They call me ‘Mr M5’

BMW-20150121-2BMW-20150121-3

Male Australians of my generation have the car fantasy gene.  Second hand cars in Australian by the ’60s and ’70s were both plentiful and cheap courtesy of a growing car production industry and a middle class that could afford new cars.

My first car was a Holden 1962 FB station wagon that cost about AUD$200.  By most standards it was a horrible car and whilst not quite unsafe at any speed was certainly primitive by today’s models.  Pre-war and early post war cars were cheap and many people became collectors.  I had friends that collected Wolseley’s, Rovers, motorbikes, of various flavours and for a while I was a Citroen collector of just about anything Citroen.  Languishing away in a friend’s country garage I still have a 1951 Citroen Normale of the Traction Avant variety.  Over the course of about 10ish years, I must have owned about 20 Citroens and drove most of them as daily transport.

Travel and living overseas curtailed the collecting and usually I bought what made sense at the time such as a small Mazda station wagon in the Solomons, a pick-up truck for dive gear in LA.  It wasn’t until I came to Tokyo and had a financial windfall that I could actually afford something exotic.  Realising I had never owned a sports car of any kind and probably having a minor fit of mid-life crisis, I bought a second hand 1991 Porsche 911 Turbo.

You got what you paid for – an incredibly quick car that would give motorbikes a fright, a car that expected you, the driver to know what you were doing and a car that is DNA imprinted as a head turner (or the car you had to pass on the highway).  I had a lot of fun and whilst I never wound it out to it’s full potential, I will admit to getting to a point when the eye movement between speedo and road became such that I thought now would be a really good time to ease off and did.

As much as the Porsche was fun, I realised I wasn’t a sports car person.  I prefer the Q-car, the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the sleeper.  A friend stuffed a 4 cylinder engine into a Citroen 2CV and we drove it around Europe to both the amusement and surprise of bystanders and other motorists.  During a trip to Germany about the same time, it was an early BMW M5 that caught my eye.  Driven with a complement of (it seemed) grandmothers sliding by us at about 200kph (125mph) and deep in conversation they whished past.  I say ‘whished’ as if it had been an exotic sports car, ‘roar’ would be the description but not the M5.  All seemingly very sedate but in fact well over most countries speed limits.

Since then, I’ve kept tabs and occasionally counted my pennies to see if one was in my realm.  Owning a car though in busy, clogged Tokyo is not a rational decision but I did.  By this time I was in the BMW camp so every so often gravitated to the M side of the showroom, sighed and went back to the sensible side.  Though I will admit we did have Z4 for short time and that was also enjoyable.  The E60 M-5 seemed to be everything I could want in a Q-car, 500+ Hp, an engine that engineering-wise is both unusual and is considered a high enough water mark to win awards.  So I waited.

It wasn’t until we moved to Hokkaido that factors worked in taking this off the bucket seat list and into the garage.  Hokkaido has open roads that with care, you can stretch a car’s legs, we have a garage that can accommodate such a beast (whispered quietly – will fit 4 cars at a pinch).  We got lucky with the finances, needed a second car and couldn’t find anything newish that appealed.  Proof that women do listen when men start waxing lyrically about engineering things, my wife suggested ‘what about an M5, you’ve always wanted one’  At that point I realised I had married perfection.

The search was on. It had to be the later version of the E60 body style with the V10 motor, it had to be that fantastic blue with black leather, it had to be right-hand drive (I’m lazy – LHD in a RHD country is tedious) and it had to be in the budget.  Earlier versions were easy to find but the Lehmann Shock had reduced the number of imports of the later versions.  Wait, wait, wait……

Regular visits to BMW pre-approved site and goo-net.com and wait, wait, wait.  Finally a Tokyo dealer had something.  Yes!  All of the above and mileage not low but acceptable.  Thoughts of how to get this back to Hokkaido – road/ferry trip?  By this time winter and snow was with us.  Luckily the dealer would ship to our home address.  Wait, wait, wait… whilst papers etc were sorted out.  (In Japan, you cannot just buy a car, the local police has to visit your planned parking address to see if you have sufficient car space – on the street in front of the house, doesn’t count).

Finally the big day arrives and Mr M5 is delivered.  Life with an M5 begins.  I’m nervous, Kaiju sighs, looks about his new home and waits.

 

Categories: Mr. M5 | Leave a comment

A change in location

I’ve never much thought about it, but my life seems to be a series of very different chapters.  If friends from these different chapters were ever assembled in one room, probably the other only thing in common would be myself.

So 10 months ago, a new chapter starts by leaving Tokyo and moving to Hokkaido, specifically Noboribetsu Onsen.  My wife’s family owns a 150+ year old Ryokan (Japanese hot springs hotel) and for complicated family reasons, the younger brother who was to take over the business will not and my wife will and has.

Ergo, a new chapter has started.

Categories: General | Leave a comment

A dream fulfilled – Whale Sharks

Many years ago whilst living in the Solomon Islands, I took up scuba diving.  One thing led to another and I eventually ended up in California at the now defunct PADI college and became a Scuba Instructor.  There was the dream of finding a pristine island in the Pacific, open a dive store, dive during the day between lazing around and generally enjoying the good life.  As it happened, I ended up in Tokyo Japan which I guess has to be about as far from that dream as one could imagine.

During the dive years, I did pretty much everything, deep dives, decompression, reef, wall, drift, beach, wrecks, cold water (Antarctica) tropical, fresh water etc.  I also dived with some of the larger and friskier members of that environment – seals, sharks though it has to be admitted not the crazy type that would take a bite out of you just for curiosity, turtles, and (giant) Manta rays to name a few.  I never got to dive with whales but at the back of my mind it was always an item to be ticked.

In March 2013, we decided to take a break from Tokyo winter and go to Cebu in the Philippines.  In the last year, some whale sharks with the encouragement of the locals decided to make a small inlet their home.  Technically a whale shark is a shark not a whale but when something is in the vicinity of 10 metres long (about 30 feet), one is inclined to let them be called whatever they wish to be called. There were 5 of them, all juveniles as big Mama was off doing whatever big Mama did but 2 dives with about an hour plus in close proximity to these large beasts left me well-satisfied.

http://beautyofcebu.blogspot.jp/2012/02/oslob-cebu-whale-shark-watching.html

And here’s a shameless plug for the dive operator – Thank-you Alfie Diola!

http://www.greenseadivers.com

Oslob - Whale Shark

 

Categories: General | Leave a comment

7-5-3 Ceremony

Emma-20121110M

Categories: The Joy in Our Lives | Leave a comment

4 Year Hiatus

It’s been a while but slowly getting back to this.  stay tuned, stay patient….

Categories: General | Leave a comment

Third Birthday

Emma-20120808 009

Categories: The Joy in Our Lives | Leave a comment

Second Birthday

Emma-20110808

Categories: The Joy in Our Lives | Leave a comment

The Joy in Our Lives

Emma Minami Navin born 10:11am August 8th, 2009.

Emma-20090808

Categories: The Joy in Our Lives | Leave a comment

A 25 year reunion…

In a previous life, I wintered in Antarctica as part of ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) and this month travelled to Hobart for the 25th Anniversary of that winter – Davis 1982.  I had wintered also wintered at Davis in ’72  but that is another story.

As you would expect, over the 25 years there have been some changes.  ANARE is now part of AAP (Australian Antarctic Programme) which sounds nowhere near as exotic but is probably a more accurate reflection of the times.  Day One was a visit to the AAP offices.  In a way  nothing had changed, there were the usual stunning photographs on the wall, the names were different but the faces were the same.  As luck would have it, Dr. P. G Law was visiting the offices.  Dr Law now well into his 90’s and looking frail is a legend in the Antarctic community.  He was the first director of the then Antarctic Division and more than anyone else, greats like Mawson notwithstanding is the father of the modern Australian presence in Antarctica.  I had by coincidence met him in about 1969 and in one sense he was part of the catalyst that had me joining the 1972 Expedition.  It was then and it was now an honour to meet him.

In 1982 excluding the people that visited Davis during the summers, there were 26 of us that actually wintered.  19 made it to Hobart which was a credible result.  Over the years, thinning of the ranks had taken place with 2 expeditioners no longer with us, the 2 non-Australian scientists (Russian and Chinese) that wintered were unable to attend and three others were unable to make it due to other commitments.

Time takes its toll and some people had changed but some also seemed unchanged. It was a relaxed 3 day affair with an event each day but lots of recovery time built in to the programme.  Yes, copious amounts of alcoholic beverage were consumed, stories retold that had got better from 25 years of honing with the telling and a good time was had by all.   The generally agreed plan is to do it again in 5 years.   Looking forward to that.

Categories: General | Leave a comment

Hong Kong Again – Sevens!

We made a promise to go back and did!  An even better year than last year in the quality of the matches.

England got bumped by New Zealand in the quarter final breaking the four year winning streak, New Zealand got bumped by Fiji and then Fiji lost to Samoa in the final in a match that had everyone screaming – 27 points by Samoa in the first half and then 22 points by Fiji in the second half and unlucky to not get a winning try.  One couldn’t wish for a better run of matches and the result.  Australia?  who?  nowhere to be seen.

Back again next year – 28 -30 March 2008 (mark it in the calendars).

Categories: General | Leave a comment