Million Dollar Compliment

Once again I am apologizing for my absence, not that I haven't kept up with the adventures of my bloggers in arms.

It was a tough week with some serious downs that I really don't want to talk about yet. In fact I was not going to post anything... till this morning.

I was up till the wee hours last night to meet a deadline for the first section of a major industry directory I am working on. Just enough time this morning to drink two very large coffees, make some last minute edits and then get ready for a dental appointment.

I drove the Jaguar which seems to have developed a mysterious tranny leak (no jokes please), just like the Thunderbird....ah the joys of vintage cars.  The sun has returned but no accompanying warm weather, in fact it snowed on April 1st! see photo below.

After my mostly routine appointment the receptionist out of the blue tells me I look, "absolutely stunning and gorgeous".  I was rather at a loss for words having rushed to get ready that morning and was still suffering the effects of having burnt the candle at both ends.  Nor was not wearing anything fancy just black jeans and a sweater.

She then asks where I am from, uh England I say, "Oh I would have thought you were Scandinavian being so tall and blonde"

I was taken aback as I thought everyone in the office was aware of my "past", clearly she was not as  
she asked about children and then complimented me on my figure and asked about my husband.

OK enough singing my own praises but I did feel like a million bucks driving home.

April Fools indeed

Time for some more tall blondes:

Insert Positive Message Here

I apologize dear readers for not posting for a while, I have some blog posts written and pictures and music to share but my heart has not been in it.

 

So instead let me leave you with some words of wisdom from Don Draper while I work on giving another under paid freelance blow job to an undeserving car company.

The universe is indifferent,

April

PS. Hope you all are watching the Walking Dead this evening, it’s a documentary right?

PSS. Sometimes despair gets the better of me (as some of my posts attest) and I want to surrender but I guess I am just a stubborn bitch who would rather die fighting.

 

Paris, Now Let's Go

Better Than Sex?

Beautiful sunny weekend here with plus degree temperatures that had the whole street come alive. Children on bikes and families talking with each other outside.

I was not the only one taking advantage of the warm weather to wash the winter grime from their cars. The Lincoln received a wash and vacuum as did "family truckster" Chrysler Town & Country. Took ages with extra fine steel wool to get the factory chrome rims clean of baked on brake dust. Ugh so much for my nails.

A weekend highlight was getting the 1977 Jaguar XJS out on Saturday. As the roads were dry I drove her to Oakville to help out at Genni's pub for a few hours.

The cool evening air meant I didn't have to worry about overheating issues (she runs great but I don't like where the temp gauge sits in hot weather. I want to upgrade to a bigger aluminium rad to avoid a summer traffic jam catastrophe.....the aluminum engine reacts fatally to overheating).

Anyway the V12 feels more like a jet turbine and makes me grin from ear to ear, blasting along in the fast lane then taking the off ramp at speed was an amazing feeling. This low mileage one owner car doesn't feel quite new but is darn close.

The XJS doesn't get the kudos or price of its seventies contemporaries, the Ferrari 400 or Lamborghini Espada but is easily their equal if not better.  I would go so far as comparing the XJS to the million dollar 1968-1973 Ferrari Daytona.

Pity mine is the colour of a seventies stove:

adult toy?

Ok prepare to get all misty eyed at this Jaguar sales film, I think I watched it twenty times in a row. Look for the famous number 44 racing XJS at 1:03 and Canadian cold weather testing at 2:25.

Hugs,

April

History of Speed or SPEED is History

On March 5, 2013, Fox Sports officially announced that it would re-launch Speed as Fox Sports 1. In corporate marketing speak that means the channel is history.  I don’t think I turned it on more than twice in the last few years.

After spending almost a decade making automotive television programs for the Charlotte based channel I can’t help feeling a degree of schadenfreude.

For someone obsessed by all things internal combustion the channel was pretty good back in the old Roger Werner, Speedvision days before being purchased by News Corp.

As an independent production company we lived or died by the decisions of Speed executives.  Each season we went through hell, left to wonder if our contract would be renewed. On a limited budget we created the best television possible, sometimes even creating something you might see on Britain’s Top Gear if they were having an off day.

We pitched killer ideas for new shows only to be met with blank stares of incomprehension, we would be asked to change it up but when we asked what they wanted they would say, “we don’t know but we will tell you if we see it.” No one at Speed was a car guy or gal.

In an effort to keep them happy we traveled to South Africa, France, Italy and Germany to capture new stories. We filmed inside Ferrari and Maserati  (I once owned a 3500 GT project car…or rather basket case but that is a tale for another time) we alternately froze and sweltered on racetracks across North America.

My real complaint is that the people running Speed were not car guys, in fact they had no idea about the topic their channel was dedicated to. In my many meetings and conference calls with Speed not one of the people I met with drove an interesting new car, raced, did their on wrenching or had a project car hidden in the garage. Plain Jane sedans and mini vans were the mainstay of Speeds parking lot.

Believe it or not I judged them even harsher then as I used cars as an emotional tool to block out the constant voices of transition in my head. Any man who did not have grease under his nails, spend all night in the garage working on a ground up restoration was beneath contempt. 

Could I have saved Speed if I was in charge of programming? Not sure but I would have made sure they had some real car shows.

True story:

On a spin off show we made for three seasons, the host reviewing an upmarket sport compact called it a real MILF car. We received a call from Speed after they saw the episode asking that we do not use obscure automotive terms that not all viewers might understand.