Over here...

Several people have asked me over the last few weeks when I'm coming home. Right now, I'm planning on coming home in a week's time. But I've been saying that for the last 4 weeks... And I'd quite like to come home! Not least to see my girlfriend Laura.

On the other hand, I am writing this from beside a pool under a brilliant blue sky and sun in the California Bay Area. So it's not all bad.

Anyhow, today I visited the biggest classic car show on the West Coast, the Good Guys Car Show. Not an event that Greenpeace are likely to attend - I've never seen so many V8's in one place before. I can still here the burbling of supercharged hot rods from here - no, really! The cars ranged from the cool to the ridiculous. The Good Guys is generally a club for anything pre 1957 - hot rods and customs that whilst cool, unfortunately don't mean an awful lot to me (all those pre-war Fords and Studebakers look the same to me). Thank God they snuck some muscle cars in.

There were also a few examples of British Automotive history. There what looked liked a lovely old Austin Healy, until the owner proudly informed me he'd butchered it by shoe-horning a big blog Chevy motor under the bonnet. Sorry, hood. Also present was a genuine Filton bult, Bristol Motor Vehicles double decker bus. No idea how that got there - the organisers appeared to be using it as some kind of control vehicle.

Anyway, nobody wants to hear about obscure buses - on with the hot rods...

Start off with some of the newer ones:

The 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T.

A 1932 Ford Coupe. Apparently this vehicle has been modifed from the original.

I think this is (was) a Studebaker.

This is an awesome 1937 Cord Supercharged 812 - compulsory driving for a 1930s villain. Although James Bond drives one in the book version of 'Live and Let Die'.

A little out of place here, a Freightliner conversion with Dodge flatbed and cabin. This is basically a Big Rig Tractor with a cabin mounted where the trailer would normally mount. You know a vehicle is too big when Americans exclaim, "Wow, that thing's big!" As you can see, this thing is so ridiculous that a small boy is fleeing in terror from it...

Tomorrow I'm off to exchange my Mitsubishi Spyder for a much more manly Ford Mustang Convertable. Review to follow.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

In a shameless piece of copying, I've decided to start posting random odds and ends on a blog, dropping my two pennies into the Great Pit of Carkoon that is the internet. Maybe those random odds and ends will spend a thousand years digesting. As the title suggests, it'll probably become a repository of all things geeky, whether toy, cartoon or automotive related.

'Umbrella Graveyard' is the name of Mr Ben Brooks' emo-blog, from which I've drawn my inspiration/ruthlessly stolen the idea of. Except that mine will be much less emo (blogs are automatically a bit emo). Years ago Ben used to be my manager (before I started working for 'The Company'), but I like to think our relationship is now closer to one of equals. Or at least when I do something ethically ambiguous now, he doesn't have to consider sacking me. This was all back at what Jefferson 'A-Bomb' McDeath, Urban Destruction, Lord of the End Times used to euphemistically refer to as 'The Art Shop'. At least that's what he used to call it around women. In reality it was more a Games and Hobby Store / Daycare Centre / Nerd Cave (delete as applicable).

But I digress. I need a place to divert that pent up buffoonery when it all becomes too much pretending to be a sensible engineer during the day job. And I don't think it does much for career prospects capering, hooting and tooting through Project Hall 1.