Eye spy... a surprise

Hmm, it's now Friday, and this was supposed to be posted Sunday! To make up for it I'll kick this post off with a Lolcat, one of mah faves...

I thought I'd include that because, well, I'm going to discuss some not-so-girly things now... hold tight or click on past!

Surprise #1:
Two weekends ago while doing the final preparations before we spray the engine bay of my car (literally, we'd even ordered the paint) when we discovered *surprise!* a large weld in the chassis rail! This car was just giving no love back at all! While some people might think that a weld in the chassis rail is OK and are willing to keep forging on, given the other dodgy mechanical and repairs found on this car, I wasn't prepared to trust the quality of their welding work. Especially given that it was on the driver's side. Death or paraplegia isn't the price I ultimately want to pay for trying to save time and money now. Thankfully the guy at the paint shop hadn't started making up our paint yet so now the car is being stripped, parted out and the pieces sold. Bye bye car.

Surprise #2:
As a result of Surprise #1, I spent a large part of last week trawling car sale sites, car forums etc. Most of the cars we inspected were crap, but we did find one little gem. (I have to say, if you're looking to buy cars 2nd hand cars right now, it's definitely the time to buy! So cheap!). Gib and I looked over it, we sent my dad down to look over it, took our friend who's a mechanical engineer to look over it. Brilliant. So we snapped it up and took it home Wednesday. Definitely weren't expecting to pick anything up so fast. So, Hello new car!

An artist (my brother)'s rendition of the rear end of a similar model to my car: Nissan Skyline R34 (mine is a 32).
You can even buy this as a tshirt!

Surprise #3:
I started at a new karate dojo last night. It was a surprise - I wasn't expecting to find a dojo so soon. It felt good to be back in my "white pyjamas". Even though I have trained for a considerable period of time in a similar school, I was nervous about all sorts of things: How I'd fit in, my technique, my attitude, their expectations, my expectations (and trying to remove my expectations a.ka. emptying my cup), how I'd fit in the new knowledge around old knowledge. I think the movie, Karate Kid, has some good reminders on matters like that though:

Miyagi, from Karate Kid:

In Okinawa, belt mean no need rope to hold up pants.
Daniel-san...
[taps his head] Karate here.
[taps his heart] Karate here.
[points to his belt] Karate never here. Understand?

First day back after no proper class for 6 months. I think I need a massage.


Thanks Miss Muggins for this week's surprising theme! And to Cindy for being a fantabulous host of Eye spy!