Let me expand, the R500 is not ideal for taking siblings on the school run, a daily jaunt to pick up the papers from the newsagent or generally pottering around town. The constant 1st gear, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st is a pain in the arse. That’s a fact that hit me between the eyes yesterday. What it is good for is 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and by that time, who cares about the rest as you’re already up someone’s arse which as J from accounts will testify, an exhilarating ride. Which brings me to my second point, there’s too many drivers on the road who don’t look in their mirror and pull over. Gizzards!

So as much as I have enjoyed the R500 these past 4 days, it’s really sinking in that plodding around town within 30mph limits is not even cool. Granted pedestrians do tend to turn their head, but the car is obviously built for whizzing around tracks and indeed that B4494 I am beginning to like!

So J, I’m sorry but I don’t think it’s a good idea taking you to school every day. I’m not saying I’ll never take you again, but just not every day eh?

So, off to book another BAT day!

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I’m just dorking around at the moment trying to find a hotel in Shanghai for a business trip within the next couple of months and logging into my Tripadvisor account, I can add some code to place this map of where I’ve been in the world. Probably as much use and interest to you as a concrete parachute or plastic frying pan, but here it is all the same:




I guess if you want one too, you can.

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I’ve been thinking about a Nick for a wee while and recently registered the surfbaud.me Domain, only to find the .co.uk derivative was also available. So today I have acquired this .co.uk Domain albeit I am aware that previous usage has been blighted and potentially, some legal on-goings to do with batteries? At this moment in time I am not thinking of hosting email although MX records are associated as previous email addresses are plastered over the Web and I guess receiving huge chunks of SPAM.

I have 301’d the www.surfbaud.co.uk URL to this www.surfbaud.me site, simply to benefit from its page rank.

So, with effect from today I am now the Registrant of surfbaud.co.uk and have no association whatsoever with any past registrant, any business or any legal wrangles.

While writing, been out in the R500 in the rain!

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J and I took the R500 to Santa Pod yesterday. We had no intention to drag race the car as it’s still ‘running in’, but simply wanted to watch and perhaps consider for another day.

First problem with the R500 is that we had no satnav, so back to maps and directions. Second problem was that I thought it would be easy to get onto the A45 Northhampton to Wellingborough road and it would be well signposted from there. How wrong I was as Santa Pod was not very well signposted and other than one small blue sign from the A45. We traversed the country lanes to stop in a bird sanctuary for a wee and then asked a man for directions.

We got there in the end and paid a tenner for entrance. I had a coffee and J a hotdog before we went to the seating area. Boy was it cold (the weather I mean, not the coffee!) and after watching some Chavs and boy racers with varying degrees of success, thought it was all too much and left. I guess I can see how this would be a good event, but it was freezing and we gave up on a good idea to come home.

On the way home we stopped for fuel on the A34 near Oxford and decided at the Didcot turnoff to come home via Wantage on the Wantage/Newbury road, the B4494.

I guess the first 5 to 6 miles out of Wantage would be the best, rolling roads with far reaching views loads of hairpins, straights and indeed minimal traffic gave us the opportunity to let things go a little. And boy, did they go.

Before we got home I decided to pop into Halfords and buy a Satnav. The Jag has one already built in and after us getting lost on the way to Santa Pod, I am worried that the trip to Oulton Park in a few weeks time will be difficult too. Problem was, after speaking to the man and saying “yes, I’ll take one” only found that they were out of stock!

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The history is that I wanted to buy a new car, perhaps a cosmetic change. However and with the recent downturn in the economy, I decided to buy a second car for some fun, then question was, what car?

Initially I recall on Top Gear there was an article on the Ariel Atom and then on Youtube some videos comparing the Atom with a Caterham. Albeit similar performance figures, I was not sure of the Atom so having a look on the Catherham website I popped down one day as a prospective customer and was taken for an impromptu test drive and boy, what a test drive. From then I purchased the three CDX experience days and by the penultimate track day, had already placed the order.

Now, the decision of what flavour to buy was not that easy. With my fat arse I originally was after the CSR style with leather seats though in the end and after some serious discussions with D, opted for the new R500 Superlight. Why you may ask, well let’s look at the spec:

• Engine: 2.0-litre Caterham Powertrain (CPT) Ford Duratec
• Max Power (bhp/rpm) 263bhp @ 8500rpm
• Max Torque (lbs ft/rpm) 177 lbsft @ 7200rpm
• Weight 506kg (516kg sequential gearbox)
• 0-60mph 2.88 seconds
• Power-to-weight 520bhp-per-tonne
• Top Speed 150mph

Now I am no engineer but Mr Clarkson is always talking about “torques” and speaking to the Jaguar man (that’s another story!) the other week, torques are all about power! The penultimate statement of “520bhp-per-tonne” is the kind of torqueness you get in very high end supercars. But my main reason for buying is simply the awesome “0-60mph 2.88 seconds” figure. Check your own car’s 0-60 figures and then compare to this. That’s a whopping 1.02 seconds faster than the Porsche 911 Turbo (and their figures are 0-62mph)!

I am not the person who buys the most expensive bottle of wine but similarly, not the cheapest either. My Caterham buying experience was taking me towards the lower R400 though the “what the hell” demon started speaking to me and I opted for the R500 and boy, was that the right decision. Just three weeks ago, the R500 was itself on Top Gear and became the 5th fastest time around the track, beating the Bugatti Veyron which everyone loves. Here’s a snip found on Youtube:



I just know, if I had purchased the CSR or R400 then seeing this, I would be a most disappointed person at the moment but au contraire, this is indeed the dogs bollocks.

S took me down to Caterham to collect yesterday morning and after coffee final paperwork was completed and the handover instruction was in full flow.

I was a little unsure about the loud grinding noise in the gearbox, but was told this was quite normal for a sequential box. Also, I felt the clutch biting point was a little high for me, but the rest was quite easy to understand. S put G in her car and D helped me move mirrors as Allen keys are needed. Buy that time, I was strapped in and with helmet on, I was on the M25 heading home.

Some people sell cars as “a real head turner” and I now know what that means. I am glad my face was in disguise under my helmet as children were pointing and adults were peering. When someone got a little too close, a quick tap on the accelerator and they were way back in the mirror.

I was told that I needed to run-in the engine and breaks before taking the car to extreme, though to be fair, extreme is far away for me at the moment. I have to go back in 1,000 miles for it’s first service and need to bed in the break pads too. Nonetheless, as soon as I got home, J was in the street with his helmet jumping into the car and strapping himself in the harness. S gave us permission to take off, so off we went.

We traversed from country lane to B road, to A road to dual carriageway to motorway all around West Berskshire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire and loved the Newbury/Wantage road. Still needing to be careful around bends with breaks still needing bedding in and bends with a covering of water from the rain the night before, we had a fantastic couple of hours. Diving style hand gestures confirmed J was still OK as with helmets on, road and drive chain noise, we could not speak to each other.

At one point along the A4, I pulled over onto in a lay-by to check J was OK and watched over my shoulder for a space to re-join the carriageway but then I had an idea. The man at Caterham said that the ‘launch control’ system can take you to 60mph in first gear. Now, albeit I did not want to test launch control I thought, let’s see how fast this little thing goes. With revs up around 3,500 and biting point on clutch engaged, I dumped the clutch and we were off like a bat out of Hell! The Sureshift lights were illuminating through amber1, amber2, amber3 and before I could sneeze, red1 was lit and recalling the Caterham man saying not to boot it, did make a quick shift to gear two. Ask me how fast I was going and how long to get there? In honesty I was not looking or timing but would answer “around 50 to 60mph and frigin’ QUICK!”.

When the sun started to go down we made our way home, beginning to get a little cold. After clearing some space in the garage, we put her away for the night and as I type, am waiting for the sun to rise and take her out for a spin today too. As to where, I still do not know but I wonder if Santa Pod in Northampton maybe a good idea?

But one thing is for sure, I need to find her a name. Yes, it’s a “she” and her name is, Stella!

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Don’t know why, but just as my eyes were shutting last night in bed around 11.00pm, a brilliant idea popped into my head and like a bolt of lightning, I was out of the sack and back at the Mac. There I stayed until around 2.00am this morning, registering an this surfbaud.me internet domain name and then finding free DNS servers and free MX servers to host it. Haven’t done that for ages and if it works, I may contemplate changing all my personal domain names to more anonymous services.

So right now it’s 7.25am in the morning and with only 5 hour sleep, I need to check the party in via the online BA system. However I have just figured that I cannot do this until 24 hours before the flight departs and as this is 07.55am tomorrow, I still have half an hour to go. So what else than drop a few lines here!

Na, let’s go and make a cup of coffee and remembering from yesterday, look very carefully at the jars as I don’t want another mug of gravy!

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Nothing much to say today only that I am getting RSI from the amount of emails written and replied. Also, managed in the dark this morning to make a mug of gravy and have pondered all day why jars of Bisto and Kenco come in the same size and colour lid?

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What and where is the Grijinha Beach Bar?

As it suggests, a bar and located on the south east corner of the island of Sal, one of ten islands in the Cape Verde archipelago.

The bar opened in October 2008 and is run by K and D. It operates pretty much every day from afternoon through early hours of the morning. There are no real roads, though a short walk from the east of Santa Maria will find the Grijinha beach, where the bar takes its name, just above the Ponta Serena peninsula:

• Latitude: 16°35'44.67"N
• Longitude: 22°53'13.04"W

If you can’t be arsed to walk, a taxi from Santa Maria will take about 5 minutes and will cost either 4 Euro or 400 Cape Verdian Escudo. It’s an Escudo or two more than a normal trip, simply I am told because it’s off road and the taxis don’t typically go that way all the time. If you are going to walk, then may I suggest a torch as it will, most certainly be pitch black when you return home as dusk is typically between 6.30pm and 7.30pm (depending on time of year).

A 25cl bottle of Sagres beer is around 150 Escudo, which isn’t bad when some of the other pubs, bars and hotels charge up to 250 a bottle! When I was there last there was no Super Bock or Strella. Food is normally available throughout the day and night and reasonably priced, typically BBQ style.

Toilet facilities are available at the site though when I was there, albeit there was water for flushing, there was no water for washing hands. May I suggest a bottle of that hygienic hand cleaner as advertised on TV.

There are certainly most scenic views during the day and post dusk. There’s something mesmerizing about looking out onto the sea and seeing the waves come crashing over the rocks and during the evening, the clear skies give a fantastic panoramic view of the stars. Although I have not seen myself, I am told shooting stars can be seen with the naked eye.

There is a natural pool on the beach with gentle waves makes a wonderful paddling pool for babies and small children. The water is clear and the beach of while and golden sand.



Where can I find more information and what’s on?

K runs both a website and Facebook page. Here are the details:

• http://www.grijinhabeachbar.com/
• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1534832193

I know K is happy to take private bookings so if you wish to hire the venue for yourself, please do not hesitate to make contact for your own party and if you are planning a wedding, this may make an ideal option as the weather is typically between 23 and 28 degrees C throughout the year (http://weather.yahoo.com/Sal-Cape-Verde-/CVXX0001/forecast.html).

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This is going to be an interesting site for me as I am going to change tack for this site for a moment. The reason is that I had a bet with K and D of the Grijinha Beach Bar in Sal, Cape Verde to see how at what position we could attain within any search engine rankings. So, let’s see what happens because as I type, this page comes nowhere! I have therefore decided to change the profile of this page for the time being and with my limited knowledge try and optimize (or should that be optimise) this site and see what happens. You may therefore see some jibberish at the bottom of each daily post with keywords, simply these are there to try and get keyword distribution through the pages. So please ignore.

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There’s been no communication these past days in simply that I have been waiting to migrate my home PC’s and network to my Mac. This has seemed to be successful so far but only time will tell if I have missed anything.

Anyway, we arrived home to Gatwick in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the late departure from Sal due to plane de-icing on the outbound flight earlier that morning. Although the pilot said “minus two”, he was obviously lying the temperature in the car was minus 5!

We drove home and upon opening the door, it was reminiscent of a scene from Poltergeist. There was a still air and exhaling did show the moisture of one’s breath in the air. It was indeed cold and checking the central heating, it appeared it was off. Further it was found there was no hot or cold water. Upon checking the system we came to the logical conclusion that somehow, the heating went off and now the pipes had frozen!

There was nothing else to do but hit the sack fully clothed and worry about the problem when we awoke.

I got up early that morning to spark up the gas fire and place the cooking hobs on full gas in an effort to bring some warmth into the house. Luckily I found that the kitchen sink water was working, so coffee was available but the issue that no water upstairs, be it hot or cold would dictate no showers and filling toilet cystens with bowls from the kitchen water.

After I got to the office, my first action was to try and get some of the portable heaters we have in the offices to take home. With one under each arm, I went back home to the welcome of S in that G’s nose was cold!

S phoned the plumber and later that afternoon he came to fix the system and by 5.00pm that evening, we had heat again. The issue of hot water was still an issue as we would need to wait for the pipes to thaw from the again heated house.

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Today we fly home from our holiday where the weather is quoted as “Abundant sunshine. High around 75F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph” for Sal and “Light snow this morning giving way to partly cloudy conditions this afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Chance of snow 60%” for home in the UK. Although I may have a white bum, I certainly do not have a scarf or hat in my suitcase, let alone a coat. So I think it’s going to be a chilly arrival into London Gatwick this evening. Not to worry though, we still have a few hours this morning before we go to the airport.

We had another relaxing day yesterday which started with a brisk walk down to the pier to catch Neptunus for an hour and a half trip off the coast looking at old shipwrecks and a statue in the water. Now I must confess, this was not the most interesting of trips at all. Granted I was not sure of what to expect, but the wrecks simply looked like a load of scrap metal and the statue which the guide suggested was laid in the water as a religious symbol to bless the fisherman, we were subsequently informed that this was the idea of the Neptunus owner to give the tourists something else to view while on the trip. The advertising posters that suggested sharks and turtles were misleading as there was nothing and certainly no abundancy of fish or coloured coral. I wouldn’t suggest the trip was vastly disappointing but I think with all tourist attractions here on Sal, one just needs to lower ones expectations to enjoy.

J spent the rest of the afternoon jumping off the pier with his local friends and H spent some time on the beach with us and then a couple of hours in the afternoon with the man she has befriended who makes the little chalk turtles on the pier. What’s interesting is that he carves these with an old piece of wood, a screwdriver and paint stripper knife. H has asked and we think it would be nice if we can perhaps bring him a small set of masonary tools when we come next time.

We rushed home again to get changed and was about 10 minutes late for our meal at Chez Pastis. Although we were welcomed and the dinner excellent, it all seemed a little rushed after the main course as our table was booked again for a second sitting. So we were asked if we would finish our meal early and vacate for the next sitting. Well, I found this most irritating and although I was happy to comply, I don’t think we will be eating there again at any busy time.

This morning we now need to pack and go. I still have a 10.00am appointment to see some furniture but then it’s off to the airport for a chilly arrival home.

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Waking this morning I can see a low, fast moving cloud base which normally disappears around 10.00am and with the blue skies above, I think today is going to be another nice day.

Yesterday was relaxing too. I left the family while I spent a couple of hours with J looking at furniture for our new apartment. I cannot get a fix on the reasons and rationale, but he seems to be steering us away from our present ideas. Now, weather he is on commission from some furniture companies or as the gentleman he is, recommending the best, I do not know. Nonetheless, these hours were fruitful and have given us some more ideas for our new apartment.

J hired a fishing rod and spent most of the latter part of he morning and most of the afternoon at the end of the pier. H tried her bit to help but I think there was more of a debacle between them. S and I spent this time at the ‘beach caravan’, small cafe right on the beach here where we have found the cheapest beer! Curiously we must of been here a few times before as the young lady politely asked when we sat down, “one Super Bock?”. This brought a pleasant smile to my face.

H has been asking all holiday when we would eat as Chez Pastis, a small and quaint restaurant here in Sal, Cape Verde. By the time we returned from the beach and changed, walked back into town, the restaurant was full. The only option was to make a reservation for Sunday night, before we return home. Dinner last night was pizza at a restaurant I can never recall the name of.

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The New Year was seen in post dinner at the Zum Fischermann restaurant at the Terrezza Bar with family, friends, fireworks and power cut. Yes, the candles were brought out when the lights deminished and the music quietened.

After awaking, breakfast was a bacon and egg roll and then off to the beach for New Year’s Day where the sun did shine and a cool breeze meant a pleasant afternoon was had by all. As the 1st is a public Bank Holiday in Cape Verde, all shops and majority of restaurants were closed, except that is, the Aquarium. So when the sun became cooler and while the children played football with the local lads, mum and dad enjoyed a bottle of Cha Do Fogo branco and some eggy bread with G.

The relaxing day concluded back at the apartment while dad cooked and the rest of the family watched the Mama Mia film.

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