X6 first dealership visit

Posted on by Ian C.

Because I picked up my X6 from the BMW ‘factory”, it’s never been to the dealership till this week where I took it in to hopefully eliminate an annoying rattle somewhere above my head! I was given a 2 series BMW which is a bit of a reduction in size (and engine power!) from my car … it even looked smaller than Margaret’s 2 series convertible, when I got home!

The interior as well as being small was much reduced in technology; the center display tiny compared with my X6, with no built-in navigation or anything else, but it did connect fine with wireless Apple CarPlay – I’ve added a photo of my X6 interior for comparison:

Happily the next day my X6 was finished (though I can’t tell yet if the rattle is resolved, due to the 100 degree temperature driving home and needing lots of a/c!); the dealership also washed it:

I will comment on the “car scanning” that occurred when I arrived at the dealership – they have a “UVeye” system that takes photos of your car from all sorts of angles and “identifies” existing damage (presumably so they can deny anything that occurs while the car is being serviced). However it’s pretty useless, identifying a heap of “scratches” etc that are clearly just reflections or dirty marks!

Making macarons

Posted on by Ian C.

I returned to Le Petit Paris yesterday for another of their fun workshops, this time [basic] macarons (there’s also an advanced macarons workshop!) … Stefan provided instructions for plain and chocolate versions (the plain could be flavored as desired, we used vanilla); there’s a number of steps involved but this was a less complex workshop than some I’ve gone to … the shells are made with an Italian meringue recipe using egg whites and almond flour, while the ganache filling is (for the chocolate one) simply heavy cream and melted chocolate!

As always I took photos throughout the afternoon:

I recorded a few videos also – these two show the careful folding of egg whites / flour / chocolate into the shell mixture so that the egg whites don’t lose the air that’s been beat into them, and show piping the shells which takes care but we learned quite well within about 20 shell attempts!