Orlando MINI F56 launch event

Posted on by Ian C.

Tonight we drove to Orlando MINI for their F56 launch event, and Black Knight’s first “MINI meet” – sort of, at least, since there wasn’t any actual driving.

Black Knight got wet on the way there, too – and didn’t come home (I’m getting satellite radio installed):

Black Knight got wet!

 

The F56 launch event itself an assortment of the new MINIs visible, including this quite good looking Spice Orange:

SONY DSC
SONY DSC

In general, the F56 looked very MINI like with few downsides – though the “fall apart when pulled” door handles are strange!

Meanwhile, it was great to meet MINI friends (James, Lori, Andrea, Troy – and others whose name I don’t know), and enjoy the desserts:

SONY DSC

Special thanks too to Greg, my Motoring Advisor, that organized booking my MINI in to get satellite radio installed – and presented a gift of a neat Tshirt:

SONY DSC

A couple of wetlands videos

Posted on by Ian C.

I created this recording last night of the frog, bird and insect sounds in the wetlands behind our home – tonight the frogs got much louder, don’t know what the trigger was but they were impressive (and presumably they’ll get louder still in the weeks ahead!):


I also took a video of the Great Blue Heron nest this past weekend, and happened to catch a parent feeding it’s young!

That young Heron is growing fast!

Black Knight’s first wash

Posted on by Ian C.

I finally got “brave” enough to give my new MINI a wash – after only a couple hundred miles so far, and garaged, she’s not very dirty; but it was time anyway. Washing the frozen paint was easy enough – MINI advises to use their own car shampoo, and of course not polish! They also ban micro-fiber cloths, but I had a pseudo chamois for drying.
Sadly, the dried paint shows a number of water spots:

Looking back through my earlier pictures, there were similar water spots even when it was delivered; I’m going to have to figure out a way to remove them, and avoid them in future.

😦