niknak.org

Blimey, it's October 2009. Where did that spring from?? It's rapidly getting colder, wetter, windier, darker and altogether gloomier outside. Summer is officially over and Autumn is in full swing, with Winter just about in earshot, waiting to interject. Which makes it a great time to kick off my 2009 track day season. In fact, here's a picture of me having fun, enjoying the great British weather.

It's been a long wait since I placed the order back in May but I got the call early last week to say my Toyota iQ had arrived, and I picked it up on Thursday evening. So far it's been brilliant and even better than I had hoped for.

Less than four days to go until the delivery date for my iQ and I'm getting a little paranoid, thinking any moment the dealer will call to let me know it's going to be delayed. It won't be the end of the world if that happens but I'm quite keen to have a car that I can just jump to any time and use. The Caterham's been great but it's a useless only car.

I've had to use it quite a bit over the last couple of weeks which to be honest has been quite fun, but what hasn't been fun is constantly running out of electricity. One day last week I parked up at work and came to start it at the end of the day to go home, and it barely turned over at all. Not amused. So I bought an Odyssey Extreme battery from Grand Prix Racewear yesterday which so far has completely solved my problems getting the car started.

That's a posh way of saying I have a dodgy right shoulder. I was invited to a karting evening with some colleagues last Thursday and when the time came to get ready, I began putting my race suit on and somehow managed to pop my shoulder out of the joint, as the following before and after x-rays show (look away now if you're squeamish).

It's that time of year again where my Volvo needs MOT and tax, and thanks to a battery that doesn't hold a charge and brakes and suspension that are both kaput, it's going to cost a significant amount of money to keep it on the road for another year. Combined with the poor fuel consumption and the fact I don't really need a car that big anymore, I made the decision to get something else. The short of the long is I've just ordered one of these!