Extreme Indoor Karts

A friend of mine organised for a group of us to go karting the other weekend. He rang around a few places and tried to hustle a good plan to get us on the track for longer than any of their advertised rates. After negotiating with them all we decided upon going to Extreme Indoor Karts in East Tamaki. None of us had been there before.

We arrived at the track and were told that the guy we had negotiated a price with had gone home and so the offer originally agreed on was not going to be honered. We managed to get an extra 10 minutes track time for free but this wasn’t as good as we had originally planned for.

Not spending as much time on the track probably worked out for the best. The karts were in very poor condition. During my time there I swapped in and aout of no less than 5 karts. The first one had very stiff stearing, not allowing you to turn easily to the right. The kart after that was good… untill the break cable snapped! The following kart was an older generation and had a full steal frame which made it much slower than everyone else on the track. Each new kart presented another new problem, and before I knew it I was back at the first one. I think we calculated that they probably had 2 good karts.

Putting the actual karts aside and looking at the track it was well laid out. It had plenty of good passing opportunites. It included split option to either go quicker on the outside or cut inside with an extra turn, both ways had a similar time but it was nice to be able to out-manouver a slower driver. It also had a small upper level section of track with added a little bit of extra interest.

Overall the experience was let down by the lack of quality karts. The guys there were flat out trying to keep them up and running but were fighting a losing battle. I probably wouldn’t go back there again as there are lots of other options available in Auckland.

Abbotts Drainage Truck

Unfortunately a couple of weeks back I was alerted to the issue of some water where it shouldn’t be. I quickly diagnosed it to be a blocked drain. I was also able to diagnose that the blockage would be beyond my reach and therefor needed a professional who had the required tools. And that’s where Abbots Drainage Limited come in.

I discovered them through a vigorous web search. I surfed about a dozen different plumbing and drainage company websites and rang a few of the best looking ones for a quote. Abbotts looked like a very professional company by what I saw on their website. It was easy to navigate, provided comforting information and looked the most professionally designed.

Abbotts had a prompt phone answering service and I was speaking to a real person in seconds. They were very polite and easy to understand. They approach each job the same and they are all important.

I was quoted a time when they expected the tradesman to arrive and advised that he would call 30 minutes before he would arrive. He called not long after I made the booking and arrived when he said he would.

I explained the problem to the man when he arrived so he grabbed the correct tools from his track and proceeded to unblock the drain. It didn’t take him long and he was very courteous not to make a mess. He was polite and friendly and knew exactly what he was doing.

Abbotts standard prices weren’t the cheapest option available, but I had managed to locate a special coupon on a directory website which enabled me to reduce the cost of the callout. With this coupon, Abbots were in fact the cheapest option available, but I would have chosen to use them anyway without this incentive.

If I have another problem similar to this, I wouldn’t hesitate to call them again next time.

Peugeot 206

I have recently bought a new car, but before I could get the new one, it I had to sell the old one. This review is on my old car, a Peugeot 206 XS.

I purchased this car as the first NZ owner from a dealer. It was originally from Japan. At the time I paid a fair price for it, although if I had the time and energy could have sourced a cheeper model.

It was a year 2000 model, 1.6L with manual transmission and included front and side airbags, fog lights, after market racing alloy wheels and a few other features which appealed to me.

I was specifically looking for a Peugeot 206 as I really like the shape of the car. I had never owned an European car before either, so this was something new for me. It takes a few weeks to get used to the indicator and wipers on opposite sides.

The car was really fun to drive, although the pedals were very close together. It would be a struggle to drive while wearing boots or other large shoes. It had excellent turning ability and vision which helped with tight parking. It also had enough power to overtake comfortably on the motorways.

With regards to fuel economy, it was quite good. The majority of the time it was driven stop start around town, but when hitting the motorways could get many KM’s on a full tank.

Soon after getting the vehicle the passenger seat malfunctioned and was unable to recline back further than an upright position. After looking at getting this repaired we decided against it as the parts and labour would be prohibitively expensive, mainly due to the airbags being inside the seat.

Overall it was a fun stylish car to drive, but expensive when requiring maintenance.

CRS Panel & Paint

Occasionally accidents do happen, and recently my car was involved in one. Luckily nobody was seriously hurt, although a few egos took a hit. The main damage sustained was to my passenger side wing mirror and that’s where CRS Panel & paint come in.

I have used the services of CRS (Collision Repair Specialists) Panel & Paint a couple of times in the past and will always use them again when the need arises.

They have two locations in Newmarket, although they are so close you could easily confuse which one you are going to.

Their staff are knowledgeable and courteous and are happy to explain any of their processes in full detail.

Their results are second to none. No job is too big or too small. They approach each job with the same attitude and the results are always perfect.

All of this would be enough, but they go beyond with the offering of free courtesy cars, free bottles of touch up paint and even chocolates!

China Yum Char

The other weekend I went to China Yum Char for lunch. I have been to a couple of yum cha restaurants now, but so far the one on Beach Rd in the city is my favorite.

It’s not the flashest place to dine, or the most modern, but they always have a seat when I turn up – without needing to wait. The place is split up into sections with 2 zones on the inside and another outside under a marquee-type setup. There is enough parking in the area and if you don’t think you will be too long you can even park free (at your own risk!) at the Countdown supermarket nearby.

The way yum cha restaurants work is that they wheel different types of food around and if you see something you like, you grab it. It can be beneficial to take along someone who is familiar with Chinese cuisine or can speak mandarin as some of the dishes are a little hard to identify. China Yum Char offer a lot of different foods so you will most likely find several dishes which appeal to you. Sometimes you might not get a specific dish which you had last time, but that’s also what makes this type of dining a bit of fun – it can be full of surprises!

As long as you have selected a dish which appeals to you, then you will find the food is well prepared and tastes good. The many people walking around with food only take enough to go around part of the restaurant, this results in the food always being hot/warm and you know it hasn’t been sitting around for extended periods of time.

On average you will be looking at spending about $15-20 per person. This will include tea and a good selection of different foods. You tend to keep eating more food until you are left feeling full and satisfied.

It’s a great place to take people for a delicious variety of food for a reasonable price.

Banzai Sushi

Can you believe that I had never even tried sushi until a few months ago, now I can’t get enough of the stuff. I have eaten sushi from a few different places now, but the number of different places offering sushi in Auckland is unbelievable. This review is on Banzai Sushi located at 213 Symonds St, Newton, Auckland City.

They are located on the corner of Symonds street and Newton Rd. There are one or two parking spaces on the street if your lucky, but for me it’s walking distance, so don’t take the car when visiting this place. They have plenty of seating inside which is good, because it can get quite busy in there at lunchtimes.

Upon entering, you are greeted with a food display cabinet with dozens of different types of sushi. After grabbing your plate and personal serving tongs you move along selecting individual pieces of sushi which take your fancy. You have to be careful as there are so many different flavors which all look delicious. As you near the end with the counter you smell the final selection of sushi which has been deep fried and served hot. You must try one of these. All of the different sushi types are continuously being restocked by freshly made versions as they begin to sell out.

The sushi itself is well constructed. Other sushi I have tried can fall apart if you try to eat it in more than one mouthful, this stuff generally remains intact. The volume of ingredients is consistent as is the total portion. I have been here several times and have not once been disappointed. The sushi tastes excellent. Some flavors might not be for you, but as there is so much to choose from you will not be left out.

As they sell each item individually, the cost is slightly higher than other places. Each sushi can cost from just over a dollar to above two dollars per unit for the more fancy stuff. This however has not been a stopping factor for me. The quality of the sushi and the range is worth every cent. I am also a big fan of mixing and matching, I never get more then one type of the same sushi.

Fourfontaine Heineken Amsterdam T-shirt

My partner was lucky enough to win a competition the other day. She collected a dozen Heineken beers and a limited edition t-shirt from Fourfontaine. Luckily for me she doesn’t drink beer and the t-shirts size is large and fits me perfectly.

The t-shirt’s design is one of 7 prints. Each print has a limited run of only 50, with the number printed inside the tee. The designs aren’t too bad with some better than others. The one I have is the black Amsterdam Tee.

It feels great to wear. It’s the right fit for me, but the best bit is what it’s made of. It is made from 180gm bamboo cotton. It’s light and feels exceptionally soft to touch. It definitely feels like a quality tee.

I am glad we won the t-shirt, as buying one would set you back a bit. They are retailing for $69 which I consider fairly steep for a t-shirt, regardless of the quality or how limited they are.

A packet of Mi goreng Satay noodles

I can pretty much guarantee that everybody has eaten noodles before, it’s one of those foods which everybody can eat. They can be good for a snack or fleshed out to be a whole meal. Below I review Indomie Instant Noodles – Mi goring Satay and decide where they site in the noodle hierarchy.

Lets start with the main factor – taste. Most packets of instant noodles some with a single sachet of flavoring, these noodles set the bar a lot higher. Indomie include 5 – yes, five packets of flavoring! You mix these all in together and you end up with noodles which go beyond the standard boring flavor of regular instant noodles.

The texture of the noodles is good too. I have had some instant noodles in the past which had a slightly more rubbery feel, but these ones are fine. The thickness of them is slightly thinner than some other brands but only by a fraction.

The noodles come in an 80g packet. Once cooked it works out to be a good sized snack but falls short of a meal. The graphic on the packaging shows a possible serving suggestion which includes other foods, this would be required if you wanted to turn this into a proper meal sized portion.

A single packet will set you back $0.59 at your local supermarket, which is actually one of the cheapest brands of noodles available.

SoundCloud

I spend a lot of my time on the internet and see all sorts of websites, one which has really stood out for me over the last few months is SoundCloud.

The main function of the website is to share and discover music and it does this really well. It might not have all genres of music for all people, but for those who enjoy electronic music you are in for a treat. You can search for specific artists / dj’s or just search for a style of music. The results are displayed and you can start listening straight away.

The site extends the user interactions by allowing you to comment on various tracks at specific time points. This can be funny seeing what people say as you are listening to a track. You can follow people’s activities on the site and add tracks to your favorites list. This can be extend through to your FaceBook profile if you want to.

I would classify myself as a listener rather than producer of music, so probably don’t benefit from the sites full potential. There are many tools available to the content producers to track, share and otherwise promote their music. Some choose to sell their music and provide links to iTunes, others allow you to download their work for free.

Technically this site is very well built. It uses the latest web technologies to provide a fluid user experience, from listening to a list of tunes to managing your profile – if you choose to set one up.

Get there now and discover some new music for free!

The Losers

I usually don’t go to the movies unless it’s one I have really been looking forward to. Last night though we got cheap tickets to see a mystery movie, you don’t know what movie it is until you are actually watching it! I went there with low expectations as to what I was going to see but left feeling pleasantly satisfied.

The story line was fairly basic, it didn’t take much to understand what was going on and the biggest twist you could see almost a mile away. That didn’t worry me though. The story moved at a good pace with lots of action and a few funny bits. It wasn’t a long movie and I could have even watched another 30 minutes so they could build more into the ending, not that the ending was left short, just that they could have exploited it a bit further.

Character depth was also fairly shallow. This isn’t the sort of movie to induce much thought. What you see is what you get. None of the performances were outstanding but the story was never going to challenge the actors in any way. After getting past that you will enjoy the small moments where they do something amusing and execute it well.

Usually with an action film comes big explosions and a few impressive graphics. This movie had that without going over the top. I think they balanced this well. Some movies try too hard and lose focus on what makes a good movie. I especially liked the use of camera speed. At times they would use a slow frame rate to emphasize some action or skip frames in time to music to help get you in the mood.

As mentioned earlier, we got cheap tickets to see this movie. If we hadn’t I probably wouldn’t have gone to the cinema to see this film. It was fun but not worth paying full price to go and see. However, it is worthy of renting from your local DVD store.