Monthly Archives: May 2013

Caryn & Greg’s Wedding Byron Bay


Obligatory plane shot. I slept all the way as usual (teleporting is my specialty!).


Top Shop has changed! SO trendy now, amazing food and coffee!


Healthy hearty Byron Bay goodness. Made with so much love.


Caryn let Liz, Pete, Nancy and I rent her parent’s Solaris apartment. I’ve stayed in this very apartment when it was first built many years ago and fell in love with this silk painting of a lion fish. Loved seeing it again, and staying there again, such a sweet spot right on the main beach.


The plunge pool outside. Solaris has aged so well.


Dinner at Tree House the night before the wedding gave us all a chance to catch up with faces we hadn’t seen in over 10 years. Was a great night, live music, great food and amazing company (they make a really nice beer in-house too!).


Glorious Byron Bay food. I felt healthier with each bite!


We made it!


David walking Caryn down the aisle with Honey (who stole the show!).


Caryn and Greg. So so sweet.


Poached eggs with sourdough toast + pulled pork and chipotle relish at Bayleaf Cafe.


This poor puppy had to endure the ‘leave the bacon on the nose until told’ trick over and over again.


Pete’s T-shirt. Love it. Can you name them all? I could pretty easily!


Spotted at the airport on the way home.

Had a great weekend up in Byron for Caryn and Greg’s wedding. I went out with Caryn for 7 years. She was my hippy surfer girl. We first met when I was still doing my design internship during my last year of uni and we ended up running a really successful design business for many years (we even kept running it after we separated).

We’ve remained good friends since (I love that), and I couldn’t be happier that she’s met her man, Greg who I thought was a champ from the very first time I met him many years ago.

The wedding was so so sweet. Especially the heartfelt speeches. I’m honoured to be surrounded by such great friends. I’m also so glad I’ve been making the time to get out and do things lately. I impress myself! Once upon a time I was so lazy that I just found it easier to say no than yes, but this year has been a great year so far. I’ve done so much and feel like there’s a whole lot more to come.

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Pressies


Jamie’s hand made pressie to me, succulents! I’ve always wanted a succulent garden!


It even came with a spray bottle and this lovely card. She’s a talented cookie isn’t she?!


Richie the home brewer gave me this bottle and it’s delicious as expected (almost smashed it all last night!).


Mum gave me this little dude, and card. I was mad on robots as a kid. still remember the robot B’day cake mum made me, which looked a lot like this little fella!


My pressie to myself. Burton luggage complete with skate wheels. I did want Herschel luggage to go with the rest of my gear, but failed to find a plain black one in time for this weekend’s Byron trip so I settled for this instead.

Been so busy lately, and updating this blog less as less as I’ve been too lazy to take the GF1 out (and instead I’m relying on my iPhone + facebook + instagram). I’m off to Byron today for Caryn’s wedding. Pretty excited! I’ve packed the GF1, will be sure to take a few snaps! :)

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Fuel 4 Charity

I’ve spent a part of my life trying to make heaps of money, and failed pretty badly at it (sorry Mum!), but one thing I am good at is drawing a crowd, creating communities and (apparently) social media marketing.

I’ve had a blast working on various passion projects over the years (it’s all I do!) and it’s high time I give back. With the help of good friends, and the greater community, I’m putting on a huge show (one of many to come I hope!) where ALL proceeds will go to charity.

I’d really appreciate it if you could spread the word on your networks, and get in touch with me if you have any suggestions to help the cause. Thanking everyone in advance!

The official facebook events page is up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/170978743064870/

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All Stars “Stance Off”


Zen babes Kacy and Melanie.


Glenn and Alain getting the car limbo going in the stanced All Stars buggy!


The limbo in full swing!


Trophies which we’ll be handing out soon!

Our All Stars “Stance Off” event sponsored by Stance Nation (USA) went off today. Weather was P E R F E C T and the vibe was awesome. The car limbo got a lot of laughs as expected! Lots more pics will be online over the next few days I’m sure. I’ll be sure to edit the post with links later.

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MKVR32 updates – Hankook Ventus R-S3 & Injen Hydro-Shield filter


I needed new tyres and I ended up choosing to go with the Hankook Ventus R-S3. As aggressive as a street tyre gets. This tyre was used on the winning car in last year’s World Time Attack Clubsprint Class. Only top shelf tyres for MKVR32!!!


235/40/18. The 225’s on the car were stretched. I hate stretched tyres so I was hoping these would look a lot fatter AND I’ve managed to get the right load rating too (not that it’s ever been an important thing to me).


Old tyres.


New tyres. FAT! Now that’s a LOT better!!!


Rears are now looking pretty amazing.


Oh yeah. Tasty!


Ooft! I’m happy.


Old Dunlops. Camber ate away the insides.


Had to hit Zi up for one of his elite coffees. Best coffee I’ve had since Melbourne a few months ago.


Also spotted this up on the board. You go girl! :)


The BMC intake had to go. With it’s opening at the bottom so close to the road it was always going to cause extreme paranoia in wet conditions (hydro lock!).


The BMC filter removed.


We went for an Injen pod filter with a Hydro-Shield pre-filter.

Injen Technology’s HYDRO-SHIELD PRE-FILTERS are race proven material manufactured from highly durable polyester. Uniform micron openings allow the filtering of debris .005” or larger. The HYDRO-SHIELD PRE-FILTERS are factory treated using an embedded hydrophobic process, which offers consistent airflow, water repellency and maintains horsepower gains. (Please note that this item is water repellent, not water proof).


You can see it sits a bit higher than the BMC. Not pictured, but clamps were made to hold it in place securely afterwards.


MUCH better air flow straight to the filter now.


Just for jokes. John suggested installing a colour coded Beaks bar to match my brakes.

OK so I didn’t get a chance to throw the car through corners to test out the tyres, but I’m confident they’ll be amazing. On very big bumps the rears scrub in the very slightest. Bit of a shame but I have a hunch it’ll go away as it’s ever so slight (in comparison to what I’ve come across in the past on my MKV GTI!). Intake has made everything louder! The supercharger whine is louder, the exhaust too. I’d say by about 5-10% louder and I LOVE IT! Could be my head playing tricks on me, but on launching it feels like all tyres want to let go now. I’m pretty sure this filter is helping the car to breathe a LOT better than the BMC.

PS: Massive thanks to the JDMyard boys. John for fitting my tyres and Kiet for for the work with my intake.

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NSW to QLD road trip video


Hilarious!

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MKV GTI feature photos

Throwback! I miss my MKV GTI a LOT. Taking all that weight out really made a world of difference and as far as set-up for the circuit goes, it was up there with my MX-5.

Last night (thanks Alain!) I finally got the images from my feature in the January 2012 issue of Fast Fours & Rotaries Magazine. Photography by Chris Sorgsepp at Zen Garage when it was completely empty, before we had moved in and opened shop.

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Mum N’ Miles

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Zen Garage @ Street Cover’s 2nd Anniversary


Photo by Justin Sung: www.facebook.com/JustinSungPhotography


Photo by Zoran Nova: www.facebook.com/ZoranNovaArt


Photo by Zoran Nova: www.facebook.com/ZoranNovaArt

Rolling on with events. Yesterday we celebrated Street Cover’s 2nd Anniversary. The boys put on a great meet in Liverpool that went from day into night. I’ve still not washed the R32 Golf since the highway trip back from Queensland so I took the GT-R out instead (which was also dirty from the last track day!).

More pics of the Zen Stand and our cars from various photographers here.

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