Thanks for your patience today – it’s been a heck of a busy day. Heaps of work, a funeral, the re-commencement of Bootcamp and the biggest award in Australian Football – the Brownlow Medal.
Vale Jans van Goor – grandmother to one of my best friends, graceful and courageous matriarch and maker of the best Dutch almond cakes you’d ever taste.
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Speaking of Dutchies……
Some car clubs just get together for dinner and chardonnay, others do car stuff. You need both, I guess.
Saab Club Nederland did one of those activities that makes active Saab Clubs great. They organised a testing and inspection day for members. Dutch cars, like many others in Europe, have to undergo an annual inspection. This wasn’t an official inspection. Actually, it was much tougher.
I enjoyed the Tweet about it from yesterday:
Saabclub inspection day has come and gone. Weeping men everywhere. The master technicians were relentless seeing every wrong detail.
There’s some video of it below, which you should watch if only to hear the 900 exhaust at 1:10.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxgtljmRhRE
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The guy who gave me the distinct pleasure of attending Swedish Car Day in Boston last month is Pierre Belperron. His son Pascal likes to drive cars quickly on roads where most of us would exercise quite a bit of caution – rallying.
And of course, he likes to get his rally on in a Saab.
That’s Pascal racing in a hill climb in Ascutney, Vermont, last Saturday. It’s an excellent photo, which you can view in full here. He’s only just bought the car and on his first run, he completed the course a full 3 seconds faster than he’d ever achieved in the 9000 and 900 he’d raced there before.
Unfortunately, on his second run, his header pipe broke off at the turbo, and in the time it took him to get the car off the circuit and stopped, the blow-torch effect coming out of the turbo melted everything in the right front of the engine bay, including the main wiring harness.
Pascal employed a little ingenuity and rigged up a temporary harness with the hope of getting the car back home to New Hampshire. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the full 100 mile journey home, falling short of the garage by 100 feet!
Fast and clever – a winning combination.
Pascal – we hope the car’s back out there soon!
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OK, to the Brownlow Medal. I can’t miss out on commemorating this occasion (if only just for you, Mr Bitmead!!).
The Brownlow is the highest individual honor that a player can receive in the Australian Football League. The hot favourite for the medal was a thuggish goon player named Dane Swan, from the most hated club in the country, the Collingwood Football Club.
Instead, the surprise winner – one of only 13 men in around 80 years who has won it more than once in his career – was the Captain of the magnificent Carlton Football Club – a warrior by the name of Chris Judd.
The fact that he has the most attractive girlfriend in the AFL doesn’t hurt, either.
Congratulations, Juddy!!!!
I was so happy I did a SnoopyDance!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRfmzPZ3Yoc
And if that’s given you a little taste for the greatest game on the entire planet, then watch this.
Tips – a goal is kicked when the ball goes untouched through the two center posts. A ‘mark’ (what you guys would call a catch) allows a player to take a kick without the pressure of being tackled. And remember, there’s no padding on these guys 
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIReSJhQor0
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