Purchases

TwistyBitz (run by my friend Robert Ballard) has offered various interesting items over the years (including some great “GP” Tshirts that I regularly wear); now Robert is trying a line of magnetic badges – or fridge magnets, as I think of them!
It’s taken a while for him to get the quality where he wants it, but I received this over the weekend, and I particularly like the “50th” one 🙂

(previous badges)

So says MINI UK, anyway, in this nice press kit I got recently; inside, the press kit offers information and photos of the full MINI range (including the new JCW model) – in CD, USB stick and glossy print formats! I’m particularly pleased with the (2GB) “MINI” logo’ed memory stick, and also with the set of “spreadable” printed pictures which pull out of a slot in the press kit, and spread out fan-like in a pleasingly high quality way 🙂

In addition to the photos, there’s a chunk of press release text including MINIMALISM:
… with the launch of a second-generation new MINI Hatch, and more recently the launch of the new MINI Clubman, along came a raft of new engines incorporating technologies that ensure low CO2 emissions and fuel consumption are added to the reasons for owning a MINI. Based on BMW’s EfficientDynamics systems, these technologies are branded MINIMALISM for MINI …
Brake Energy Regeneration
Auto Start-Stop Function
Switch Point Display
(all of course still not available in USA!)

Oh – there’s also a 450MB+ Quicktime video of the new JCW, quite astounding in it’s level of dullness, particularly when compared to the GP promo video which pretty well sealed the deal on my purchase of a GP back in early 2006!

[and just in case you didn’t realize … the title is a play on Oxford University – and I don’t think MINI beats, for example, Stephen Hawking!]