fouldsy.com

So, thinking I’d make the most of another snow day (shame, eh?), I head down to the Post Office to get my road scam, sorry, tax, sorted out.

Having stood for 20 minutes surrounded by 130 year old people sharing ailments and illnesses, including 5 minutes at the front of the queue waiting for a couple to stop telling the postmaster how bad the snow was (chances are he already knew…), I’m told that as I’ve moved house, the certificate of insurance needs re-newing as it shows my old address. I had with me the old motor insurance schedule, the updated one reflecting my new address and the certificate, but no. He wouldn’t have it.

So, chunter back through the snow and call the insurers. “Oh yes, the certificate is fine, it doesn’t matter what address as it shows you being the registered owner and the car itself being insured”. Bugger this, I’ll just do it online. Sod the idea of supporting local post offices or they’ll go out of business. Why should I be inconvenienced (spelling, anyone?) just because he wants haul ass to the pie shop.

So, you fill in all your details on the shiny DVLA vehicle licensing website and press submit. And wait, and wait, and wait. 20 minutes it’s been loading the document. Doesn’t matter how many different browsers you try, refill in the form and re-submit, nothing. Eventually, it does go through, but as I haven’t had it MOT’d under the new system in last couple of months, they can’t check my car is MOT’d, so I can’t do it online, and have to go to the Post Office…

So, fuck it. I try to be a good citizen and abide by the law and get nowt. I don’t understand why they [b]don’t[/b] want to accept my money. May as well just not pay the road tax, revoke my insurance, and take the catalytic converted out the exhaust system.

In fact, no. I’ll go to France, then smuggle myself back into the UK on a lorry, claim I speak no English and wish to seek asylum. That way I can have a 7-bedroomed house, flash car, and Ã�£4k a week in my pocket from the Government. Plus, I’d have my road tax paid for me…

Having a lowered car with Collection front bumper has it’s advantages in terms of turning your car into a snow plough when driving through car parks, but it’s not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.
Gotta snow again so the kids can be sent home asthe buses made it through this morning, so here’s hoping. They’re all hyper anyway, but the staff are worse. Don’t like this idea of working. But, the caretaker says it’ll be worse tonight - he knows these things, I listen him when he talks of snow. I ignored him once. Took over 4 hours to drive 5 miles home…

Well, the car still hasn’t blown up or worse, caught fire. Sitting in traffic trying to get to work on a morning is so much more fun when you can just turn the bass up and annoy all the other drivers stuck in their cars listening to Classical FM or Radio 4. Doesn’t even have to be loud, the bass just rumbles through anything like a knife through hot butter. Love it.

Anyways, maybe all the in-car audio made me old brain go all funny, but I’ve also agreed to have a bit of jam tomorrow afternoon with a couple of friends that have been trying to get a band going. Not sure it’s my kinda music (they wanna try playing Paranoid by Black Sabbath so I’ve dug out the tabs for it, is pretty easy) so this could be an experience…

So, distortion pedal at the ready and hope their neighbours realise how loud my guitar amp goes. Think I’m starting to develop an obession with noise pollution.

What happens when you get bored and throw money at a sound system that has the clarity to rival that new opera thingy built by the dirty river running through Newcastle that’s also loud enough to wake the dead and have the burbery-cap totting boy-racers down the Arnison Centre shaking whilst sat in their car due to bass pumping out as you drive past? Click images for larger photo (still as crap quality though…):
Well, you start off by trying to tie yourself into the drivers seat. This was good fun. I didn’t mind this bit, and was pretty straightforward. I nearly forgot to run the audio bus for the cd changer, but I ended up with cd changer control, cd changer bus audio left + right, amp remote power on, amp audio left + right, and front components audio left + right cables running around the place. Not that many really.

After that, it was just a case of plugging it all into the back of the head unit and sliding back in. Suprisingly, this all worked straight away and didn’t require and cursing or hitting. Dissappointed in a way, but at least I got to sit looking at the pretty movies running through on the head unit itself. Reckon an indash 6.5″ screen is next.

After a right royal cutting of fingers and kicking and cursing, obviously making up for the ease at which all the audio and control cables installed, the amp cable wound it’s way down from the battery into the boot. How people manage 0-gauge power cable running through the door sills of a Focus I don’t know. This 4-gauge was thick enough. Once connected into the battery and fuse installed, the amp powered straight up and the sub kicked in. Literally.

The components were installed next. Off came the door panels, into the bin went the old 5×7’s and in went shiny JBL components. Easy peasy. No trouble whatsoever, and the clarity is impressive. May end up running these through a separate amp, but the head unit seems more than capable of handling them at the moment.

And as I took the car down to the industrial estate to actually sound test this mass of equipment (I’m very glad the system comes with a wireless remote so I could get out of the car whilst trying to find out how loud it goes before distorting (very loud, if you’re wondering…)), the way the sun caught things brought a tear to my eye. Not really, but as I’m not much of an artist, this is as good as it gets!

Also, a nice little monologue that took place whilst installing the amp cable was:
Dad: “How big is that fuse?”
Me: “30amp, why?”
Dad: “You do realise electric oven’s run off less than that, you’ll blow yourself up!”
Me: “Probably. Will sound good though”

If I don’t know what I’m doing with electrics, then may I die some horrible death via a bizzare electrocutioning accident…

I’m after one of them, so if anyone else wants the other one, let me know. No hagglers please, and I’m sure the dealer would prefer not to have to count through a load of copper coins (this means you, Mr Anderson).

And Seb, maybe this is something you could get as a replacement for your scooter. You never know, they might do a trade-in, so long as you have some of your pocket money from this week left over to make up the difference…

Oh, and I don’t think they’re available for a test drive, but from what I hear they’re not bad cars. Suppose you’d still be taking a chance mind…

But it’s still funny: