Saturday, July 3, 2010
Countryside
Friday, June 25, 2010
5 Days Stay in Yang Shuo
Third visit to China
Recently I visited China for the third time. Just like the previous 2 trips, I flew AirAsia from Penang to Macau. Then I crossed the border to Gongbei in Zhuhai. I have toured areas around Guangzhou , Shenzhen and Hong Kong. This time I want to venture further. So I took a sleeper bus, travelled 13 hours for a distance of about 700km and end up in Yang Shou in the Guilin province. This is the happening place in Yang Shou, the famous West Street. I arrived at 6.30 in the morning, so the street is deserted.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
My next DIY
One of my Merz's electric fans is not working consistantly. It needs a knock before it starts spinning. I guess the carbon brushes have worn out. Maybe can DIY to replace the carbon, or replace the whole fan with a used unit. To take out the fan, I need to dismantle the bumper and the headlights. I have observed a mechanic doing the same job before. It looked easy. But if I gonna do it, don't know will experience any hiccup or not.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Nostalgia :My first car
This looks like the first car I owned. My first car was a British Ford Cortina GXL , not the Japaneses Ford model that was produced after Ford and Mazda joined venture.
It had a 2000 cc SOHC engine and most of the parts are made in England, like Locus brand etc.
Mine was a yr 1974 unit. Brand new would cost about RM12K. I bought it in Dec 1978, 6 months after I started working, as a 4 yrs old used unit at RM6400. Down payment RM24oo, took a loan of 4000 at interest rate of 10%. So monthly installment was RM200 for 2 yrs. For comparision, a 4 yrs old basic Jap car like the 1300cc Toyota Corolla KE20 would fetch a market price of 7K+. I pay less for a better car, why not? Of course petrol consumption would be higher because it was a bigger cc conti car. My logic was: use the 1K + I saved in taking this comfortable "exercutive" conti instead of the Milo tin Jap to subsidise the petrol for at least the next few yrs la. At that time petrol was about RM2 per gallon (4.5 litre). But on the other hand don't consider resale value la, the conti will depreciate badly if I wanna sell later. Itu belakang kira. Enjoy the ride first.
I got it from the Ford sole agent Wearne Brothers. It was a "love at first sight" affair when I saw it while passing by the showroom. I was attracted by the sexy "coke bottle" shape. In fact it was already my dream car during my schooling days.
The car served me well for 11 yrs. I sold it in 1990 for RM1.5K. During those younger days I was quite ignorant about car maintainance. So this poor car was badly maintained and the engine was in bad shape. The other shortcoming of this model was that the aftermarket Champion MARK IV air cond unit has to be hung under the glovebox on the passenger side because the centre console has temp and fuel gauge. So passenger legroom and cooling effectiveness to the driver was compromised .
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