Week Fifty CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA!

Well, for any regular readers who know that this column is being published later than normal today and read last week’s; I told MeJulie I was going to Las Vegas for CES and LIVED! I did choose the moment carefully, in public, a shopping mall and after buying her something sparkly (no not diamonds.. I wish..) and also, crucially, a cup of tea.
I have been getting lots of mails from all sorts of tech companies as you tick the areas you are interested in. I find a few different things fascinating, as well as my deepest and first love of car audio. One of those is medical sensor technology.
Now, I want to tell you a tale of yester year. A lad, called John who shared his surname with Royce of Rolls fame and in my opinion has to carry some top end engineering genes, had a car. It was small and had active rear suspension that could bounce it up and down. In fact it looked worryingly ‘˜bonky’ when John made it bounce.
He had two huge Mmats subwoofers in it, in a wall behind his head and small but absurdly potent Mmats amps in the back under the tailgate. I wanted to do a feature and as the subs are called Juggernauts, we went to the M1/A1 South Mimms lorry park. As we set up, a huge juggernaut pulled in. I asked the driver if we could use his truck as a background and told him we were working for Max Power magazine. He said, ‘oh this is not the BIG one, I just carry the ballast. For THE CRANE.’ He said it, like that, in capitals, for yes, it was the tender to a Guinness World Record holding crane on wheels. It was HUGE. And it was happy to be in our shoot and could adopt side angles like John’s little red hatchback. It was a huge hit.
Years later, I got his car sponsored by Spearmint Rhino and he and his fully graphic-laden car would bonk the streets around Brum, and did cause quite a stir as you DID hear him coming. It was pre-rules about such things. That turned into a job that took his life over, went kind of strange and he decided to get out came to London and met the girl he was later to wed. I and MeJulie went to their wedding. I have even forgiven him for riding in a stretched Ferrari, thus perpetuating the poor car’s living horror. (I can see a Pixar car waking up from the operation and wailing, ‘What-a have-a they DONE to-a Mia!?’)
And again, another H.G. Wellian time-slip later, he has a job as fly-in/fly-out mining plant operator and manager and lives in Perth, Australia and has a nice house and a small daughter. Little Caitlyn has a Hummer H2. Daddy is doing ever so well. Really, it’s a toy one. And I am going to help him source a set of 5.25in components, a set of 6×9 ovals and a small four channel amp and finally a retracting screen 1-DIN DVD head unit to go in it.
Of course, while we put snowy scene screen savers on our phones and go into pubs with hanging cotton wool pretend snow as well as lights, Down Under, they wear Santa suits in 30-degree Centigrade-plus heat, as it is high summer. I think it must be the true test for a Northern Hemisphere Boy adjusting. I actually get calls from him on his mobile (!) from time to time, so will have to ask what another prawn on the barbie for Christmas is like.
Meanwhile, take care when it gets icy and start thinking about the possibility of winter tyres. I had a set of Yokohamas fitted two years back that are about used up. I am going to see what I can do about replacing them and report back.
Enjoy your Christmas shopping forays and stay patient with the idiot motorists.
Adam Rayner On Line Editor