The collected works of ScottyB

As I prepare to chow down on a delicious home-made works hamburger, I start thinking how quickly this weekend has gone. Obviously this is nothing new - I’ve written about it before, but this weekend I had set out to do so much and already its over again for another week.

Thankfully, I did get to wash the car this afternoon. Yesterday it looked terrible sitting out in the street; A dirty bum and wheels that looked completely as if they had been painted black. I love the JCW Brake kit, I really do - but the dust they leave behind, particularly after rainy periods is just incredible! Nonetheless, I wouldn’t trade them for the stockies again. The Sun was out, assuring me I wouldn’t freeze my butt off while washing and despite the annoying wind (that only and always seems to strike right when I put the car in the driveway to wash it…) blowing little bits of sap and stuff onto the roof, it was well and truly worth it. She looks amazing, glimmering and shining under the garage lights tonight.

I had an intention to take some photos this afternoon, but some big, black, threatening looking clouds at about 4pm, right after I finished chamoising advised me to stay inside. They produced little precipitation, barely enough to lay a fine mist on the ground before being evaporated right back up, but I saved the ‘rain-spot’ scenario from happening.

If there’s one thing I hate about washing and detailing the MINI, its discovering all the new damage. It used to be stone chips, fresh from drive days when stray rocks on the OPH/Putty/Wollombi etc.. roads would wind up thrown from the car in front, landing squarely in the windshield or against the (MINI-esque) flat front end, leaving horrific scars for you to find after each wash. Today however, it was a 2-inch long scratch on the passenger-side wing mirror. How or when it occurred I do not know, probably from an evening in at Beaumont or parked up in a theatre carpark.. victim of a carelessly driven shopping trolley or a jealous patron.

I love the MINI, I do. But I hate worrying about it all the time. I can’t park it anywhere without thinking of its proximity to other cars, location in relation to shopping trolley bays, local pedestrian traffic, nearby trees with the potential to drop sap/branches, threatening weather etc.. It’s a car I know.. I know.. I’ve been told that before and I tell myself that all the time, but it still doesn’t change that sinking feeling you get when you come back to it to find a trolley inconsiderately left against the bumper.. or the scratch on the wing mirror that goes without explanation.

*sigh*

Us MINI owners are doomed to worrying about our cars