GTAMADDOG

I would've been interested if there was no PvP. I just like to build stuff. I haven't played Minecraft in ages as I can't find a good community server, the last one I was on basically got nuked by an update leaving a huge scar all the way across the map. Then the admin(s) decided they wanted people to sign up to a website and do this, that and the other with a new map, so I gave up with it.

Bah, I started in Swansea, I have no idea why as Cardiff is closer to me which was what I was aiming to do in the first place - start from the closest place to home in real life. I quite like the interior of the 'Ivedo' I drove on a job earlier, although I think I saw in the showroom the particular one I like is 200,000 Euros which is typical of me to choose the most expensive one :p

I got a truck pulling a petrol trailer up to 88MPH. I was hoping for 90MPH, but alas, Welsh motorways do not go downhill far enough for me to achieve that. Also crashed into a Ford Focus and then a Jaguar XF after the Focus decided to stop dead on a small bridge, I knew I wouldn't stop in time so I tried to steer around it, but the Jag came flying around a corner before I could slow down to less than 30MPH and I kind of parked the truck cab on top of the Jag's bonnet. 103,000 Euros at the moment, still can't afford a decent truck and I refuse to take out bank loan.

Wooo, week off work, yeah! My challenge for the week is to change the rear brake discs and pads on the car as they've needed doing since this time last year. I'm expecting rusty brake/hub screws and dodgy brake pad spring clips just to take the car off the road for the week. Although I want to give the car a rest from its usual 300 mile week anyway, but I just thought it might be a good time to get one or two short driving videos in instead of uploading yawn-fest game-play footage to YouTube all of the time, especially if the weather is nice, but I don't think it's meant to be. Then the rest of the week I hope to do sod all.

I've been itching to play this all week, finally managed to sink a couple of hours into it this evening. I've only got $35,000 at the moment so I'm not really anywhere near to being able to buy my own truck. I decided to take a job over to mainland Europe and ended up in Amsterdam, did another job to Germany, then promptly ended up back in England again. I'm trying to cover all of the cities in England before I start driving in the rest of the countries, the game doesn't seem to want to give me jobs to places up north like Glasgow. I've still got the very north and very south (except Southampton) to cover yet. Wales and the Midlands seems to be my area randomly. Saw an AI car make a mistake which I found amusing. It decided to overtake a truck that was in front of me just before a no overtaking sign appeared as we were coming up to a junction. It started indicating to I dropped back to see if the car would pull in, but it stayed out in the other lane. Got a bit closer to the junction and a load of traffic coming the other way made it stop dead in its tracks. Don't know if I somehow didn't give it enough space to pull back in or if it was just blindly refusing to cross over the solid center line, but that was the cars problem :p

Speed looks fine until you get on to the dual carriageway. Cutting corners looks fine as well, more visibility there than the video shows. There's only one corner(s) I've ever cut in my car and it's a tight-ish S-bend going up a hill which you can see straight through so you know if something is coming, but I only cut it if I've got nobody behind me either which is very rare as I only use it at rush-hour. I probably wouldn't go as fast on the road shown in the first half due to the time of day, weather conditions and the leaves on some of the corners, but I don't know the road.

Just had a quick blast on the hours trial and it quite like it, I like the radio function. I was listening to an album review of Rush's latest album on one of the stations while ragging the truck from Swansea to Liverpool. If I had more time to sit on the computer in the week I'd probably be able to lose many hours playing it just listening to the music. Then I had a boo-boo and we rolled 'er into the cabbage coming off a motorway slip road while on the way to Birmingham. Still managed to get a proficiency bonus though, lol.

Yeah, I've looked at Gtechniq P1, I did consider buying it, but it was quite expensive the last time I looked at it. If you're just looking to mask swirl marks and you're going to put some tough wax or sealant on top of it then I don't think AutoGlym SRP does a bad job. I think Poorboy's White Diamond is similar in that it just masks swirl marks in a slightly different way by cleaning them first and then filling them, but it also adds a bit more of a shine as it is a glaze as well. Something a lot more abrasive like P1 would be the one to go for if you were looking to do a proper job of it and actually remove the swirl marks. I found this pretty impressive the first time I watched it:

I'm still polishing by hand, I've got a couple of polishing pads which is slightly better than just rubbing the polish around with a cloth/microfibre towel. I keep looking at DA polishers, but I don't think they'll make much difference to the swirl marks I have with the time I've got to spare at the moment. I'm happy enough with the paint as it is at the moment, I've still got some swirl marks, but thankfully I had a sensible head on and bought a light coloured car which hides them well enough until you shine a light up close to the paint. It's good enough that the people I work with (including women) notice how much shinier my car is when it's parked next to the bosses Audi A6 which just has standard washes and is 10 years newer. Strangely enough I'm more interested in what the beaded rain water looks like rather than how good the reflections are :p

Truth be told, it's the same where ever you go in the U.K., but you do get certain areas where they seem to crop up more. In other news, I bought some Poorboy's White Diamond for my car last week, so I set about applying that after I'd done the standard clean on the car today. Topped it off with Collinite 476S. I think that will have to do until Winter is over now, but come March and it'll be time to strip all of the products off and then clay, polish/glaze then wax again ready for the more Summery weather. Sounds weird, but I love the feel of the bodywork on the car after I've put some Collinite on it. It's so smooth. The neighbours must think I'm very weird.

Saw Chelsee Healey (UK people might know her from the program Waterloo Road) in Ross-on-Wye today, I walked past her like I didn't care and she was gutted* As I was walking towards her I thought "Hmmm, that girl likes a lot like the girl from Waterloo Road, it's almost uncanny, but surely she wouldn't be in this sleepy little town". Then the next person I walk past was like "OH MY GOD IT'S CHELSEE HEALEY FROM WATERLOO ROAD". Then I realised. For some reason it didn't even click that there were a couple of girls posing with her for a photograph. With Richard Hammond living close to Ross-on-Wye I would expect to see him before any other celebrity, but I've yet to see him. *She didn't care, obviously. Not really a good day, but I just wanted to share that :p

I don't because it'll be embarrassing :p Only place it's good is 30-70 and that's a bit hit and miss at the moment as it seems to decide when it wants to be spritely by itself rather than by what my right foot does. Can't see why a dyno video wouldn't be accepted, if it features your car then I can't see a problem. The car's sort of driving, just in the same place and on rollers, lol.

Car serviced and cleaned. Weekend's goal sorted. Don't know why but it takes an extra half a turn of the starter to get the thing to start now, I originally just thought it was some air left in the fuel after I'd changed the fuel filter, but it's still doing it. I also primed it quite a bit before I turned the car on initially. Runs well other than that. One more important issue is that the sump plug was leaking a bit of oil so I think the threads are knackered. I've bodged it for now, but I'll need to probably buy a new sump next year.

Woooooooooo, Skoda Octavia vRS. /fanboy.

A complete derp with barely any lights on last night: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0258.jpg

Car service parts (awaiting oil): http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0260.jpg Another SSD drive + bracket: http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x104/GTAMADDOG/IMG_0262.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFpy0ol-xbI

Ordered some new Bosch wiper blades for the car, plus an oil filter, fuel filter and air filter. Technically it's service is two months overdue in terms of time, but the service indicator in the car says I've got 1400 miles left, so I'll just service it before Winter sets in, probably next weekend. Then I fear I'm going to need two new tyres. I only really need one as it's only one tyre on the limit, but the other one is looking old and tired despite having loads of tread left on it so I'll get two new ones and put them on the front and the Hankooks on the back as I hate looking at mismatched tyres. I'll probably get two more Hankooks as they're pretty good. Oh, and then I need to tax it as well, I swear Autumn is when this car likes throwing loads of bills at me because it was like this last year :p

No where near as bad as previous posts.. My mum put my lambs-wool wash-mitt in her washing machine and it came out the other end of the wash with two decently sized holes in the mitt. So now I have to buy a new one. Lasted a year though, I've read about them only lasting six months and considering I wash the car every weekend it's not done too bad really. Can't help thinking if it hadn't been put in the washing machine it would've been fine though as there were no holes beforehand. Probably something to do with the washing machine setting she used, but I only know one setting on my own washing machine so who am I to judge :p

I though Mumford & Sons was a completely different genre of music but I really like this song and I Will Wait. Contains the occasional swear word.

My dads Skoda sounds like a quiet siren, the Renault sounds like a loud siren and my 306 makes a noise like there's a bigger rush of air coming out of the exhaust than there actually is when you rev it which sounds quite funny. Boost leak and a dying turbo on the two mobile sirens otherwise they'd just sound like faster tractors going up the road. You'll never get away from the tractor sound on a diesel, not even with CR technology.

Holy cow I feel like crap. I knew yesterday afternoon I'd wake up ill today, but this is just another level. Must clean car, car cannot be dirty.