Although it meant missing out on dinner with my car buddies (i.e. not the car buddies that I work with every day), I caught up with a couple members of the TMR team last night for dinner at Lucky’s, in Hawthorn. Excellent food, and actually a really well-designed place.

I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t get any photos of the restaurant itself, but I intend to eat there again sometime in the near future, so I’ll grab some more shots next time.

Above, my black pepper beef dinner. Below the break, a few more photos.

Steane, about to get stuck into his extremely hot chicken dish (EHDC).

"Huh huh huh, did you get my finger in the photo? Did ya?"

This is actually really good beer.

Hoo-rah, that’s all.

I tell you what, these clever Chinese, they’re hooking into all the special days. Last year it was Chinese New Year on January 26 - also Australia Day - and this year it’s Valentine’s Day!

Wow, that comes across as sort of racist. Curse this hypersensitive age we live in.

Moving on, I grabbed a quick lunch on Sunday with my buddy Jac before returning to the office to work on the new TMR website.

Get a load of this grotty barely-washed glass the twats at China Bar served our complimentary tap water in.

And what the hell is up with Chinese restaurants apparently assuming that because I’m white, I don’t want a thermos (I love the thermos) of nice hot tea like all the non-white tables around me? Why do I get a glass of water? Jerks. Ask me what I want.

On the plus side, those dumplings at the top of this post? Yeah, we didn’t order those, and nor did we pay for them. But we sure did eat ‘em.

Above; Here’s the entree we did actually order; two pieces of Peking duck. Jac accidentally ate them both, the silly great cow. The look on her face as I guffawed at her cramming the second one into her mouth, and she suddenly realised she’d accidentally devoured both pieces… classic.

Below; Jac’s Mongolian Beef, which I hilariously assumed was my satay chicken and started munching. Really must pay better attention next time, and learn the difference between beef, chicken, Mongolian and satay.

Below; My satay chicken. Tastier than Mongolian beef, but not half as pretty. Next time, I’m demanding dainty carrot slices.

Below; my mango ice tea. The syrup kept settling at the bottom, and of course I kept sipping at it while the straw was at the bottom. Mouthful of syrup, not so great. Note: next time, bring a cocktail shaker.

And that was that. After lunch, I headed back to the office to continue working on the new version of TMR, which we completed at around 9pm and launched just before midnight. Now that’s organisation.

Dinner at Mocha Jo’s with a friend last night. Warm Thai beef salad, for the both of us.

Oh, but I do love this one. If it were a steak, you’d call the meat medium-rare. I might even see if they’ll make it straight rare next time. Why wouldn’t they?

Mangolicious fruit shake. A touch of honey in there too, I think.

If only I still had the red three-door when I spotted this previous generation red three-door!

I’m sorry, Golf V lovers, but the Golf VI is your superior in every way. Time to upgrade, friends.

Hey, who said blog posts had to be useful? But there’s a couple more after the jump, if there’s something wrong with you.

And here’s a macro shot I took in the GTI a couple of days ago. Pocket cams are getting damn good these days…

Now I’m off for a run, adios.

As a motoring journo, I get to kick around in some pretty special cars. It’s not the highest paying gig in the world, to be honest, so it’s perks like these that make it worthwhile. (until it comes time to buy a house, and then getting to drive nice cars becomes fairly useless to you!)

Because I’m TMR’s News Editor, I don’t do many reviews anymore. Running the news simply takes too much of my time as it is, so squeezing in a review each week is more than I can take on. Because of this, I usually only get the cars for a day or two.

This week, I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on the latest generation Golf GTI, thanks to Volkswagen Australia being only too aware of my obsession with the new Golf.

It’s a special car. I haven’t taken any photos of it yet, but it’s the three-door version of the car in this post. Admittedly the steering wheel’s on the wrong side, but hey - you get the drift.

Our review of the car will come in the next couple of weeks and I’ll be sure to post a link here, but I’ll say for now that this is just one very, very special car. Excellent power, excellent torque, amazing handling straight out of the box…

I used to drive a Golf IV GTI, and I went through periods of loathing its lack of power to absolutely adoring its handling. I always loved the build quality and style and interior, though.

This car… it’s just the whole package. I can’t say enough good things about it. Beautiful interior, great styling - especially with that grille, an homage to the first Golf GTI - and of course the power and handling.

Can’t wait for the next generation! But even more than that, I can’t wait until the Golf R - the more powerful, all-wheel-drive sibling to the GTI - arrives later this year.

I’m not 100 percent sure that I understood correctly, but… I think I’ve been invited to the 2010 Australian F1 Grand Prix in March. Is it still in March? Heck if I know…

And it’s all thanks to Craig Lowndes and that bloody Roary the Race Car. It’s no Thomas the Tank Engine, but then I guess Thomas could never get me invited to the F1, either.

Man, that makes three years in a row. I don’t even LIKE F1 all that much. But I DO like walking around and checking out all the classic cars and retired race cars on display around the outside of the track. So that’ll make it worth it.

Now, I just need to find out if I was actually invited or if I completely misunderstood!

Boys that needed a shower and a damn good sleep.

Here’s a few simple photos from a recent weekend away with my fellow motoring scribes. As you can see from the shot about, we took a Range Rover Sport, Land Rover Discovery 4 and a Jeep Wrangler off on a weekend of bashing around the Victorian countryside. ‘Twas as good a weekend as one can ask for, to be honest.

A few more shots after the break.

Tony, our review editor. The guy knows cars.

Kez, one of our reviewers.

Above: Craig’s Hut, which was built specifically for the film The Man From Snowy River.

It was a great weekend. We stayed the night in what was literally a beat-up old unfinished guest house which had apparently been repurposed as a storage shed about 30 years ago.

Dust, creaky and sparse floor boards, dust, military-like bedding, dust, and poorly sealed and insulated walls. Plus, dust. That was more or less the shape of the accommodations.

Frankly, I loved it. But our tagalong friend Martin? Not so much! He’s a delicate boy, our Martin. Used to somewhat classier lodgings, I fear.

But he made it through the night, got drunk with the rest of us and swears to me that he had a great time. I’m happy to believe him.

The only real downside in my book was that, even with Telstra - which it reckons covers about 99 percent of the country - I had no phone coverage except for at the very top of the mountain… some 1500 metres above sea level.

While I absolutely loved camping and trailbiking as a kid - on the rare occasion that we went - I’ve definitely become accustomed to connectivity in my later years…

Hey folks,

In the hunt for a little extra cash in 2010, I’m shooting myself in the foot and offering a special deal! My foot’s killing me, but your wallet will thank you. (How’s that for a catchy line, eh?)

What’s this deal about then? In simple terms; I will create for you a business logo and business card design for $300.

Please note, however, that this is a phenomenally cheap rate for a professionally designed, scalable and print-prepared identity design and business card combination. Unless you go to a fresh-out-of-university design graduate or one of those Indian logo websites, you won’t find a designer with my years of experience offering a deal like this.

So the question becomes: what is your businesses’ identity worth to you? After all, it’s often the first impression your potential customers get of your business - so why not make the right impression? That’s worth spending on.

Above: my own personal identity

Because of the very low rate, requested revisions/changes to your logo design will be limited. Obviously my main priority and goal is to ensure that you’re pleased with the end result, but I ask that you exercise some decency in remembering the good ol’ "you get what you pay for" rule.

I won’t seek to rip anyone off by giving them a logo whipped up in 10 minutes, and I expect the same courtesy in return.

This is an ideal offering for small businesses that recognise the need for a professional image in today’s flooded market but can’t justify the (frankly huge) costs usually associated with researching and developing a business identity.

What’s Involved?

Please ensure that you read all of this properly, as it will help save us both from any misunderstandings later.

• Officially, I am not offering any revisions to the logo - i.e. if you request changes, it could cost you more. That said, if the changes are minor, I’m happy to do that for free.
• To improve the chances of my clients getting a logo they can be totally happy with, I’m asking clients to "help me help you". In other words, the more information you give me about the logo, the better the odds of you liking the end result.
• If you want to go ahead with the offer, I need you to have a proper think about the styles you like - look around the net at the logos of other companies, well-known brands, etc - as well as colour preferences, font types (classic, modern, futuristic, etc), and things like that.
• If it’s for a business, tell me a bit about the business so I can get an idea of what your industry is about. That can help in a big way.
• One of my clients responded to the above requirement by sending me 15 logos he liked the look of, as well as a couple of paragraphs about his business and the industry he works in. Now that is serious commitment to getting the job done right.
• With the deal I’m offering, I try to offer two options - however, if it’s a complicated project and the first option takes me 5 or 6 hours to come up something worth showing, you can imagine I’m not going to spend much time on a second option (if I were billing hourly, 5 or so hours is about what $300 gets you).

So the main thing I stress to my clients is that, yes, this deal is a bit of a gamble for you when it comes to being sure you’ll like what you get, but I can only remind that any discussion with another designer with my years of experience will demonstrate just how expensive branding can be in a regular scenario.

Feel free to shoot me an email to discuss options: localmike[at]gmail.com. Switch the ‘[at]‘ with the @ symbol, of course.

Previous identity work can be viewed at my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/van/sets/72157623018040556/

Thanks folks!