MyGTI

Shameless, I know, but might as well plug my bro’s newly renamed band, The Felons. Catch them before they get famous.

For the past few months I’ve been immersing myself in the new and scary world of PHP, mySQL and the fantastic osCommerce open source e-commerce system. Oh, and not to mention learning how to drive PhotoShop.

This is all ‘cos I volounteered myself to help out a friend who co-owns a snowboard shop in Sheffield. He was looking for someone to redesign his existing osCommerce website to give it more modern, and professional yet approachable feel that more reflected the personalities of the guys who work there.

So, like I said, after a few months of locking myself in a darkened room, and a final weekend’s push we have got the site live TODAY!

So here ya go …Slide Snowboard Store. The best darned snowboard shop in the world.

Lately I’ve been helping a friend out setting up an online shop. Part of that has involved looking for a web hosting company with whom to host the PHP & MySQL based site. We went with UK2 as they seemed to offer a good price on the domain, and a lot of good features.

However, since then I’ve discovered a company called 34sp, who not only offer fantastically priced hosting, but are also based in my home town of Manchester, UK. They offer full, personal MySQL & PHP hosting from £17.95 per month. And they also have a hot girl on the home page. A winning combo I think.

I recently broke out of my 10 year obsession with the VW brand in favour of a proper grown up Audi. Consequentially my interest in things Audi has increased dramatically. I was very excited recently to see that Audi enthusiast website Fourtitude (get it?) recently posted a fantastic feature on a rather nice S6 (or urS6 for those in the know). Ron Tomlinson has taken a ‘95.5 (late 1995) model Audi S6, and the last in the line of US-bound ‘old-school’ 5-cylinder turbo models, and turned it into something of a street sleeper. His UsurperS6 really is something quite special.

For my taste I think I’d dispense with the OZ wheels in favour of something OEM (perhaps a pristine set of 17″ C5 chassis S6 wheels), and perhaps return the grille back to something more stock looking. Either way, it’s still a Very Nice Car indeed.

I think I’ve put it off long enough now. Since the arrival of my urS4, the GTI has been sitting on my drive looking rather sorry for itself, with only the odd little spin out somewhere. It doesn’t help that it’s not actually insured at the moment, so if I do want to go out somewhere in it I have to sort out insurance - most often through the fantastic DayInsure who let you insure pretty much any car (providing you are over 25) for round about £10 per day. Brilliant idea!

Even so, having two cars when there is only me to use them both is kind of silly, plus the GTI is going to be coming up for its MOT test any day now AND require taxing at a cost of about £100 for 6 months … SO, it’s looking like about time the Golf went up for sale.

Big question is how, and it what form? Do I unbolt all my goodies from it and return it to bone stock? Or do i sell it “as is”? Do I eBay it? Autotrader? Or perhaps try using one of popular VW forums like the one at ClubGTI or Edition 38?

And then of course there’s that extra difficult decision of how much to ask for her! Hmm … easier just to do nothing I think.

After a few more months in the wilderness I am finally back in action, and I managed to reset my password! More to come later.