Tag Archives: cars

Do you believe in Fate?

So do you? I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I’m not religious in any way but do feel that there is a purpose for everything and sometimes things are meant to happen in a certain way.

When I first moved to Northampton I knew no one, apart from the people I worked with, and unlike a lot of people, I didn’t really socialise with my work colleagues.

I got on the popular dating app Plenty Of Fish, and found the girl (now fiancee) I’m due to marry later in the year. (Coincientally, I have a history of dating apps. See What’s wrong with online dating? and Goodbye POF, hello Match.com)

As a part of meeting my girlfriend Annabelle, I now have several new friends that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. If I hadn’t hit up the dating apps that may never have happened. It is likely I would have found someone but would have taken much longer. I’m generally a fairly shy person and at the time certainly not very outgoing.

I’d always wanted to get a cat but it wasn’t until meeting Annabelle that she went out and got one… and so on and so forth.

I’d probably still be sitting with a living room full of car parts and an undecorated house too if I hadn’t gotten into a relationship so for those reasons I can only be thankful.

The same goes for the journey with my Mazda. The number of new friends and events I’ve been to and involved with since 2013 is tremendous. All because of one purchase on eBay following a night out at the pub. Hurruh for Dutch courage and trigger happy bidding fingers!

Japfest, “Japscrap” and a 2JZ Volvo….

Between myself and my girlfriend, we now have two Japanese cars – two mk1 MX5s. Before these I had a number of MGs so have the ability to compare the two quite happily. The MGs were great fun, fairly simple to maintain albeit the headgasket failed on the TF which is common for this model.

For years I had hounded those who drove Japanese cars, and called them “jap scrap”, mainly ‘cos it rhymed. But then I didn’t really have the right to. The build quality of a 26 year old MX5 is much better than that of a much newer British build car. Everything about it is as if it has been well thought out and planned. The later MGs before the company’s demise just seems rushed and ill thought. So now, with much irony, I love Japanese cars! I went to Japfest 1 and 2 last year, and now that the first has moved to Silverstone for 2016 (which is just up the road from me in Northampton) I’m already looking forward to seeing what’s on show. My turbo MX5 will probably still be waiting on it’s second life so the girlfriend’s Mk1 1.8 will probably be used… so watch this space!

Then of course, with Japanese engines also being more efficient, and fairly compact, many have been used for engine swaps etc. Who doesn’t like the 2JZ block, turbo charge it and you have a lot of power. Put that into a smaller car and you have much epic-ness!

Modifying my house more than my car

I fitted a tap to the front of our house yesterday, totally exciting I know. Today I had a double glazed panel on our back door replaced with a clear panel, with a cat flap, so our cat “Berry” can enter and leave on his own. Two weeks previous, I had the old 80s era gas fire removed from the lounge and the pipe capped off…

My Mazda has been sat parked up over winter, which upsets me a little, but at the same time, and unlike previous years, I’ve really had no inclination to freeze my butt off outdoors wrenching!

The clocks go forward next weekend and the evenings will be getting longer and I have a little cash to spare. Tying in with my previous post (https://tobywhite.de/blog/?p=23182) I aim to finally complete my turbo MX5!

Before this though, we’re heading up to Sheffield to endure the snake pass in my girlfriends 1.8 Mk1 MX5. (My idea). And of course, it’s nice to get away for a couple of days. 🙂