Author: Kim du Toit

Train Smash Time

Train Smash Women

Oh yeah, baby:  it’s that time of year when the Grand National is run at Aintree, and when we can look forward to some Train Smash Women and their antics.

Only, this year?  Not as much fun as usual… so far:


Too many regrettable decisions to count, in that last one.

A couple, it seemed, didn’t get the memo:

…but a lot of others did, and dressed accordingly:

That said, I think these pics were taken mostly in the early morning, before the booze had a chance to do its work.

On the other hand, maybe it’s just that nobody could afford to get wasted.  HFS, look at those prices:

Racegoers will be expected to pay £7.50 for draught beers (not including Guinness) and ciders, while a 330ml can could cost up to £7.

Meanwhile, a single serving of wine is set to cost £9.50 with a full bottle priced at £37.50.

A bottle of Prosecco will set punters back £46 while a bottle of Gobillard Brut Champagne totals a staggering £85.

Cocktails are priced at £13 each, with soft drinks costing £3.20 and a can of water £2.90 itself.

We’ll just have to wait and see.  More to follow.

Update 1:  Okay, despite the cost of booze, that’s a little more Train Smash-y…


And then came… Ladies Day.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

I quote Insty a lot, I know, but at the end of it all, Glenn Reynolds is a very smart and wise man.  Frankly (and I know he’s not interested, more’s the pity), our country needs him, and more like him, to be in a position of power rather than being a respected law professor at some university*.

Here’s what caught my eye recently:

“There was a time when I doubted the morality of Hiroshima, Tokyo, and Dresden. Watching the world today, I’m glad that our forebears had the courage and moral clarity that too many parts of our contemporary society lack.”

Asking for “moral clarity” in our current amoral power elite is far too big an expectation.

*I know, I know — to Glenn, UTenn isn’t just “some university”, but in relation to his stature, intellect and character, I’m afraid that to the rest of us, and to me in particular, it is.

Well, So Much For That Tagline

Drive Time, Marketing / Advertising

We’re all accustomed to the advertising tagline from the Kraut carmakers which touts “German engineering” as the selling proposition for buying one of their overpriced cars.

That doesn’t seem to be the case, as evidenced by this J.D. Power survey of not so long ago:

It’s a large sample (80,000), by the way (the full methodology can be found here).

Basically, apart from all the Kraut shenanigans involved with cartels and illegal manipulations (diesel emissions coff coff etc.), it all boils down to the Germans making their cars evermore sophisticated but in doing so, more fragile and prone to breakage.

Where have we heard this before? Oh yeah, pretty much everywhere.

And people snigger when I say how much I’d prefer to drive something like a Merc 280 SL than any of their newer models…