the weather was brighter than last year and the image of Russell chugging a mug of red wine will haunt me for years to come. Rory and Lucy also came down to see us in May, all the way from the city of Peace, Coventry. The first 'Forster Challenge Cup' was rained off, despite all my work to organise the damn thing. I think I will claim we won it!

I also went shooting with Paul for the first time-what a blast! (OK, pun intended) and I will definitely be doing some of that again. Great exercise, beautiful scenery and some good company-what more d'you need?

June-Well June has only just gone, it was my stag-do on the second, which passed without any tied-to-a-lamp-post-dog-food-on-my-bollocks based shenanigans, thankfully, the bruises from paintball took a few days to heal, but all in all it was a great night, a really good laugh. I was also lucky enough to get my hands on a rare Japanese 'Derby Stallion' Sega Saturn, which has opened up the world of Oriental gameage to yours truly!
A lot of final plans for the wedding also became concrete, the final arrangements with the entertainment and reception venue have all fallen into place!
Sarah had her second hen night (I know, I only get one stag!) and, being chivalrous, I let Lucy share the bed with Sarah, which meant Sam I shared the lounge, which was fine, except Sam hums. I don't mean smell, I mean he hums, all night long.....
"HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM"
"Mmmmm!"
"HHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!"
Now six hours of that wears a tad thin, I have to say!

July-Finally, we're back up to speed! The Mini has finally had it's noisy exhaust repaired, virtually everything is done for the wedding, with nine days to go!
Oh, and I picked up three quarters of Panzer Dragoon Saga on the Saturn-I've you've got a disc two knocking about, let me know!

I'll update the last five months in pictures later!

Long time, no blog...

2007-03-13T19:27:00.000Z

It's been way to long since I last typed out a load of nonsense on here, so I thought I'd best sort it out.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the Mini is now 99% finished, and I'm really pleased with it, finally I've got a Mini with almost everything on it I want, just gotta wait til the end of the month for the MOT. In other news I now have my PC back, which is great, I've been without it for too long now and it's really good to have all my photo's and mp3's back.

I've been spending quite a bit of time on different forums of late, and two I have to recommend to car lovers can be found at www.minifinity.com and www.austin-rover.co.uk , both are filled with some really interesting people and their cars, well worth a read.

My PlayStation 2 has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance of late, (mainly thanks to the price plummet in games due to the coming PS3) so I've been enjoying some cheap gameage, which is always a bonus. Quite why memory cards are still twelve quid is beyond me.

Well March is halfway through already so it won't be long before my suit fitting so I'm pleased to report the diet is still going well-Sarah's Uni Hen Night also looms large at the end of the month so if I were you I'd stay in on the 31st!

Footy-wise Iain Dowie seems to be doing all the right things for Cov, 10 points from 12 is a great improvement and I'm praying this American investment takes off! Next season will be an interesting one, but knowing City it will all go wrong!

Time will tell....

Random Ramblings 3

2007-02-03T21:36:00.000Z

Well it's been a little while since my last post so I thought I'd add some more crap. The Mini is coming along nicely, and took another step toward completion. The roof has had two coats of black and looks nice already, despite being a way from being finished. The Morris Cooper grille and surround arrived this week, together with the boot badge, and a kit to refurb the MkI rear lights. I've put the lights together and they look really good, I can't wait to get them on the car. My JVC head-unit came too this week, and being bored I've fitted it, which was a doddle.

I thought this video was quiet good if a little late for Christmas, made me smile!

Weight wise I've lost another pound this week so I'm getting there slowly but surely!
Also this week Sarah bought us tickets for the Bluetones the end of this month, which will be good, I saw them last about three years ago at the Uni and they were quality live so I reckon they'll maintain the standard!
I'm also really excited to see trailers for Hot Fuzz on TV, I love everything that Simon Pegg has done so I'm realy looking forward to the cinema trip for this one. I'm also really enjoying Battlestar Galactica on Sky One at the moment, I hope the rumours that Life On Mars season two are going to clash with it are just that! If only we had Sky Plus....

Tomorrow should be good, we're off to Mum and Barrie's for lunch and I'm going to venture into the loft and dig out my old games consoles (Sarah doesn't know yet!) so that should be good, clean, retro fun!

Why the REAL Mini still rules the roost

2007-01-25T21:47:00.000Z

Another reason why the real Mini is king, as if you need one!

Who ya gonna call? Someone to get this game made!

2007-01-19T17:12:00.000Z

It's no secret how much I love Ghostbusters, as a child of the 80's how could I not? One thing I've always wanted those is a desent Ghostbusters game, to date, 23 years after the release of the first film we might actually get one, courtesy of Zootfly Games for the Xbox 360.

I think you'll agree that it looks awesome, and exactly what all us GB fans need, I love the voice warning from the proton pack warning me 'do not cross the streams' and 'ghost terminated'. I think the CG Venkman looks pretty sweet too, whether or not they could use likenesses is another thing, but it does look good. The one problem is Zootfly don't own the rights to Ghostbusters, video-game wise. Negotiations are underway and Sony/Colubmia or whoever would be made to turn it down-there's a lot of money that could come out of this,so fingers crossed the game will one day see the light of day and bring the Ghostbusters back to the limelight were they belong.

So long Micky....

2007-01-17T17:11:00.000Z

"I see a change is coming to our club

Its not the same as it used to be
And its not too late to realise our mistake
Were just not right for each other
Results have slipped away left us strugglers
We almost seem like strangers
All thats left between us are the memories we shared
Of times we thought we'd get promoted
Theres nothing left to do but go our separate ways
And pick up all the pieces left behind us
And maybe someday, somewhere along the way
Promotion will find us"

Ok, ok, that's Seperate Ways by Elvis, but anyhoo I thought I ought to post something about Mr. Adams' departure from CCFC.
I can honestly say I've never been so undecided about a decision made by my club. On the one hand we are sliding down the table and results of late have been appalling, on other, this was the man that the club had sufficient faith in to allow him to invest substantially in the side so maybe more time was required, I just don't know.
Either way Micky and Coventry City have parted company, so a new manager will come in, burdened with an expectant support longing for a return to the Premier League. The open letter to supporters from Paul Fletcher is certainly encouraging, and if there is to be a return to the Premier League we need to develop the club, it's youth players and learn how to increase revenue into the club.
For the record, I hope we don't appoint Iain Dowie, he's a great motivator, sure but his skills in the transfer market are shocking, Gary McAllister too, is not the man for the job, he's a legend for his playing time at City, his managerial period at the club was a disaster.

So who should be appointed? I have no idea, I think Heath and Cork should leave as well and the club should look to appoint a young, ambitious manager with something to prove. Whoever is successful they'll have one hell of a job ahead of them if Operation Premiership is to succeed.

Oh, and I'm applying too!

The diet...

2007-01-15T19:18:00.000Z

Well I've weighed in and the good news is I'm a step closer to this:

And a step further away from this:I've lost 7lbs, weighing in at 15st 1lb. I'm getting there!If I can keep up like this I'll have no worries getting to my target for the Wedding.Fingers crossed!

Random Ramblings 2

2007-01-13T22:06:00.000Z

Well, that's another week nearly gone, and it's been a real trial cutting down on what I'm eating, but I'm really pleased with myself, the temptation from people offering me cookies, or cakes in the kitchen at work has made it hard but I'm doing it!

The Unappreciated King of the Consoles.

Simon and I also got a bit of retro gaming on the go as well this week, and it's funny how some games still feel as frsh today as they did when we first played then 10 years ago.

Back then Saturdays consisted of hours spent on the Sega Saturn, coupled with a lunch of ham, boiled potatoes and Beans, but that's away from the main point.
Sega Rally is still great to play and I'm very excited about the forthcoming Sega Rally Revo for the 360. World Series Baseball II is the only American sports game I've really enjoyed (I'm tempted to find a UK 360 baseball game if there is such a thing!) and Athlete Kings is still great-especially when I'm breaking Simon's World Records-I am the Pole Vault King!
I'm hoping I can round off my Saturn collection with a few choice eBay purchases and I'll be all set, even better if the rumours that Saturn titles are to join the Wii virtual console come true. It does make me wonder if I'll still be playing todays games in ten years-I think the Wii will certainly stand the test of time. Now to find a copy of Samba De Amigo for the Dreamcast and all will be right in the world!

Battlestar Galactica came back to Sky One this week, and what an opening, I can't wait til next Tuesday, it's without a doubt the finest Sci-fi drama I've ever seen. Funilly ebough Bravo has started showing the original Galactica along with Buck Rogers in it's Sci-fi heroes slot. Two things, 1. The original Galactica is camper than a row of tents. 2. Colonel Wilma Deering is still hot.

I also managed to get back and do some work to the Mini this week, Paul was able to get the front wing in the right position and rebuilt the lip around the indicator panel so that the passenger side wing can go on, I'm taking Monday off to do the final bit of prep work and start rubbing down the paint work.
Sarah spent most of this evening inking our Wedding Ivitations, Menu's, Order Of Service, and Thank-you cards-I really admire her for the effort she's put in to making them all, I'd probably have just gone out and bought them, and she thinks she isn't artistic.

Sunday tomorrow and lunch and Mum's begans (no aple crumble though :-( ) and a hole lot of running around. Still at least I've got Monday off too! Which just happens to be weigh-day...

New Year's Resolutions. For real!

2007-01-10T22:19:00.000Z

Something shocking happened on Monday. I stepped on to a set of scales, and realised to my horror, that I'd put on nearly two stone. Feeling quite disgusted with myself, and accutley aware I have a suit to fit into in six months or so I am now on a diet. And it's horrible, I think I could cope if it wasn't for Cakes in the Kitchen at work, or mates offering me a pint in the pub or the fact that I know there's a packet of twelve jam Mini rolls in the cupboard. Man I love Mini Rolls.

So here we are then, week one and I currently weigh 15st 8lbs, my target? 13st. Bring it on!

Oh, and we've decided to recycle too.

Elvis Night...

2007-01-07T14:19:00.000Z

Les performing "An American Trilogy" as his set reached it's climax.

Monday would have been Elvis' 72nd Birthday and Sarah, Simon and I went to The Lime Tree for an Elvis night. I sang "Guitar Man" and "Promised Land" and then Sarah and I sang "Little Sister" with some help from Lesley Presley and then, to top it all Les' wife Jackie lent me one of his jumpsuits to do "Guitar Man" in! Awesome! Here's some photos.

Me in Les' suit singing "Guitar Man" and Sarah and I as Elvis and Prescilla!

Simon and I (he's meant to be doing the Jailhouse Rock look!)

Me winning best dressed Elvis and a bottle of Champagne, another pic of me in Les' suit.

So it was a great night, and a brilliant way to say Happy Birthday to the King. I owe Sarah a massive thank-you for all the hard work she put in on my jumpsuit, and for letting me drink and for driving when I promised I would. Thanks to to Jackie and Les for letting me wear one of his suits and for another great show.

The King is back (thanks to Sarah!)

2007-01-05T00:14:00.000Z

Thankyou, thankyouverymuch!

After much panic to find a jumpsuit for Saturday we ended up looking in Exmouth, famous for it's New Years Eve Fancy Dress, if you want fancy dress Exmouth will probably have it.
We decided against paying £25 (plus £25 deposit!) for what was, at best, a poor jumpsuit and thankfully found a quite good one for £15.99 in Aladdin's Cave. Step in Sarah who suggested getting some gemstones and some fabric glue to give the plain suit that proper Vegas look. Two hours later and it's looking pretty sharp, Elvis would be proud!
All that's left now is the legs to do and for me to convince her to do the full Eagle design on the back!

Where would we be without women, eh?

Random Ramblings....

2007-01-03T12:48:00.001Z

Urrggh, why is it so hard to find an Elvis jumpsuit? Saturday is fast approaching, I've sorted Simon in a Jailhouse Rock style outfit (he's a fan of early Elvis) Sarah's got a 60's look going as a mad Elvis fan, which leaves me! There are some stunning examples on the Internet, but for some reason Sarah's reluctant to let me spent £750 on a replica 'Aloha from Hawaii' jumpsuit-even the gold-eagle belt failed to sway her, I even suggested I wear it to the Wedding but she wasn't keen on that idea either-women, I just don't understand them.
We're going out tomorrow afternoon in the hope of getting something sorted. Once my costume is sorted it's then just a matter of fine tuning the vocal chords for either 'The Promised Land' or 'Guitar Man'. Only problem being is that I am, apparently driving on Saturday night and I'm not sure how well I can perform with out the aid of a Cider-based lubricant. Time will tell.

Today is also my second day back at work,uff-it's frightening how quickly things go back to normal (most) of the decorations are down and the festive cheer has been put away for another twelve months.

The week is disappearing fast and I really need to get on with the Mini, I've got two and a bit months, scary!

I think I need a holiday.

Still, it's only 192 days to the Wedding...

Just a quick point:

2007-01-02T23:34:00.000Z

This is a Mini:

This isn't:

All this MINI nonsense really Grinds My Gears, if it wasn't built between 59-01 it ain't a Mini, it's a small BMW. Like the insurance add that says they're giving away a Mini each month, or the Money one that says 'We need insurance for our Mini.
I accept it's a good car, and really stands out against the other Euroboxes bobbling up and down Britain's roads but it just doesn't deserve the name if you ask me, that and the complete contempt BMW showed the original when the new car launched (telling us the 'S' in Cooper S represented the winding roads where the car is most at home-jeez!)

The new car (pictured above) is even worse in the looks department, and guess what, it's been made bigger for the US market, MINI? More like Maxi, me thinks.

Thank goodness for Poppets who decided to put a real Mini on their packets of chewy chocolates! Another reason to buy them!

2006 the year that was...

2007-01-01T21:58:00.000Z

As 2007 rolled around I thought I'd try and remember some of the stuff that happened in the last 12 months.

January
I have to be honest and say I don't remember a great deal about January, other than the fact that Sarah's Nan turned 90, as did a special friend of ours.

February
My Sister, Brother in law and Nephews emigrated to Perth, Australia, which was pretty hard for the whole family, thankfully we were bouyed by the fact that they settled very well in Oz.

March
I got temporary promotion at work, moving up a grade to Slightly Important Admin from Totally Unimportant Admin. Still, the extra cash was nice.

April
I made my debut for Up and Under FC in a totally forgettable 7-4 defeat, still at least there was a trip to the Ricoh for City v Wolves and season two of Battlestar was kicking along nicely. Sarah went to her sisters for tea, which was nice.

May
Saw my 24th birthday, yay! The Mini show season kicked off too, with Sarah and I heading to Cornwall for the Riviera Run (which was never worth £10) and then upto London for the London to Brighton Mini Run,the Mini performed admirably (as did Sarah what with putting up the tent, taking the frickin' thing down at 5am, and helping me push the Mini across two lanes of traffic when he decided to have a temper tantrum!). Coventry finished their season with a home with against Cardiff City and finished 8th in the Championship-our highest finish since relegation.
I also spent nearly 12 hours in Sarah's Peugeot, going all the way to Old Trafford in Manchester with Russell, Rory and Simon to watch England's penultimate World Cup friendly versus Hungary (a 3-0 victory that saw the birth of the RoboCrouch, and Russell denied his air-horn by a surely Manc steward!)

Sarah weighed 8st 12lbs (too thin!)

June
The World Cup finally arrived and started (except for England) with some great games and great goals. Then the wheels came off as England consistantly under-performed. I'm glad to say that I only missed about 2-3 hours of the whole tournament, good ol' flexitime!

My temporary promotion was made permanent and I could start filling my desk with toys.

July
A big month for Sarah, she turned 22 and did the race for life with Amanda, Michelle and Leanne. The 14th of July also meant it was 365 days to our Wedding. The World Cup final saw Italy win the tournament and Zizou lose it in extra time.

August
Another trip to the Ricoh, as me and Si saw City beat Sunderland 2-1, with the winner coming from one Gary McSheffrey (his last for City)

We also got the fantastic news that Midge and Paulo were going to be joined by a bundle of joy, so our hopes and good thoughts are with them for the next 9 months, if anybody deserved it-it's them.
We spent all the hard-earned Sarah worked on the bank for, spending out more than we probably should've getting all the spares to put the Mini right. Russell got leathered and ripped sh*t up and we had a bacon and egg sarnie in the forest!

Sarah gave blood for the first time, and we also spent and evening with Lesley Presley!

September
Lucy and Simon got married and Sarah danced and cried the night away with the grooms brother,I worked my way through as much Magners as I could in the time I had! Dead Rising launched on 360 meaning I had a reason to use my Xbox again, in the words of Dennis Hopper in Land of the Dead 'Zombies man, I hate 'em!'

October
Pro Evolution Soccer 6 launched to disappointment from our PES crowd, meaning I bought the PS2 version. Shame. I made a triumph return in goal for Up and Under, keeping a clean sheet in a 5-0 win and winning the Man of the Match award. Sarah's Mum turned 60 and we all played cowboys and cowgirls for the night at a Barndance to celebrate. Keen to avoid any Brokeback Mountain style incidents I played the part of bartender. We also spent another evening with Mr Lesley Presley.

November
Sarah started her first placement of her second year, her friend Jenny was baptised. November was a mixed month for me-I saw City play three games live, the home win against Colchester (which could've been October now I think about it!) I took Mum to the Ricoh for the first time as we slipped to the softest goal ever to lose 1-0 to B*rmingham *ity, and then 1-0 away to Stoke City, nice to have two games on Sky in quick succession, shame about the results. Belief in Mr Adams' abilities had definately been shaken!

December
We had our works Christmas meal and drinks, and worked to get everything clear for Christmas week. We got out tree a tad too early and I got all the stuff I wanted from Tesco as we did our big Christmas shop.
We spent Christmas morning at my Mum's before going to Sarah's for the afternoon and a good laugh with my in-laws. Coventry lost three on the trot before scraping a home drawn against bottom of the league Southend, the torment continues! The time off work was great and we spent another night with Les before going to Midge's for New Years as 2006 drew to a close

A night with the King

2006-12-31T01:51:00.000Z

Where would the world be without Elvis? A darker place I say.
On Saturday evening Sarah, Simon and I went to Paignton to the Lime Tree Public House to see the one and only Lesley Presley, an ETA (Elvis Tribute Act, folks).

As per usual (we've seen him three times!) We weren't disappointed. Les manages to capture the power and essence Elvis was able to put into his performances, and rather than just do the standard Elvis songs you'd expect, Les isn't afraid to do some different and lesser known songs, which have encouraged me to look at some of Elvis' wider work. It was from Les I heard Elvis songs like "Let me Be there" and "You Gave Me a Mountain"-I love the fact that he remembers us from previous nights and the fact that he always seems to find time to sing to Sarah-I'm marrying an Elvis groupie and I don't mind a bit!

Next Saturday (his actual birthday would've been Monday the 8th-guess the pub would be a bit quiet on a Monday night!) would have been Elvis' 72nd birthday so were off down to Paignton again for an Elvis night,and there's prizes so come back soon for pictures of yours truly in Elvis jumpsuit. Thankyou, thankyouverymuch!

Frickin' video games...(AKA The Force isn't strong with this one...)

2006-12-30T00:02:00.000Z

So, I've finally started playing through Lego Star Wars II months after buying it and I've enjoyed it, but do you know grinds my gears?

I've got to escape from Echo Base and I can see the Falcon waiting there for me, except there's no way I can get to her. After ten minutes of blasting at the shield generator I wimped out and checked a walkthrough online, it's advice "build one of the mounted guns and destroy the shield generators". A further ten minutes of blasting and still nothing.

Net result=Swearing, a wireless pad skimmed across the carpet and the Mrs telling me 'to calm down'

Fricking video games...

Christmas, over for another year.

2006-12-27T23:11:00.000Z

Well Christmas is over for another year in the Sloman/Hartnell household and I have to say it's been a good one, I got my MP3 player, and that City shirt I wanted. Woo-hoo!

TV was crap (again) so I'm glad I got Family Guy Season 5 from my sister in law and Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii on two-disc DVD so I've had something to watch, then there's Short Circuit to see for the first time in years, thanks to Sarah's plans to buy me something on nostalgic on DVD!

Elvis on Saturday, then New Years Eve and then back to work and it's all back to normal. Oh well....

Wii Want NiGHTS!

2006-12-22T11:53:00.000Z

Being somewhat of a video game obsessive, I've recently been playing on my Sega Saturn (it still sits under the telly, next to my Dreamcast) and I remembered a game I've somehow managed to lose. Back in the mid-nineties (scarily ten years ago) I played and adored Nights: Into Dreams and it's festive pseudo-sequel, Christmas Nights.

A superb game on the often ignored and maligned Saturn, Nights proved that Sega still had the ability to produce AAA titles. This game was (along with Burning Rangers) the Sonic Teams finest of the 32-bit era, and in my opinion they've yet to better it (Samba De Amigo aside!).

The game is long overdue a sequel, the time is right and now we have the right console: The Nintendo Wii, with its wiimote would be ideal for Nights' control and gameplay. COME ON SEGA STOP FLOGGING A DEAD HEDGEHOG AND BRING BACK NiGHTS!

Operation Mini has begun!

2006-12-09T15:59:00.000Z

I've started work on my Mini project, with help from my Brother-in law, Paul. The car is a 1993 Rover Mini Cooper SPi, which I've had for nearly two years, and is going to be used as on of the wedding cars when I ger married next year. Heres some photo's.

First up the front end of the Mini was stripped off a couple of months ago, then on Tuesday it was loaded up on to the trailer for it's journey to the barn!
I booked a day off on Friday (good old Civil Service) and stripped out the interior, removed the rear windows, then (big gulp!) set about the front wing with an angle grinder.
The cold was beginning to get the better of me so I headed home and decided I would carry on tomorrow when Paul was around to help. Which brings us to today:

Paul gets busy with the angle grinder to help me finish removing the old wing.

Remember kids, wear goggles when doing this kinda stuff. Goggles let you oggle tomorrow!

As you can see we've removed the driver's door, the A-panel and the wing. The metal behind was reassuringly good, and there's minimal prep work needed to fit the new panels, which we test fitted in the picture below.

Next up I'm going to prep all the edges and the new panels for Paul to get busy with the MIG welder!

Wii have a winner!

2006-12-09T15:49:00.000Z

So the Nintendo Wii is finally here, and much like this time last year when the Xbox 360 launched, I was lucky enough to get one on launch day. Complete with Wii Sports and Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess, I have to say I am really impressed with Nintendo's new machine. It really adds something to gaming, and it's appeal has already been demonstrated by the fact that the Mrs has already spent more time on it than me (although I'm not sure if that's a good thing!)

I'd also like to say how impressed I was with my local games shop, IT Games on North Street in Exeter, the quality of their customer service was excellent, and I'd recommend them to anyone.

I'll fill you in on how I go with Zelda, if Sarah ever stops playing Wii Sports!

What Grinds My Gears

2006-12-09T15:43:00.000Z

Hi, and welcome, noble internet Pilgrim.
I've decided to set up a blog, basically to rant about video games, my upcoming wedding, football and my Rover Mini Cooper. Have a read, feel free to reply and if you don't like it there's plenty of other rubbish to read on the internet! Also my fiance, Sarah will be adding bits and pieces here when she feels like it! The title is a reference to the TV show Family Guy, and I'm sure it won't be the last!