After an intensive four week campaign, our unit sold at auction on Saturday! I’d say that the experience gave me a renewed confidence in the ethics and professionalism of real estate agents. If you’re looking to sell in the eastern suburbs give Zak Stojanovski a call on 0408 057 509.

Tonight Elaine and I went down to the Mercy hospital to visit my brother’s new kid. Both mother and baby are doing well. The little tacker didn’t even wake the whole time we were there… I guess he probably had a pretty rough day.

Mum and bub.

My brother’s a dad. Weird concept.

With Uncle Paul.

Claudie, Christian and Grandma.

Their first family portrait.

To Kevin and Claudie, a huge congratulations for creating something so wonderful. To Christian, welcome to this world. You’ll always be able to rely on uncle Paul to show you a good time =)

At 10am this morning my brother and his wife welcomed into the world Christian Thia. Here’s the first photo of the young feller taken by his proud dad.

I’ll be heading down to the hospital tonight to catch up with the happy family, so more photos of my brand spanking new nephew can definitely be expected.

Last Christmas Elaine treated me to a voucher for a track day at the Calder Park Thunderdome, the only Superspeedway oval outside the US. Today I finally unwrapped that present.

Despite being a big time racing fan, I’ve never been close to an AUSCAR, let alone a NASCAR. So after arriving at about 8:30, I gleefully donned my racing suit and wandered around gawking at the awesome racing machines.

After a quick safety and driving technique brief I finally got to jump in a Holden Monaro AUSCAR to take it for a spin. The first few laps were done slowly at about 3000rpm, which equates to only about 120kph. This was done to help refine my technique and familiarise me with the driving lines. When my instructor was confident enough to let me loose I planted my foot and took the car somewhere in the vicinity of 200kph. With the banked corners and seemingly unlimited grunt under the bonnet, it was unlike any form of driving I had experienced previously.

Having just had my first experience in a real AUSCAR, Marshall Brewer (a former Superspeedway champion) took me for a few hot laps in a Winston Cup NASCAR. The way he threw the car around the track, despite the near proximity of the two other vehicles, reinforced my long held belief that race car drivers are both exceptionally brave and moderately insane.

With the morning’s driving over and still craving for more horsepower, Elaine, Luke and I headed across to the Calder Park National Circuit to have a look at a car club’s track day. That certainly put things in perspective.

I’ve been into cars for ages, so it was so great that Elaine provided me the opportunity to live like a race car driver for a morning. It’s something that I’d recommend any wife/girlfriend to buy for her husband/boyfriend. You can check out the details at http://www.fastrackracing.com.au/.