June 2005 – Page 11 – M&I / GBMINI

GBMINIs First Zaino

Posted on June 4, 2005February 11, 2017 by Ian C.

Previously I have used Klasse, Zymol and P21S products to keep GBMINI(#1, #2) clean – but last year I saw what Zaino could do, on Josh Wardells Black MINI.
So for GBMINI#3 I followed Josh advice and bought a Zaino kit. Finally with todays improved weather I was able to tackle poor dirty GBMINI … and here is the result of more than 3 hours work – the painted hood stripes & “S” on the roof look much better when cleaned & polished!

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Following instructions in the Zaino Kit, I first “Dawn” washed GBMINI#3, then used the included claybars – disappointingly these steps did not totally remove bird-dropping damage.
After that I used the Zaino Z7 to properly wash the car, followed by an application of Z5 then Z2 polish – I used the ZFX accelerator with both, but you still have to wait half an hour after application. I followed both polishes with the Z6, as instructed.

I probably need to apply more coats of polish but already one coat of each looks good – and I was running out of day!

American Robins

Posted on June 4, 2005February 19, 2017 by Ian C.

Outside Pat & Daves bedroom window, a family of American Robins are nesting in a Rhododendron bush:

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Dave says he can see four eggs in the nest; and this is their second brood (they have already raised three youngsters this year)
The weather may be cool & wet for us Humans – but apparently it makes for great bird parenting (lots of worms!)

American Robins are just like English Blackbirds, except in color! they are the same size, and behave the same and have the same calls – but they have the bright red breast reminiscent of the (much smaller) English Robin.

Florida with Kate & Chris

Posted on June 3, 2005February 19, 2017 by Ian C.

As I mentioned last week, we had an invite from Kate & Chris in Florida to head down and share their rented “villa” with them for a few days – and what a fabulous place it was!
They got a great last minute deal, giving them four bedrooms so ample room for us to visit too – the place was really nicely designed, in a great location (Cape Coral, on a canal), lots of space, pool and hot tub, and luckily complete with amazing weather!

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A boat was optionally included, and Kate & Chris took full advantage – so did Margaret; though I was less keen I did come on a couple of trips. On the last day we took a (very long) boat trip out to Cabbage Key for lunch – got some speed up on that boat, when not avoiding Dolphins, Manatees, or shallows!

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A road trip to nearby Sanibel left us all very hot, though the ocean temporarily helped with cooling off …

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Other highlights included outlet shopping(!), a BBQ, baby frogs, and lots and lots of relaxation, interspersed with the occasional sound of Thunder (a powerful speed boat which passed the home a couple of times each day, its massive engines rumbling so much that the building shook!)