Miracle!

I'd recently explained to Matt what a miracle is, i.e. some act of God that we simply can't understand, like how God made each of the animals, different flowers etc. This was after he asked how God could raise people from the dead.

Well he's so caught up now he thinks that anything he can't figure out is a miracle. Like, we got a free pair of 3D glasses with a kids' magazine, and he couldn't figure how the green and red lens stayed in the cardboard frame, so he immediately concluded, "It's part of the miracle, right?"

I had to literally peel back the cardboard and show him the sandwiched lens and explain that it's no miracle.

On another note, there really is a miracle happening in our lives right now. A little person just made his way into the world! I hope he hangs on tight inside me until it's time he sees daylight. I'm putting my feet up these two weeks for him to stabilise, and keeping fingers crossed that we hear his heartbeat at the next doctor's visit, or the one after that.

Game over?

Say what you will about Kimi Raikkonen, but you can't accuse him of not trying. At the just-concluded Italian Grand Prix in Monza, all kinds of things conspired to ruin Kimi's weekend. First McLaren had to change his engine as a result of an offending inlet valve on Friday. F1 rules being what they are these days, this meant a ten place demotion down the starting grid, regardless of qualifying position.

So McLaren changed their strategy. Monza is a high speed track that usually demands 2 fuel stops, but banking on the car's and Kimi's pace, they went for a risky one stopper. Risky because it makes the car heavier, more difficult to handle and thus slower throughout the duration of the race. And this is where Kimi's scorching qualifying drive made the difference. Driving by far the heaviest car on the grid, he somehow put his McLaren on pole, beating even his own team-mate Montoya by nearly 0.2 sec in identical (bar fuel) cars. Regardless, the penalty meant that he started in 11th position, but you just knew there was more to come.

Kimi spent the first part of the race itself stuck behind Jacques Villenueve's Sauber in the same position he started, but he bided his time until the first pit stops. Then when the drivers started diving into the pits and with relatively clean air in front of him, he turned up the wick. In nine laps he moved from 11th to 2nd, until he was just behind leading man Montoya. And even after pitting on lap 25, he came out in fifth position. With his one and only stop done with, and everyone else needng to make another, it was not inconceivable that he could actually win the race.

Then fate, lady luck or the race gods stepped once again, as they have done so often this season with Kimi (but for some reason, never championship leader Fernando Alonso). His left rear tyre began to delaminate, which required an extra stop that dumped him back to 12th and once more behind Villeneuve. Alonso would have given up there and then, and I wouldn't blame him, but Kimi began his second, even more impressive charge.

One by one he started reeling the other cars in, driving on the ragged edge and using all the track plus a little more. And we saw how much he was pushing, when after despatching Trulli to take 4th and hunting down 3rd place Fisichella, he spun at the second chicane. Now some people say that this cost Kimi a podium finish. Nonsense. Had he not given 150% and every ounce of his fibre to the job, he would have finished well out of the points. As it was, 4th place earned him 5 points, a result that does no justice to a truly heroic drive, evidenced by a fastest lap that was 0.3sec quicker than anyone else.

Sure, Alonso drove a drama-free race to take a well-deserved 2nd place. Then again, he could afford to take it easy, having the most reliable car this season under him, and a seemingly-unassailable 27 point cushion over Kimi with only 4 races to go. In all probability the Finn's title-hopes are over. But I don't watch F1 for play-it-safe tactics - I would much rather support someone who goes down fighting, than one who basks in glory while benfiting from others' misfortunes.

So bring on Spa! (That's the next race at Belgium, in case you're wondering...)

Chinese Fortune Telling

Someone posted this website to get your fortune from the details of your moment of birth.

Matt's
此命推来是不同
为人能干异凡庸
中年还有逍遥福
不比前时运未通

Sarah's
不需劳碌过平生
独自成家福不轻
早有福星常照命
任君行去百般成

Controlblade's
此命推来旺末年
妻荣子贵自怡然
平生原有滔滔福
可卜财源若水泉

Mine
平生衣禄苦中求
独自营谋事不休
离祖出门宜早计
晚求衣禄庶无忧

Now if anybody can translate all that for us, that'd be perfect!

Once more, with feeling

My attraction to unglamorous freak accidents continues:

- 1987: I literally ran into a Mercedes on the way to church. My loose tooth broke free at this moment, and resulting blood on my t-shirt caused a minor panic among the small crowd, who gather closered and deprived me of precious oxygen while I'm lying on the gorund. Merc driver, on the other hand, wanted to sue me for damages to his car, but relented when my neighbour (who just so happened to be his friend) stepped in. Divine intervention, I tell you.

- 1993: Chinese New Year Eve. Doing chin-ups after booking out from the army was already a daft thing, but to compound it, the paint on the door frame my chin-up bar was attached to started peeling off, so it fell and took me with it, knees first. For some reason my grandfather found it quite amusing, while my mother's reaction was quite the opposite. But pain or no pain, we dutifully had our reunion dinner first (customs can't be broken, you know!) before going to the hospital. Till this day I can't kneel properly.

- 2000: Visiting my uncle, I managed to cut my toe right under the nail on one of the door entrance tiles. Further inspection failed to uncover the offending sharp edge, but my toe was bleeding quite profusely anyhow. I had just joined my present company, where a business shirt and tie are mandatory, so it was extra silly to visit cusotmers wearing sandals while my bandaged toe healed.

- 2004 (or was it early this year?): While rummaging through the storeroom in the dark - again not the smartest thing to do - I heard something drop and experienced a sharp pain in my toe (thankfully not the same toe as the last episode). It turned out to be a rubber mallet that fell, and my toe decided to turn the same colour as the mallet in retribution. Although the pain continued for some time, it healed surprisingly quickly, even as the toenail expectedly came off. I derived a strange pleasure watching it grow back to its original length after that.

- Yesterday: You would think by now that I've stopped doing dumb things. We took the children to the playground in the evening, and like a real hero I have to start swinging on one of the mini monkey bars. I say 'mini' only in hindsight, because now I know that there isn't enough clearance between bar and platform for my swinging body to fit through, knees bent or not. And so I end up slamming the platform with my left shin, right under the knee. I don't think anything's seriously wrong, but I can't put pressure on my left leg for extended periods now. Ah, it will get better...

I am such a klutz.

A_o_tion

I frequent a fun and lively mother's forum, where people also write in with their problems. This particular thread was started by a woman who is pregnant with the baby of a man she took up with during a period of separation from her husband. She is also now seeking to be reconciled with her husband (who had cheated on her), and has made an appointment for an abortion although she is distraught at the thought of it.

I'm fighting tooth and nail against the replies telling her that she doesn't have much of a choice if she hopes to make up with her husband. People are saying that adoption is going to be difficult, that she won't be able to keep her affair and pregnancy a secret therefore, etc. etc., and somebody actually said that she knows what she must do except it's going to be hard, and that we will be there to hear her pour out her sorrows.

I wanted to throw a rock at my computer screen when I read that. I wonder if the poster was the devil surfaced from hell (posted under Guest), given that glib, apparently sympathetic but actually totally heartless reply completely designed to deceive her into making the greatest mistake of her life.

This issue has been discussed for a couple of days now, and I've many times exhorted the woman (anonymous poster) to consider adoption, and to seek help from ALife and Family Life Society's Pregnancy Crisis Centre. It is also greatly heartening to see other forum users speaking up and urging her to keep the baby.

My heart is sick at the thought of what this woman is going through, and the knowledge that in 4 days' time she may really go through with the killing of her baby.

Shakedown!

So here's the funny thing - we get cable primarily to watch F1, and realize that far more entertaining is the rally/travel/entertainment show, AXN Shakedown, hosted by DJ, VJ and comedian, Neil Cole.

This week covered the Acropolis Rally in Greece, which meant lots and lots of dust. I'm in constant awe of these guys who slide their 300hp cars around the loose surfaces at unbelievable velocities, but also shocked at the spectators who position themselves so close to the edge of the narrow tracks that they must surely act as human bowling pins should the cars step out of line even a little. I'm not sure who's braver.

Sebastien Loeb as usual made it look easy, while the rest of the field struggled with problems of all sorts. With a huge margin of 1:36 min, he wrapped up an unprecedented five consecutive wins (he would go on to six at Rally Argentina). A huge surprise was privateer Mikko Hirvonen in his Focus, who embarrassed many a works driver by winning 3 stages and finishing fifth.

But what made Shakedown so appealing, even to rally freshie like Lu, was the presentation of the programme, and the general lack of airs in the rally community itself. Squeezed into the one-hour show was Neil taking a tour of Athens' historical sites, finding the best place for Greek kebabs, tasting Greek coffee, playing Greek blues, getting a helicopter ride from Loeb, arranging a tug-of-war between the Ford and Subaru mechanics, playing scissors-paper-stone with junior drivers, as well as cajolling the drivers to put on their best philosopher expressions. And all this apart from the rally action. Whew.

When was the last time anyone saw F1 drivers talk, outside of scheduled press conferences?

Cable-enabled

Just got ourselves out of tv suaku-land with the installation yesterday of an SCV box. This was done primarily so that on Grand Prix weekends I don't have to go pestering StarSports-ready friends, or worse, watch races from a 'live update' laptime computer screen. So far Nik has been forthcoming in extending his hospitality, but I'm not comfortable being away from the kiddies unnecessarily 19 Sunday nights a year. Besides, I always feel like I'm intruding on his ongoing 2 year honeymoon with his wife.

I've noticed that although we only subscribed to the basic group plus sports, we've got ALL the channels now - MTV, Zee Tv, Chinese channels, the lot. Colleagues tell me that happens for the first week or month, to tempt us into adding more groups, and money into Starhub's coffers. Nice strategy, but won't work with me!

Then again, I did vow that we'd never get cable... Now, which channel is Battlestar Galactica on again?

Rawa Revisited

If you'll check the August Destination link in the lefthand margin, yes, that's where we just went. Another anniversary of sorts - last year same days we took a short holiday there too. The place is as lovely as ever - white sands, blue waters, cosy chalet right on the beach front. The restaurant's newly done up, and the booking is organised differently this time - a full-board per person daily rate instead of separate room and meal charges. One of the kitchen staff plays very good piano during dinner!

We kayaked around the island this time, instead of just clawing around in the lagoon like last year. Quite exciting! The waters were choppy as we rounded the ends of the oval-shaped island, and dark and strong on the rocky cliff side that had no beach.

Rain, rain, go away

Matt's school was to have taken them to the zoo yesterday. The weather forecast the day before predicted thunderstorms in the Mandai area. True enough, we all rose to a grey, drizzly morning. So Sean got him to pray for the rain to stop. We also found him singing the "Rain, rain, go away" song to himself while getting ready. He was being terribly excited about the whole idea of the trip. I felt my heart sink.

On the way to school, to prepare him for a very likely disappointment, I said, "Matt, if it rains, you all won't go to the zoo anymore. But it's ok right? Your school will bring you another day."

"Don't worry about the rain," Matt replied, all bright and cheerful. "Just pray!"


They all had a lovely time at the zoo that day.

5 years today

Has it been that fast? The wedding is still quite fresh in my mind. Much has happened and I hope I've improved, but generally I still feel very much like the old me. I think he's improved more than I have in these 5 years.

Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to our dinner date tonight.

------------
UPDATE 14 July 2005

About that dinner date, it was great! I wore the wedding dress and jewellery, but had to get out of the car and cross the road to make our reservation time at Ja'an. Traffic was insane around the Raffles City area because of the International Olympics Committee meeting going on there. I also had to pass through a metal detector in my full regalia - security was at a peak with people like the British PM and French president appearing for the IOC sessions.

Ja'an's a very nice and cosy place. Tiny, with a fantastic view. We could see the roads from Shenton Way to Nicoll highway all snaked up with lights from the crawling cars trying to get home after work or into the city for the night. The padang was also decked out in preparation for the national day celebrations. They must have been doing some technical runs. Laser beams and floodlight spots were alternately sweeping and crossing the air above it, even running directly on the underside of the cloud cover like it was a ceiling! It occurred to me that Batman must have had a problem on clear nights - there wouldn't have been a cloud screen for the signal to show up against.

We were served an unexpected appetizer of samosas with mango dip, compliments of the chef, followed by bread, then our orders of a scallop starter, veal for him and lobster for me, topped off with an orange creme brulee. Yummy! I've to add, they actually billed us for the samosas.

A couple beside us had a digital camera and we got them to take some pictures of us, but we've not heard from them yet...

--------------

UPDATE 25 July 2005

We received the pictures! Nice. But I look like I've a fat face.

Mannly music

More on Aimee Mann's music. I've realized that I cannot appreciate her songs completely when I'm in high spirits. Perhaps it's that twinge of sadness that runs through her material, the way her voice lingers just a moment more than you expect, that tells you all is not as chirpy as the melody suggests. Or maybe it's how you feel she identifies with and expresses pain that's somehow comforting; you feel that she's on your side. Of course, her lyrics are often sarcastic, and sometimes downright blunt - "As we were speaking of the devil, you walked right in" - but as with most music it's the sound itself that carries the emotional tone.

The great thing though, is that it manages avoid falling into the other extreme of despondency by keeping the arrangement and textures light, and the instruments clearly separated. Mann's "Little Bombs", for example, is a shuffling, stifling, introspective number that recalls Natalie Merchant's signature sound, without the overbearing gloom that sometimes afflicts the latter's work. I can just imagine the song in Merchant's Ophelia or Motherland albums, being dragged down by a host of strings.

And Aimee manages this delicate balancing act so expertly throughout her sonic musings. Sweetest in its tragedy, most delicate in its bitterness, she mixes cynicism beautifully with tenderness, resulting in some of the most surprisingly palatable pop I've come across. Just not when I'm perfectly happy...

I've passed! I've passed!!

Yay!!! After 2 semesters of night classes and Saturday morning classes, it's such a great feeling to know I've passed the final exams and have been awarded the Graduate Certificate in Intellectual Property Law (Merit). All right!!!

Now my bond starts.

The Forgotten Arm

Listening to Aimee Mann's new album and thinking of Lu. She's away on seminar for a few days, which gives me time to reflect. And it strikes me how Ms Mann's music reminds me of dear wife. Neither trite nor in-your-face, instead continued company brings about a slow-burning addiction. Strong and articulate, tender and insightful. And there comes the day when it becomes part of you, when you feel nothing more comfortable than to sit and converse all day.

"Beautiful. I wish you could see it too. Baby, how I see you."

I miss you.

Sailing!

How could I forget - I actually took out a Laser last Saturday. I rigged it up according to the manual but of course the old hands running the place simply took it all apart and did it up again. We also met a car forummer there - his daughter sails every weekend. He lent me his gloves as well as a hand with rigging, launching and recovery - many thanks, Paul!

I was a little apprehensive at first but it all came back the moment the little boat set off. Practised several tacks, a few gybes (not fond of those) and had a fine time hiking out on the close-hauled points of sail. It wasn't a gusty day, and the sail was the smallest for the laser - a 4.7 sqm one, so I was never overpowered.

A pair of proper gloves are what I'll certainly need next, as well as a hat with a good-sized brim. Can't wait to go again.

The Boy With The Golden Gun

No, we haven't gotten him one, but Matt told us he wanted to dream of a gun. He always tells us what he wants to dream when he's getting put to bed. The same thing will usually last a short run. It used to be cars, for a good long stretch, then a purple sword, then a firey whip, thanks to the Balrog, and last night, a gun, a golden gun. I wasn't quite for it and asked him with a frown if he was going to kill anybody with it. Matt replied, "Noooo, it's for display only!"

De-bunked.

For now, that is, since Sarah is apt to climb and even more apt to fall. So their convertible new IKEA beds are currently set for singles. I had a grim satisfaction putting together what I could on my own yesterday, back aching, and they're finally sweet. Can't wait for Sarah to grow up a little (but I don't want her to either!) so the beds can stack up and increase the open floor space in their room. Feels a little like a watershed moment. They're simply two children now, not babies anymore.

COOKIE..!! (Ahrm ahrrm ahrrm arrm...)

For the first time in my life, I voluntarily decided to bake cookies. Last time I baked was in secondary one home economics class, very nearly twenty years ago. The things kids drive you to do... Matt's cooped up at home with the rest of us chicken pox cases (luckily very mild ones, less than 5 visible spots each), so I thought we'd try something fun.

Well the recipe (idiot proof one on the back of the Hershey's chocolate chips packaging) was quite a big one, so I made to halve it. I certainly don't see us finishing all 5 dozen cookies as it promised to make! We actually had a roll of cookie sheeting and an electric hand-held whisk in the house already, so after Sean brought home the other ingredients, it was show time!

Expectedly, I forgot to halve the sugar and eggs, and dolloped the mix onto the tray too close, so it all ran together and became one big slab. Luckily still quite tasty! The second batch turned out rather better - with some flour added to the remaining mix, it was less runny, and we put them a little farther apart and Matt popped a Hershey's kiss on each one. I'm proud to say we have one solitary proper cookie, the rest were still connected here and there but were easily separated with a spoon before they cooled and hardened completely.

Anyway, they're out there cooling on the wire racks now, and I've to fend off Matt who's trying to steal them.

(No) wonder(,) woman!

We happened to flip the TV channel to a re-run of Wonder Woman last Sunday morning. Matthew watched Linda Carter in action for a while, robustly full figured in her strapless top and satiny maxi-style, uh, shorts.

"Is that Superwoman?", he finally asked.

"No Matt, that's Wonder Woman."

He continued to watch a bit more.

"Is Wonder Woman Superman's mommy?"

----------

And what does an engineer say when he sees a not-so-well-endowed woman clad Hawaiian style in only shells and a grass skirt?

"The radius of the coconuts are too small."

Ford Focus MkII

I’d been anticipating this drive for so long, it felt strange when the moment finally came. Not that the car was weird or anything, I just wondered if it justified all the hoopla surrounding it…

Legacy
You see, my trusty MkI (but facelifted) Focus has done valiant duty for over three years and 115,000 km now, surviving the occasional g-force abuse and repeated snide comments about reliability and resale value along the way. It’s not let me down yet, and needless to say, I love it to bits. The adventurous styling still looks fresh after more than six years into production, the cabin and boot space are right up there with the best, the controls are simply-laid out with flawless ergonomics, and of course, there’s the drive.

Much has been written about the way the Focus rewrote the rulebooks regarding the way a mass-market family car should negotiate bends, so I’ll be brief. You will search in vain for a more finely honed front-drive chassis costing similar money, or for more precise and confidence-inspiring steering, regardless of asking price. Saying it was the class dynamic benchmark was like saying Michael Jordan was a decent basketball player.

But as with all things, it’s not perfect. The clutch has a high-ish biting point that takes getting used to, the low-speed ride is a little fidgety, wind and road noise kick in surprisingly early, and the 99hp engine lacks low-end grunt. Niggles for sure, and one that left me wondering about the follow-up, especially since the competition has closed the gap considerably in recent years.

Re-introduction
Wednesday was my first meeting with MkII. I can’t say it was love at first sight, because in my mind, the original still looks better. Each line and crease had purpose and destination, while the new car is a smoothened chocolate bar by comparison. Oh, and did someone say ‘Mondeo’? We had a chance to see both siblings side by side, and I’m convinced Ford saved a lot of design time by simply shrinking the Mondy’s front and rear lights, and morphing the bigger car to fit the new Ford/Volvo/Mazda chassis. After making cutting edge looks acceptable to the mainstream, this is nothing short of a regression. It manages to be handsome especially on the lovely five-spoke 17” wheels, but the Renault Megane and Opel Astra are far more striking.

Inside things are just as conservative. In an effort to out-Golf the Golf, Ford has gone the whole hog to make the dash look, well, boring. Straight lines and right angles replace swoops and slashes, and only anoraks would be able to see the oval vents as a visual nod to the previous car. The major controls are quite lovely to touch, and the top of the dash is moulded from soft feel materials. But move away from the driver’s personal space and things start turning quite grim. Scratchy plastics on the doors and ill-fitting door handle surrounds aren’t convincing at all.

And what’s this – blank switches? Now while most of you will not be surprised at having buttons in cars that don’t actually do anything, let it be known that my Focus has no blanks at all, and not because it was top-spec either. When a particular function wasn’t available, what the designers did was to combine two switches into one big button, rendering the whole ‘blank’ problem moot. And now… um, I’ve already said ‘regression’, haven’t I?

But my biggest static problem with the new car is the boot. Sure, the sedan is now actually prettier than the hatch (an odd reversal of fortunes compared with the MkI), but with the less frumpy looks there’s only 465 litres of luggage space, compared with the previous 490 litres. And what’s worse, it will not be able to swallow my daughter’s child seat upright, due to the reduced height. The hatch claims the largest boot in it’s class, on the other hand – 385 litres – and while it’s deep, it could again benefit from being a little taller. Blame the inclusion of a full size spare then.

So I walked away that day feeling slightly disappointed. It would need to produce a hell of a drive to impress.

Acid Test
At last on Saturday I got to do more than prod and poke at the plastics. Launch day saw us being ushered into a darkened room with loud music and lots of smoke. And amidst all the rah-rah-ing, the black curtain pulled back to reveal more static cars. Great. I left the others to ooh and ahh, and headed straight for a test drive. Along the way, I struck up a conversation with another current Focus owner, who agreed with my less-than-glowing initial impressions of the car. Sharing the same SE, he hopped into the test car as well when my turn came up. Not a wise move, my friend…

Now it may look different, but the new cabin certainly works as well as the old. If anything, there’s a better all-round range of adjustment for both seat and wheel, so I can avoid the slightly high-perched driving position of my own car. A wheelbase stretch of 25mm to 2640mm also means those at the back are just that bit more comfortable. And the middle rear passenger isn’t subjected to a head massage from the roof lining, an affliction of both the Volvo and Mazda cousins.

The information display between the chrome-ringed dials is a useful step up, telling you exactly which door isn’t properly closed, and thus avoiding those embarrassing circling-and-slamming routines I’ve had to endure. The left indicator stalk lets you fool around with the standard trip computer’s geeky details, while at the same time switches the gearbox’s behaviour between ‘Adaptive’ and ‘Sport’. I left it in the latter setting and hoped for the best.

The autobox allows for manual shifts, as well as the lazy ‘D’. The good news is that the quality of the shifts are excellent – butter-smooth and near-indiscernible. The bad news is that the speed of gear-swapping leaves much to be desired – I guess by ‘Sport’ Ford must have been referring to chess.

Not that the engine helped much. In yet another brilliant marketing move, Regent Motors decided to bring in the weedy 100hp engine variant, as opposed to its high-tech, variable-valve timing 115hp alternative. So between the gearbox’s leisurely responses, powerplant’s lack of power and the extra weight, you could quite rightly conclude that building up momentum isn’t one of the new Focus’ fortes.

But once at speed things brighten considerably. The cabin remains quiet and relaxed, apart from a little engine noise. The new electro-hydraulic steering works well, and being speed-sensitive means that it remains light at parking speeds, while weighting up nicely at higher velocities. Slowing down is not a problem either, the brakes being both meaty and progressive. And very effective – the afore-mentioned Focus owner must have regretted his decision to join me when I did an unannounced ABS test.

And when we entered some corners, the Focus really rolled up its sleeves and dug in. The chassis at once stable and nimble, with fabulous body control, accomplishing whatever you ask of it without batting an eyelid. It comes with ESP (Electronic Stability Programme) as standard, and the system reacts to on-the-limit situations such as a wet road, by easing off the throttle and braking the appropriate wheels where necessary. It works flawlessly but I suspect on a dry road under good circumstances one could do without it, because the balance of the car is so inherently predictable.

I attacked the same corner a couple of times, going faster each round, but the Focus just tucked in and shrugged it off, providing fine adjustability all the way. When the chassis, steering, throttle and brakes work in concert like this, you have more time to think and react to the conditions, instead of fighting the car’s waywardness. And that is why I’ll take active safety over a gazillion airbags any day.

The one dynamic disappointment was the level of absolute grip available - I took on the same bends in my car after the test and pulled through with much less squealing rubber. Okay, I’ll put that down to the comfort-oriented nature of the test car’s tyres and their higher profile (195/65-15 vs 195/60-15 of the MkI). The new Focus looks like a sissy anyway on 15” wheels, upgrade to 16”s or better yet 17”s if you get the chance.

Decisions
The Focus sedan costs $76,900 at launch, while the hatch commands an additional $1,000 premium. At this price, the Megane and Astra are it’s closest competition. Citroen’s C4 should be in the fight, but is absurdly $10,000 dearer, straying perilously close the Golf territory. If one was looking for a hatch, I’d have to bite my lip and go with the Opel. It’s far better-looking than the Focus, is generally better finished inside, and more importantly, has a superior engine gearbox combination. The Renault has the most comfortable ride of the bunch and the most toys, but the shortened wheelbase compared with the saloon robs it of valuable space.

However,there isn’t an Astra 4 door (yet), so if a sedan is needed then the choice is between the Focus and Megane. Here the French car wins the space race, especially in the boot, which is positively massive. The Focus though is not just wheeled transport, it’s a driving tool. And for keen drivers you still cannot find a better car in its class. The newcomer has been honed to achieve a refinement the MkI lacked, and yet its dynamic attributes are as precise as ever. I know I’d pick the Focus, but it wins only by a razor-thin margin.

Kimi's Humour

I love reading Kimi Raikkonen's press conferences, watching them are another matter - his mumbles are mostly indecipherable, so I leave those to the experts to translate. Anyway, he's no toastmaster, so his answers tend to be totally to the point, and refreshingly-free from BS. Here's another gem, taken from Wednesday's Monaco GP pre-race press conference. This journalist obviously hasn't been following the 2003-4 seasons, where McLaren's spectacular unreliability resulted in many a thrown steering wheel and pushed marshall...

Q: (Byron Young - Speed Sport News) Kimi, have you ever got angry about anything, and jumped up and down and shouted?
Raikkonen: Yeah, many times but of course you're not happy if you retire or something but I guess it mostly happens more in normal life than in racing.
Q: (Byron Young - Speed Sport News) Can you give us examples?
Raikkonen: No, not really.
Q: (Byron Young - Speed Sport News) What are the kind of things that make you angry in normal life, as you say?
Raikkonen: If you keep asking (questions like those)...