Uncle Biek

Family days are usually very much nice and this one wasn’t an exception.

Even more so because my sister and the two nieces were there too. Like me, she hasn’t been to all family days but now that specially Sofie can handle herself a bit it’s so much fun to have them among the family. The only downside for them is that these type of days are very exhausting because of all the attention everyone is giving them. They are pretty much burned up after a day like this, but that will get better over time when they grow a little older I’m sure.

My uncle Toon and me went for a drive with the Volvo and made a few very nice photographs of her parked in front of a classic looking building; the old train station of the town where mom and Hans live. I’m really curious how they turn out since he’s a very good photographer. They should be few great shots.

Sad, isn’t it. Yeah, I know. Though much to my own amazement, I’m actually slowly getting used to it.

So far with racing the two biggest downsides are that not everything runs, not even on a resolution as low as 1024×768, and the fact that I can’t have any additional cars racing with me in my racing sims because that is simply too much asked from my current, newly promoted, ‘gaming rig’.

And what I’m also missing very much are the non racing games like TDU and Silent Hunter IV. I could cruise around on Hawaii for hours on end Silent Hunter simply is, or was, my most played game by far. I’ve racked up over two hundred playing hours with that submarine sim and am far from getting bored.

I do hope to either replace or repair my gaming system soon though, because this is not the way I want to keep on gaming for the rest of the year.

Have a nice day sis, see you soon!

Yup, good guess: my Volvo and me have covered our first 1000 kilometers together. And this, I thought, would be a nice moment to have a sort of review about her and how well she performed so far. So here goes:

First: the bad things:
Well … no really bad things happened but he periodical technical checkup, APK as it’s called here, which she didn’t pass combined with the water I found inside after the first bit of rain, were two major disappointments for me. I mean my first Volvo had the exact same issues but only cost me about half the price this one did. Basically I expected more value for money I guess. Anyway, both problems were solved shortly after discovery so now they don’t bother me anymore.

Then the good ones:
They say a picture says more than a thousand words but she deserves more than just posting one here. She’s incredibly fun to drive and it’s just so relaxing to drive her anywhere. The moment you get in and let the thick door lock itself, everything becomes peaceful. You just don’t want to hurry, at all. Next to that she makes impressive mileage for her age and starts in a heartbeat.

Conclusion:
In short: I should have switched to a private car years ago. Doing a lithe quick math I can’t see that it would have cost me much more money than driving the IFO, possibly even less. And I know one hundred percent sure that it would have made the journey from and to work a lot more relaxing than it was back then. It sure isn’t punishment to be driving around these days, I tell you that.

I guess some things are supposed to happen to everybody once, no matter how sharp you are. This morning I was driving to work and had already made a mental note to stop for gas on the way home. My fuel level ‘seemed’ to be passing the last fifteen percent level mark and fuel is one of those things you simply want to get more of before you run out.

To my surprise, however, my fuel supply didn’t even last me all the way to work but ran out about half way to it. It’s like when you oversleep and wake up: you immediately know something is wrong. So at the first hiccup my Volvo produced, I already knew I wasn’t going to get to work in a normal time frame.

First I tried phoning Bas who I hoped was either going to work later or not at all. But I couldn’t reach him so I phoned dad whom I also couldn’t reach. At that point I started walking to the nearest gas station while sticking my thumb up to hopefully get a ride over there.

A guy in a Ford pulled over and did not only get me to a gas station but also drove me all the way back to my Volvo. There is still good in this world folks, no matter what they say. With the five liters of fuel that fit in the jerry can I could get to work and was, considering the circumstances, a mere one hour late.

My work may now be only an fifteen minute drive but once the ‘drive’ part fails to happen and you’re back to walking it’s a multi-hour operation to get to work. I made another mental note: never let this happen again …