Who said the kids don't do protest songs anymore?

Driving into North Sydney on Monday and I had one of those rare moments of pulling over the car, turning off the motor and listening to the song playing. At first I thought it was Nick Cave who had finally after all those years come up with his masterstroke. Then I find out it's some early- 20 somethings from Quebec.

The song was titled"Intervention" and it's available here in recorded off the radio format.

http://www.ezarchive.com/show/jweiss24/Intervention.mp3

Their new album "Neon Bible" will be released on 3rd or the 8th of March......gorgeous. They're currently touring churches through the midwest.

I was looking through some old children's books of mine and came across this wonderful portrait of Roger Lancelyn Green in the 1974 Puffin Annual. I loved this photo even when a child, the cosy library alcove is almost womb-like in its appeal. Green looks kind of serious in his oh-so british vest and tie....however there's a hint of rebelliousness there, he's wearing black tennis shoes.

About his library he wrote:

Although I have been to most of the places about which I write- Greece and Troy, Egypt and so on-I can't get back to them when I'm actually writing, except with the aid of books. And I'm lucky to have a positive magician's cave of books, an old library which was built and started nearly 300 years ago by an ancestor of mine, but which now holds mainly the books which I have collected, and which I read and reread, an use again and again when I am writing. Books about ancient Greece and books by ancient Greek authors, who wrote the tales which I retell; but also books by favourite authors such as Andrew Lang and Lewis Carroll, Richard Haggard and Rudyard Kipling and C.S. Lewis; and many others whosse lives I have written or whose books I have selected and edited; for like Lang himself, "The books I loved, I love them still"

Green died in 1987 so Amen to that and thankyou for that thought. Proof of his retelling of Lewis' observation is that I still love the 1974 Puffin annual some 33 years later. Reading a litle more about Green I find he was a student of C.S. Lewis and was in The Oxford "Inklings" along with J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis and Owen Barfield.

The New Volvo 240 Wagon

From Sheeshoo on Flickr.

You used to see swarms of these in semi-affluent suburbs in days gone by. Leafy suburbs where Vicky and Justin went to the right private school in prep for law/medical school, tennis on Wednesday at Pru's house (with cucumber sandwiches), a charity committe meeting on Thursday and perhaps go and watch the boys playing rugby over the road on Saturday. Hubby was either in a company supplied 7 class Beemer, Porsche or an Alfa.

The Volvo was a big safe box to haul the attorneys of the future in.

I was around leafy Willoughby this afternoon and didn't spot too many Volvo wagons. However the BMW X5 seemd to be in profusion. I spotted around 7 of 'em.

Through the Esses

Well, I was up early this morning and a little bored. Decided to head up the mountain and have a little fun. There's a section of road called the Woodford Bends which is about a 2km section of double laned esses. You pick the straightest line and have a hoot trying to stick to it. Terrific fun and of course frowned upon by the nanny state at the moment.

I enjoy driving and enjoy driving enthusiatically even more. At 6am when I shot up, daylight was just approaching. The coppers were changing shift and the roads were almost empty. A good change to open the old girl up and try out some of those glorious left and right hand sweepers. I may have been speeding a little but not much.

I know about understeer, oversteer and how to get out of a skid after learning to drive on pebbly gravel roads. I've done driving courses on closed roads with skid pans and traffic cones. Raced for a little bit in some pretty scary pine forests and on mud tracks. My car is cared for and in top notch condition.

So I can get out of trouble.

The purchase of the new house has seen people ask at work, "But isn't that too far away?" .....if you love driving and have a good bit of road and a half decent car. The trip home becomes a joy.
And if driving is a hassle in peak hour, load up your i-pod or stereo with your favourite music and r-e-l-a-x.

Which reminds me I've wanted to throw up an article from Michael Stohl at Australian Wheels magazine. I've had this saved since January 2005 and never got around to putting it up or write to Michael praising him for a great bit of motoring journalism. He describes this enthusiasm so much better than I have.

Saw a remarkable thing a couple of weeks ago: a Volkswagen. A real Volkswagen, I mean, a little-'b' beetle. This vee-wee was mildly modified. It was subtly slammed and knockkneed with negative camber, a couple of skatewear stickers on the back window. Alone inside was a mid-twentyish guy at the wheel.

It was bucketing with rain, not much traffic on the road; I was tucked in behind him as we rumbled along a broad, three-lane arterial. We approached a long, armco-bordered, constant radius left that I knew was there. Something told me that he knew it, too; we were going 60 or so, quickly enough that you'd need to have a clue.

Dak-dak(volkswagen) dude merely blipped it back a cog, drifted out a little on the entry, loaded it up nice and gentle, and turned in.

And here's the even more remarkable thing :because this was a young guy in a preened and cared-for car, I stayed with him, admittedly hanging back a couple of
car lengths. Had this been your average cardigan-wearing, motorists' association member in his six-cylinder shitter, I'd have flicked on my hazard lights, set up a
reflective triangle, banana-chair and phoned the nearest newspaper to pre-sell photos of the impending accident.

Instead, I watched the Volksy's rear end ooze ever so slightly outwards, skate-dude smoothly and quickly feeding on the opposite lock, calmly holding a constant throttle, the car drifting just-so through the entire length of the corner. The guy had it nailed beautifully.

My heart sang. I don't know how long it had been since (outside of a Wheels comparison test) I last saw somebody driving enthusiastically - let alone well - on an Australian road. Here was somebody who clearly knew his car, and was calmly in control.

Sure, it's not totally cool opposite-locking in the 'burbs, but this wasn't luck; this was practice.

Gee, or maybe it was all down to something that I remember reading in the traffic authority's handbook; something about steering into the direction of the skid. There you go, then: it works.

It got me to thinking about all the things one is required to do when driving a car, and how (to quote the handbook), "because learning is a gradual process for everyone, it takes time for a new driver's confidence to build". Practice, as they say, makes perfect. Unless you want to practise something that might one day save your life.

Umm, reverse parking, seems like there's a technique to be learned. Should I practise that? "Oh, yes, most definitely."

And, uhh, this lane-changing, looking in the interior mirror, then exterior, then a glance over the shoulder ... Sounds like I need to be conscious of that, keep doing it until it becomes a habit? "Why, yes, certainly."

Well, gee, this panic-stop scenario; sounds like it could actually be life-threatening. You reckon I ought to find somewhere safe and supervised, even the Police Driver Training School, and ... "Don't even think it."

Michael had some quips added in text boxes at the end of the article which in his (an my) opinion go against the grain of enthusiatic driving.

Some handy hints from the Australian Driver Trainers Association. the representative body of professional driving instructors.

• Steering technique:

"With the introduction of airbags it is better at speeds over 30km/h to use pushpull steering (shuffling the steering wheel), as this will allow the airbag to deploy
without interference from your forearms. At lower speeds where the airbags would not deploy handover-hand steering is acceptable ... "

• Cornering lines:

"In days gone by ... people were taught to try andgot out mystraighten out a corner. With modern cars this cornering line is not only unnecessary, it is potentially
very dangerous ... For our modern traffic environmement much safer line is to simply slow down and keep left.