Saville Row – Documentary and odd combination of parked cars

I just watched an excellent documentary about Saville Row.  The tailors and outfitters on famous street in Mayfair, London were ruffled by the prospect of Abercrombie & Fitch opening in an abandoned bank building on the street.  While a few were hopeful that some of the young crowd would consider bespoke clothing sooner rather than later, the rest were much more realistic.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom.  There was also the rich history, the tradition, the ‘making lots of military uniforms and getting paid almost nothing for them’ and the incredibly high standards, quality and prices. 

So I decided to check Saville Row on Google Maps Street View.  Opposite Hardy Amies (I have some of his shirts, me) I spotted a Hummer H2 parked in front of a G-Whiz.
Has anyone else found an improbable pair of cars parked together in a street world famous for fashion?

No Sleep 'Til: The Best of MCA

Reblogged from Kate Foo.:

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I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t crazy for the Beastie Boys. In fact, I am pretty sure I was weaned on Licensed to Ill as opposed to Baby Einstein. But more importantly, I know I’m not the only one in this boat. Everyone has their own story of when they first heard “Sure Shot” or saw the “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)” video and wished they could somehow be that crazy-funny, crazy-clever, and crazy-badass.

Read more… 481 more words

Hearing of MCA's death on Sunday (Australian time) was somewhat of a shock. The world has lost a bodhisattva, so we each have to work a bit harder to fill that gap. Here's a tribute you might enjoy...

Getting colder

ANZAC Day 25 April is significant for many reasons.  It commemorates the landing of the Australian Imperial Forces at Gallipoli in 1915.  After its importance waned during the 1960′s and 70′s, it has recently become a more important and observed holiday than even Australia Day.

No less significantly, it marks a tipping point in Canberra’s climate.  The cold weather starts and there won’t be any warm nights and days until September at the earliest.

The tipping point is marked by frost-bitten tomato plants, an extra doona (quilt, duvet) and warmer pants.  Yes, the expedition-strength boxer shorts have been worn once already.

With the high rainfall so far this year, the trees got a bit out of sync.  But they are finally displaying intense red, orange and even purple leaves, contrasting with the evergreen gums and pines.

And you can tell whose garage is full of stuff by the frosted windscreens on the cars left out at night.  I rearranged a few things to fit the Prius in beside the Citroën to avoid any delay should I need to drive in the morning.

Canberra is at its most beautiful in Autumn.

Prius tank-by-tank economy report

When I calculate fuel use as I fill the tank I’ve been averaging 4.9l/100km (57.65 MPG(UK) 48.23MPG(US) 20.41km/l with HSI indicating 4.6-4.7l/100km).  This is not as good as I had hoped.  But then I replaced the dead 12 volt battery and pumped the tyres up to 42/40psi from the low 30′s that they had been at.  Expecting far better fuel economy I was disappointed to return 4.8l/100km on my last tank (HSI indicated 4.5l/100km).  A few ideas come to mind:

• The Prius fuel tank is actually a bag designed to prevent fumes and thereby reduce emissions.  It seems to vary in size every time I fill it.  Despite being a 45 litre tank, the most I have been able to put in is 35.21 litres and that was with a very slow fill.  Maybe I’m not filling it to the same level each time?
• I let my brother-in-law drive for about 40km, at city and highway speeds, with bursts of full acceleration and braking.  I should have set the trip meter just to see what he used.  A rough calculation suggest that if his trip was at 8l/100km, then that would change is 4.6l/100km tank into 4.8l/100km.
• The last tank was Shell E10 94RON.  If I’m generous and only allow 3% reduction in economy, then that explains 0.15l/100km of the difference.  (Current tank is BP 95 RON)

The ADR 81/02 test combined figure is 3.9l/100km.

What’s the ADR 81/02 test?

The ADR 81/02 test is run on a dynamometer with account made for the aerodynamic characteristics and weight of the car.  The city cycle runs for 13 minutes and is a stop-start ride with speeds up to 50km/h.  The car spends a total of four minutes stopped during the 13-minute cycle.

The extra-urban cycle involves the car accelerating from a standstill and holding various speeds up to 120km/h.  for some reason the car is stopped for 40s of the 6 minute 40 seconds extra-urban test cycle.

Comlaw.gov.au has more details, but you need to know your maths and stats to make sense of it all.  I’m still trying to determine if a Plug-in Hybrid is tested using EV mode or if it is forced somehow to behave like a standard hybrid.  Read this http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2011C00116/Html/Volume_3 and tell me, if you could.

Does the ADR 81/02 test have any basis in reality?

Most fuel economy tests employ conditions that could be considered unrealistic.  For a start, when you drive somewhere, you don’t stay in a shed on a rolling road at a constant temperature; you move around going up and down hills, with and against the wind and on varying road surfaces.  However, the tests are reliable in the sense of being repeatable and comparable across a wide range of vehicles.

Now, on this planet…

In the real world, there are many more variables.  It is difficult to compare the consumption of one tank of petrol to the next unless every day is the same journey in damn near identical conditions.  Driving style can account for 30-40% of fuel economy, usually for the worse.  Very cold temperatures can affect economy as it takes longer to warm the engine and fuels sometimes have additives that keep the fuel stable but not as potent.

The lowest figures for the Prius are around 30 MPG(US) 7.88l/100km 25.1 MPG(UK) 12.74km/l in extreme circumstances such as sub-zero temperatures and short journeys or holiday trips with a full load and roof racks.  There was a journalist who flogged a Prius (previous NVW20 model with the 1.5 litre engine) and got about 30MPG(US) despite driving like maniac.

Next steps?

I have to work on my Pulse and Glide technique.  I already found that my pulsing is not as high and my gliding is not as far as I could do it, traffic permitting.

I also realised that a fast uphill trip on Majura road used a lot more fuel than a fast downhill trip with a return via the city.  Maintaining 90km/h on a rough road while climbing 130m and descending 60m might not be as fuel efficient as travelling 60-80km/h with more gradual climbs; traffic lights notwithstanding.

I’m tempted to try some more extreme measures if this tank of BP 95 RON doesn’t perform as I hope.

Must See TV (possibly) – Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy

I’m not entirely sure that I should recommend Luxury Comedy.  It is very bizarre and doesn’t have anything like the cogent story lines that everyone could relate to in The Mighty Boosh.

By way of experiment I lent a copy of episode 1 to a colleague whose appreciation of the absurd and Gary Numan should have placed him firmly into the “Must See” camp.  But he was unable to watch the full episode.  (He did enjoy “paprika alert” but by then it was too late.)

So… perhaps I could recommend NFLC to anyone who watched the Banana Splits as a child and appreciated the absurdity and understood the extensive drug references and utter pointlessness of it all.  There…. easy.

Thursday nights ABC1 repeated Saturday in the wee hours on ABC2

NBN secretly installing in Gungahlin?

If you choose to ignore the several community briefings from NBN Co. and their website and the general buzz… you could be shocked by the amount of suspicious activity occurring around Gungahlin.  Or should I say, under Gungahlin?

Witness this infra-red photo taken during the day at great danger to the photographer, since he was in his car at the time and another car could have driven down the street at any time.

Suspicious activity in Gungahlin recently appears to be related to the NBN rollout. Red circle: man in high-visibility work-wear with vehicle. Orange circle: Two workers carrying something, most likely a very thin fibre optic cable. Blue circle: Man climbing tree. Purpose unknown. Green circle: large hay bale or some sort of cabling apparatus. 

When approached the men were friendly and courteous.  However, they insisted that what appeared to be a very thin cable was in fact a revolutionary water pipe and that they were plumbers.  When I asked about their trucks, which were emblazoned with the logo of a cabling company they said that their own fleet of trucks was busy doing plumbing and that they had borrowed trucks from a cabling company that had no work on at the moment.

I wish I could get to the truth somehow.

Tree aftermath – Post Script

Who could forget the tragic but heart-warming story of my tree that couldn’t stay up and of the nice SES personnel in their highly-visible clothing and filthy boots who made it all better.

The aftermath was a pile of branches that were too big to be munched by my chipper, arranged neatly over my back fence.  I had every intention of moving it to the nearby green waste site where the carbon would have been most welcome.  However, this was looking like several trips as neither of my cars had a tow bar.  Oddly I couldn’t think of anyone I knew who had a ute.  My station wagon might be OK, but the longer branches would be a challenge.

Until one day I returned from work to find the lot was gone.  All that was left was a single, small branch and the leaves that had fallen from them.

The leaves were all that was left

Result!