THGTTG

Posted on by Ian C.

Just back from seeing the new HitchHikers Guide To The Galaxy at the local cinema 🙂
The beginning had me a bit worried, when a chorus (of dolphins!) bursts into song – but it got better!
The movie stays close to the spirit of the book – and the actors are well cast, particularly Zaphod, and Slartibartfast.

The Vogons were perfect, taking their paperwork fetish to an absolute high and with amazingly big destructor ships (the destruction of Earth was nice from a scientific point of view (reminiscent of 2010) but did not have the “big bang” that I expected).

The Heart Of Gold ship was also beautifully designed, as was the flight through Magrathea.

Overall, well done & very enjoyable – and watch out for the “guest spots” of the “real” Arthur Dent and Marvin 😉

The Unofficial Austin Rover Web Resource

Posted on by Ian C.

What an amazing web site this is!
I reached it following a link from MINI2, where someone was asking about the designer of the new MINI. The information about the new MINI may just be a repeat of what I have read in New MINI and elsewhere, but it is well presented and not full of the anti-BMW sentiments found on some Mini web sites.
But check out the other great pages on that site too; for example Brief History Of An Icon (about the Mini), or MGB/MGC history

Another cupholder bites the dust

Posted on by Ian C.

Maybe it is because I am English-born, but I don’t need to drink & drive – the huge cupholder in the ’05 MINIs is just too big, and I had it removed from GBMINI#3 double quick!

Minolta DSC

(I sold it so maybe it now has a good home in another MINI!)

I use one little (front) cupholder to carry my cellphone, and the central rear cupholder transfers my morning coffee about 1/4 mile from the store to the office – no drinking in GBMINI!

Today Marie Catherines MINI Cooper Convertible took a trip to MINI Peabody – the ring around the speedometer should have been chrome but was manufactured wrong in silver, so today it was replaced. Also, a worrying loose piece of roof turned out to be part of the shipping protection left over, and was easily removed! Gary explained that this is done at VDC and they had never seen the part before – trust me to find the unusual MINIs!
Marie Catherine also had the cupholder removed from her MINI – another European perspective results in another unwanted giant cupholder!

(just noticed there is a “no glasses” symbol on the cupholder – is that something people would do if they weren’t told not to?!)