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MR2 Roadtrip Day 3: Applecross 

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MR2 on the Bealach Na Ba

After a tasty breakfast we dropped the roof on the MR2 and set off towards Applecross via the Bealach Na Ba, the road with the greatest climb in the UK – sea level to 2,053ft. By the time we’d got to the bottom of the pass we’d already stopped to put the roof back up as it was raining. This set the scene for the day, I lost count of how many times the roof went up or down. As we climbed up the pass, the rain turned to snow, not what we were expecting!

By the time we reached Applecross the sun was out again, we went for a light lunch at the walled garden, before exploring the grounds of Applecross House on foot. From Applecross we followed the coast road round to Shieldaig, briefly interrupted by some highland cows in the road. Again, we managed to time our arrival to Shieldaig with a gap in the weather, we sat outside the new Nanny’s shop having an ice cream in the sun – perfect!

We returned to Applecross, via the Bealach Na Ba in much nicer weather, for dinner at the famous Applecross Inn. It was good to see that so many of the items on the menu were sourced from around the village. I can confirm that the local scallops are very tasty. We retuned to our chalet in Lochcarron, but this trip over the pass had an audience – the local stag population were lining the road, much to Jen’s excitement.

Distance so far: 678 miles. 

MR2 Roadtrip Day 2: Old Military Road

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MR2 on the Old Military Road

Our first proper day in the highlands started off very much like our 2012 trip, along the A93 and A939, past Glenshee and The Lecht ski hills. This is the route Evo magazine made a film about, and although I didn’t have an Aston Martin, I really enjoyed the drive – the MR2 was made for roads like these!

After the excitement of The Old Military Road, we stopped in Grantown on Spey for lunch, I went for that finest of Scottish delicacies – the macaroni pie! Tasty. Our next stop was at the Tomatin distillery, just off the A9. The plan has been just to pop into the shop, but we ended up on a very surreal tour with a coach load of French tourists, then a separate private tour/tasting and a sample of their 1988 malt to take away with us (which I’m enjoying as I type). The remaining boot space in the MR2 was also filled with purchases from the gift shop.

By this time we were running late, so drove past Loch Ness to our overnight stop at Lochcarron. The drive past Loch Ness and on towards Kyle of Lochalsh, then round Loch Carron would have been better without the rain, hopefully our return journey will be better. For those interested, we didn’t see Nessie, which I’m also going to blame on the rain, even the hardiest of Scottish mythical monsters wouldn’t have wanted to be out in it!

Total distance: 569 miles.

MR2 Roadtrip Day 1: The long drive north

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MR2 Roadtrip selfie

The first day of a Scottish roadtrip is always the long slog up the M6, fortunately the traffic was good today and we made it up in under 6 hours including stops. 

As our itinerary for the week includes some of the best driving roads in the country (and possibly the world) I’m particularly excited to be driving the MR2, it isn’t the most refined car, but should come alive on the highland roads. On the other hand, Jen doesn’t really understand why “we are going on holiday to a country where it rains all the time, in a car she can’t fit all her luggage in”…

Total distance: 347 miles (at 41.46mpg a new record). 

Tokyo Tower and Odaiba

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Odaiba from Rainbow Bridge

I originally wrote this post on a flight back from Japan a few weeks back, but didn’t get round to posting it with the excitement of being back home. I’ve just found it in the drafts folder, so thought I’d press publish!

I have been over in Japan for business again and had a weekend free in Tokyo with my boss and his boss.

On Saturday we visited Tokyo Tower – which looks like the Eiffel Tower, but white and red. We went to the highest observatory, at 250m and had a great view over Tokyo. We got to the top just as it was getting dark and the city’s lights were turning on – perfect timing! The best light show of the evening was over the rainbow bridge on the artificial island of Odaiba – so we decided to spend our Sunday there.

Our first stop on Odaiba was Tokyo Megaweb, although we got there a bit early, so killed time by going on the big wheel next to it. That is the big wheel on the photo at the top of this post. This was actually a good move, as the big wheel is one of the tallest structures on Odaiba, we had a good view of not only the local buildings, such as the Fuji TV building, but also over the rainbow bridge to the main areas of Tokyo. We had gone up in a clear capsule, which was great for all round visibility, but slightly too hazy to be worth taking photographs out of – so all I can do is recommend that you check it out if you’re ever in Tokyo!

By the time we’d been round on the big wheel Mega Web was open, we had a look at the new Toyotas, before going to the classic garage at the other side of the shopping centre. I was surprised to see that the exhibits had been rearranged since my visit earlier in the year. A Ferrari Dino 248 had been added, which was one of my highlights, along with the Toyota AE86, Lotus Élan and Fiat 500.

After spending the morning looking at cars we had lunch, before walking to the rainbow bridge, via the Statue of Liberty and the beach! The mile long walk over rainbow bridge is another great way to get a view of the Tokyo skyline, especially as it is free! We decided we would walk over the bridge and back so we could see from both sides, we went via the south side, with views over Odaiba and the bay and returned on the north side, which faces the city. The photo at the top of this post is from the way out, looking back towards Odaiba, the building on the right of the shot is the Fuji TV building – apparently the ball is another observatory, which I will visit on my next trip to Japan.

Garage build – preparation done

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The preparation for the garage build is complete, over the last few weeks since my last post, we have been busy – two skips have been filled with the garage and its contents, one run to the tip, cleared the route for a trench (for the electrics), built a raised bed and filled it with topsoil from the old vegetable plot (which will become a path when the new garage is built). The biggest job was building the raised bed, although I did get some help from Jen:

We used a custom kit from Woodblocx, which consists of pre cut and drilled treated sleepers and plastic pegs to hold them together. I was really impressed with them, although it wasn’t quite as easy as building with Lego, as I had been expecting – the pegs took a fair amount of hammering to fit, then the next layer of wood also needed a lot of hammering to fit into the pegs, but the end result is solid. We filled the bed with ten wheelbarrows of soil from the old vegetable plot at the top of the garden, which we sieved before adding to the bed. We replanted the strawberries, rosemary and thyme, which were in the old bed and added oregano, three different varieties of chilli plant and leeks, which I’ve grown from seed.

The builders and electrician are arriving at 08:30 tomorrow to start work, of course I’ll regularly update the blog with progress.

Garage build – demolition time lapse

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The old garage has gone! Yesterday, along with a few friends I dismantled the old wooden garage to make space for the new garage. I think it actually took longer to clear out the garage than it did to demolish it! There’s now just a lodge pile of wood at the bottom of the garden, so the next job is to get a skip (now that there’s space for one!) to get rid of wood etc.

Wall of sake

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Wall of sake

This morning I took a trip down to Harachuku, I didn’t see any Harachuku girls, but I did visit the Meiji Jingu shrine where is wall of sake barrels had been left as an offering to the deities. Opposite them there were also offerings of French wine, as Emperor Meiji brought western clothing, food and drink to the Japanese.

Shibuya

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Shibuya

I’m back in Japan for a business trip again and having 24 hours in Tokyo before I head up to the office. One of my favourite places to go in Tokyo is Shibuya, not only is there the iconic crossing, but lots of little shops and restaurants off the side streets.

I spent a couple of hours there this afternoon, first in Starbucks (it has the best view of the crossing, and 22 hours since leaving home I needed some caffeine) then by Hachikō, the dog statue, which is meant to be the most famous meeting place in Tokyo. As well as people to watch, there were cars – S2000s with the roof down, making the most of the winter sun, Jaguars, Porsches, a Lotus Esprit but the one that woke me up was the Ferrari Enzo – the sound of the 6l V12 bouncing off the talk buildings was spectacular!

Autosport International 2014

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Autosport Show Pistonheads Sunday ServiceAutosport International at the NEC in Birmingham is traditionally the first event on the British motorsport calendar, a chance to get up close to the upcoming seasons cars and generally break up the boring off season. For 2014 there was the added bonus of a Pistonheads Sunday Service event before the doors to the show opened, and free indoor parking!

As always, the standard of cars at the Sunday Service was high, with everything from my MR2 to a Porsche GT2. Some people had even braved the freezing temperatures to arrive in Caterham 7s. However, my star of the PHSS was the yellow Nissan 350Z GT4 special edition, shown in the picture above – now a serious contender for my next car.

After a bacon and egg roll at the cafe the NEC had opened just for the Pistonheads event, it was time to go through to the show. The layout was pretty much the same as it has been since the ’90s when I went as a child, but the Performance Car Show part of it seems to have got bigger, with a lot of manufacturer presence. Tucked away in the corner between the Performance Car Show and the motorsport stands was an iterating display of cars and bikes raced by John Surtees. The F1 cars of the late ’60s are to me the most exciting despite their simplicity – I would have loved to see them racing in their day. Nearby the 2013 field of F1 cars were on display, I found it interesting to look at the details of the Red Bull F1 car, especially the rear, somehow it all looked a lot neater than the other cars, neat must equal quick (although I still prefer the earlier cars).

I felt that the Live Action Arena had too much talking and not enough live action, but once again I was impressed by the Autograss racers, as I didn’t already have a new years resolution I have made it my resolution to go to some of their meetings this year and picked up their calendar.

I had an interesting chat with an engineer from Caterham about the digital dash screens they are developing for their cars, this is of particular interest to me as infotainment screens in cars is my day day job and Caterham are one of the last companies I would expect to be developing screens. The car which grabbed my attention the most was the Zenos E10, a small track day car, built by a company based over the road from Lotus. The attention to detail on the E10 was really impressive, the car seems to have been designed by petrol heads, for petrol heads without too much interference from marketing or money men – a refreshing change and I wish them good luck.

New York Days 5, 6 and 7: Brooklyn, Broadway, Empire State Building and Home

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Great view from the top of the Empire State Building

I had actually written most of this post while I was waiting for our flight home, but the last few weeks have been so busy with work, Christmas, manflu and the 119 Project that I didn’t get round to uploading it. Sorry to those that have been left hanging!

Our last full day started with getting the subway to Brooklyn Bridge, so we could walk across the East River to Brooklyn. The bridge is well over 100 years old and at the time it was built was a real technological marvel. These days it looks 100 years old, the wooden walkway on reminded me of Llandudno pier, from our North Wales trip earlier in the year. When we got to Brooklyn it immediately felt different to Manhattan, there was a lot more space and everything seemed calmer.

After spending some time wandering around Brooklyn we took the subway to West Village and walked towards Chelsea and the Meat Packing district to find some lunch. We stopped at The Diner, opposite the Apple Store. As the name suggests it is a typical American diner, so to blend in, we both ordered burgers and cokes, which tasted lovely after a morning walking around.

After lunch we crossed the road and checked out Chelsea Market, which is foodie heaven in an old brick warehouse, somewhere we’d have liked to spend more time exploring. From Chelsea Market we got onto the Highline, a disused raised subway line, which has been turned into a park. We only had time to walk along a small section, but enjoyed the calmer atmosphere and people watching from above the traffic.

The reason we were pushed for time after lunch was that we wanted to get tickets to a Broadway show and discounted tickets are sold from 15:00 in Times Square. Unfortunately, when we got there, tickets for the shows we wanted to see weren’t available, so we tried going to the theaters directly and managed to get tickets to the Lion King, albeit at full price. After a bit of shopping on Times Square we went back to the hotel for cheese and wine and to chill out for a while before getting ready for the show.

On the way to the theater, we took a slight detour via the Rockefeller Center to see what the tree looked like with the lights on. Although, I must admit it looked pretty impressive I’m not sure it was worth all the fuss from the day before. I’m also not sure One Direction were worth camping out on the street next to the Rockefeller Center, as we saw some fans doing.

The show was better than expected, the costumes and props were particularly clever; and despite it finishing way past our New York bedtime we didn’t fall asleep. When we got back to the hotel we went up to the roof top bar for some cocktails to finish our night off in style.

We woke up to rain on our last day in New York, we only realised how much of a problem this was, when we couldn’t see the skyscraper a few blocks down from our hotel – we’d saved going up the Empire State Building until our last day. Fail! After yet another tasty breakfast at the Library Hotel, we took the short stroll down 5th Avenue to the Empire State Building, to our dismay, as we walked we noticed that the top of the tower was in the clouds. The upshot to this was that the dreaded queues we’d heard about weren’t there, so after passing through another round of airport style security, we were in the lift to the 80th floor. The 80th floor consists of the giftshop and an exhibit about the tower was built, which I found especially interesting as it was built in 1931, the same year as our little terraced house in Coventry! Later, I was told that some of the bricks used came from Nuneaton, Jen’s home town.

From the 80th floor it was only a short elevator ride to the 86th floor, for the outdoor viewing platform. We didn’t stay long, as you can see on the image at the top of this post, the visibility wasn’t great, we could barely see across the east river to Queens, but not only that – it was sleeting. We went back inside and to the original 1931 lift up to the 102nd floor, which was originally intended as an airship terminal. There wasn’t much room on the 102nd floor, so it was probably good that we were up there on a quiet day, even though we could barely see the ground. We decided that we’ll have to return to New York to go up the Empire State Building again.

After that, we went back to the hotel to check out, then out for some lunch before catching our bus to the airport. Earlier in the week we’d spied Le Relais de Venise, which we’d enjoyed a steak at when in Paris in March, so we thought we should see how the New York version compared. As in Paris, the steak frites was lovely and it all felt very French, even if there was a bit more space around the tables than in the Paris restaurant – we need to try the London branches in 2014!

After lunch we started our journey back to Coventry, as on the way to New York everything went smoothly at JFK and before we knew it was the next morning and we were back in the UK. After 4 long haul flights in 20 days I was looking forward to being home for a bit, but incase we had felt that Coventry was a bit too quiet after 5 days in New York, we’d arranged to meet Jen’s friend in Birmingham for some birthday drinks at the Christmas market. I can confirm that Birmingham Christmas maker is even busier than Times Square, which only a few days ago, I wouldn’t have said was possible! Also we seemed to have more transport issues getting to and from Birmingham, than we had getting to New York – it was good to be home!