As if earthquakes weren't enough. My family and I escaped the shakes for 10 days by crossing the Tasman Sea and holidaying in the seaside resort of Noosa, Australia. It was magic, hot, sunny, sandy, lots of swimming and no earthquakes.The day after I returned home I was on my way to work when a truck pulled out of a side street, quite close to me. I figured the driver either hadn't seen me or was ignorant; either way I slowed down but then he pulled over to the side of the road as if to stop so I proceeded on. Next thing he executed a full-on U-turn in front of me, and despite evasive action he tore the front off my pride and joy. I'm grieving. Please don't send flowers, just alcohol....
Cheers
Neil

I'm with ya Neil . . . my Corvette got hit in the exact same spot back in September by a lady on her cell phone (though not quite as badly). You have my sympathies.

-- Jim

Neil,

This explains the strange and mysterious connection we share .... hahahah ..... My TT is a rag top.

That is a bummer. I suspect that will wax right out though ...

The bad guys definitely have it out for you bro. Sorry for all the trouble.

Glad you are safe.

Gary

Cheers Jim, you feel my pain....

Gary, do you really have a soft-top, or are you pulling my leg?

Hi Neil,

Yes - really. I love it. Let's see .... it's a ... 2001 I guess. Has about 50k on it. The turbo quattro TT. They call it the "Roadster". Everybody loves to suggest it's too small for me ... but, it's German ... therefore; it has a ton of room in it. I can wear a top hat if I'd want to. hahah.

Mine's the mandatory German Silver color - black rag top. We got it when we swore off motorcycles. It's just as much fun.

I really love the hard tops, like yours. Very classy looking. Harken back to the 356 Porsches, yet more sleek.

I'm sure they'll fix it up for ya.

Gary

Hi Gary
Mine's a 2004, the 3.2 V6 model, goes like the proverbial clappers! I bought it with 78,000 km on the clock and now it's up to 105K but going strong. I was a great VW fan as a youngster (my first 2 cars were Beetles) and when the TT was first released it reminded me of a stretched, lowered Beetle, and more, and I fell in love! Just took many years for the second-hand price to get low enough....

Been a little preoccupied, The engineers have been through our building and initial reports say it may need to be torn down! I foresee long battles with similarly preocccupied insurance companies, architects, engineers, builders, city council officials, ets etc. And the earth keeps on a'shakin.

Must do some shooting as a distraction.

Cheers
Neil

Hello Neil,

Wow. A shame about your building. Here's where I'm supposed to have something good to add. All I can think of is: it would be bad to have them "allow" you to resume occupancy .... and THEN discover .... LATER .... (when it's all on your bill) ... that things are crumbling slowly.

I know how these long drawn out things wear on you. Sorry for that.

Well ... a V6 3.2 .... man ... you do have a rocket there. Mine's the five cyclinder ... I think it's maybe 1.8 of some such ... I forget. And, it's extremely quick. I've forgotten the technical ... hood up .... man talk ... HP numbers, etc. The turbo brings it up pretty good, for the smaller displacement .... but yours must be frightening. Definitely the BIG BORE!! hahah.

Enjoy.



Gary

Well I got the car back. Looks great, as new. Life was good. Ran a half-marathon the weekend before last with my son, who had to complete it within 2 hours 20 minutes to get credits for Phys Ed at school. We made it in 2hours 4 mins with way too little training, so we were a bit sore for a few days. But all good. Until yesterday. At 1.00 pm we got a 5.7 magnitude quake, which was quite exciting but not enough to distract us from work for too long. The usual pattern is a biggish quake followed by smaller aftershakes. But Mother Nature had a surprise in store. About an hour and a half later we got a biggie, 6.3 on the richter scale, as big as our killer February quake that cost 180 lives. Thankfully this time most things that could fall over and kill us already had, so it seems only 1 life was lost, though many more homes and buildings were destroyed. Considering near 1000 buildings in our centre city need to (or already have) be pulled down, this is just the unwelcome "icing on the quake"!
Might put my hard hat on and go do some shootin'.
Cheers from the shakey isles
Neil

Wow Neil ...

Sorry to hear that you are still going thru all that. Man ... better wear snow shoes too ... so you don't fall thru the cracks! ;?)

That's a mess. I guess your house is holding together. Bet your office building didn't need another shake down.

Some time shooting airguns is definitely warrented. Tell anybody who asks, that I said it's OK.

Good you and yours are OK. I'll say another prayer for ya. Or ... should I stop? Hummm.

Gary

Neil,

Sorry to hear that the ground keeps shaking. I hope your luck turns for the better soon!

How ' bout an after photo of the car ?

Joe

A belated thanks guys. And here is how she looks now (a bit wet and dirty but it is winter here)

All back together and running nicely,
Cheers
Neil