Review: SUV in the City

This post is sponsored by Nuffnang.


Last week I got to test-drive the new Mitsubishi ASX. When I saw it, I thought, ‘yep, now there’s a gas guzzler if I ever saw one’. I drove that baby back and forth to work all week – and when I returned it, it was only just on the half-way mark. My regular car uses a heck of a lot more fuel than that per week – and it’s a smaller car.


So there’s surprise number one for me. The Mitsubishi ASX offers fabulous fuel economy. And when I’m seeing petrol prices yo-yoing like Lindsay Lohan’s hemline – well I’m thinking fuel economy is right up there for me.


I cruised the streets like it was nobody’s business. I was perched up there, with a great view of the traffic. When parking, the reverse camera lit up in the rear-view mirror – and I felt like some kind of spy and it helped me reverse park smoothly. That there people – that technology, wowsers.


Lunchtime on Friday and the five members of our team trickled out to the carpark and we all piled in to go to lunch. There were several revelations that there was so much room for legs, handbags and chatting – and the sleek leather interior. This was Sex In the City meets The Stig.


When you turn the car on, the door mirrors open out, when you lock the car, the fold in – I am always doing this manually to our car, since someone whacked ours off a few months ago. It’s like it has little ears. So cute.


And of course, paramount to buying a car: safety features. SRS Airbags; an energy absorbing front section to offer occupants protection; reverse camera (which I used for parking and should not replace checking around your car before backing out); reverse parking sensors (my BFFs); active traction control; ABS and so much more.


For more information check out their website here.

LEGO LEGO LEGO

I showed this to the Doctor and his jaw literally dropped. This is probably where he's going to work when he's a big boy.

Toothless

The Doctor has lost his second top tooth over the weekend.

As he noted, it's the first tooth he's lost at home, all the others have fallen out at school - and only one made it home.

Not to worry. I wasn't pinning all my hopes and dreams on those lost teeth.

The Tooth Fairy came and went, and now he's checking his other teeth for wobblies - the Tooth Fairy is a lucrative deal.

It dawned on me today how big my boy is growing. He'll be seven before too long, which means I've been a mama for just as long.

There's the revelation that old people are right. The older you get, the quicker the time seems to pass. I can remember clutching that newborn to my chest after two hours of pushing.

Stuff On A Saturday

I'm having a quiet day. Cleaning out my wardrobe. Hanging with my smalls. Doing the washing. It's banal, and I kind of like that on a Saturday.

I found this clip yesterday. It's keyed in to how I feel right now. A bit blue. At the tail end of what's been a shitty week.

But there are brighter things on the horizon. Sparkly baubles in the guise of Bonnie Prince Billy on Monday. And Mellie Waugh's show before that.

And you? How are you this Saturday?

Creating. Helping. Living.

The Creative Spirit from Droga5 Sydney on Vimeo.


I feel so very lucky that my sister shared this with me.

I won't lie. I shed a tear.

So many people are marginalised by today's society. Pushed to the side. Too hard basket for you! - Well that's the way it seems.

Which is why I've loved meeting Peter, Frank and my walking-gang. There is no space for cookie-cutter personalities.  

So anyway, I'm not going to bang on about this clip. You really just do have to watch it for yourself.

The power this clip yields? I want to work with one of those companies that is part of it. Droga5. Hear that?

Read more here at Creative Spirit.

The Walkers

Each morning they embark on their own routines. In half-darkness they walk, sometimes together, usually on their own, lapping one another, stretching. Sweating.


There's one guy that is easily identified by his voracious appetite for red t-shirts. Each morning he walks - he's wearing a red t-shirt. Except for this week he's switched to blue. He runs one lap, then sets himself up in the cricket nets. Stretching. Pushing. Pulling. After a while he exits, runs a couple of extra laps, and heads off for the day.

Then there's Peter. Lovely white-haired Peter. He must be at least 80, he walks, we lap one another, we wave hello, we chat on every second lap. He stretches using the fence. He must have lived here forever. He's heading off for four months overseas. 

A woman - whose age is difficult to determine turns up. Her ponytail swishes side to side as she runs, effortlessly around and around the oval. She stretches with another woman (who is older and curvier), they chat as they run, under the gum trees, around to the side where the sand flicks up into your sneakers.  

Frank is there most mornings. He's a jovial man. We chat politics, war and walking.

Occasionally there are other walkers, but for the most part, it's the usual suspects. Occasionally an elderly woman will brave the slightly sodden grass, walk a few laps, but then she's out of there. Sometimes one of these women will wear a visor, or those sunglasses that flip up and down.

Some mornings see the beginnings of the sunrise. The most spectacular of which featured pale pink and lilac. Streaks of colour like a melted ice-cream. But the next day, markedly less memorable, golden clouds wafting in the sky. Yet it held on to its own beauty, though simplified from the previous.

Most mornings I walk to the dulcet tones of Ira Glass from This American Life. Perfectly timed, and I can get lost for an hour, listening to someone talk about someone else. Sometimes I carve things up and set my iPod to shuffle. Although it's risky with a mix of Playschool mixed with Rihanna mixed with Justine Clarke.

Without even thinking about it, I've become part of the community. Sometimes a silent community, or sometimes a community where a wave or a 'Good Morning' is enough to pass muster. It's comforting to share other people's lives daily. It's a really new sense of perspective, and one that I like.


image via Semantically Driven


Tell me - how does this happen??

Oscars: Where The Heck Was Ryan Gosling?

For your viewing pleasure, you can stare longingly at this Ryan Gosling pancake since we seem to have missed him at the Oscars.

Even if he wasn't meant to be there, just wheel him out. Instant hit with the ladies.

image via Yahoo