niknak.org

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!

It's been a long time since I've had the opportunity to build a new PC for myself. I've been a fan of Shuttle PCs for the last six years or so but I've thrown in the towel after my outgoing model threw a hissy fit on Friday when I tried to enable the on-board graphics adapter. I'd returned home with a pair of new 19" monitors to supplement my main 20.1" monitor, with the plan being to drive them via the built in ATI Xpress graphics adapter.

However, as soon as I enabled the feature in the BIOS the system wouldn't start at all. Clearing the CMOS was the only solution and no matter what hardware I pulled out I could not get it to work. I very nearly took the monitors straight back to reconsider the whole thing, but then it occurred to me that the main CPU fan header on the motherboard had already fried, and my previous Shuttle mysteriously died a death, cause unknown. After four years of faithful (ish) service I thought it would be about time to just build a new system and move away from the cramped confines of a small form factor enclosure.

When I bought my Volvo in 2006 (almost 3 years ago now, blimey) it was already on something like 160,000 miles. I knew this was quite high in general terms but for a Volvo, only just run in. Well I've averaged 10,000 a year since then and yesterday the clock rolled over to 190,000 miles. If the car was air tight I'd be just over 85% of the way to the moon by now.

Unfortunately it's beginning to feel like it's barely able to keep water out let alone the vacuum of space, with an increasing number of knocks, rattles and squeaks. The brakes feel odd, the steering is iffy and the dampers are noticeably less crisp than they were. Nonetheless, the engine is strong and it's not that bad on fuel despite the short trips it's limited to these days. I think 200,000 miles is on the cards, at which point hopefully the government will be happy to give me £2,000 for it and I can walk away laughing.

I'm such a child, and I love it. Ever since I fitted an LSD to the Caterham all I've really wanted to do was mess about and do some donuts, and on Friday I finally had my chance. I joined the rest of the Hondas-On-Track boys and girls for another North Weald activity day full, complete with a brand new pair of rear tyres. It was hugely entertaining although there was a slight incident involving a cone that means the car's out of action again for a while.

In my opinion it's the biggest downside to airfield days. An inch off the right line and you clip a cone, and the resulting damage can vary from a scratch to a new side skin. Luckily as part of my spring cleaning adventure I replaced all of the metal wing retaining nuts and bolts with plastic versions, which are designed to snap off and save the side skin from being ripped to pieces with the wing. This is exactly what happened so all I need replace is the bolts, wing and light cluster.