Give me a compass, not your compass

AUDI R8 V10 SPYDER review

Not for nothing does it say in the Good Book that ask, and ye shall receive, and the Audi R9 V10 Spyder is proof. You see, I well remember driving the R8 v8 hard top for the first time and thinking to myself, “Nice car, shame the roof doesn’t fold. And if they would just give it more power…”

Well looky here now. Where the first of all R8s mustered 420bhp from it’s 4.2-litre V8, the V10 spyder conjures 525bhp from 5.2 litres. Thank you, Audi. And, of course, at the risk of stating the flipping obvious, it’s called a ‘Spyder’ because the roof disappears. It does so nice and quickly, too, and hides under a sylish cover to leave to trace of its ever having been there.

At the same time, the erected roof looks so tautly and securely stretched over the cabin that if you can convince someone to close his eyes while you hold the relevant button down for 19 seconds, he’ll swear that you switched cars on him instead of converting the same one from closed to open.

This overhead magic can be worked at speeds of up to 50kph (one of the many benefits of using fabric instead of the metal folding roof, which is rubbish, the other benefits being low weight and ease of packaging), which makes for the sort of spectacle that suctions eyeballs out of sockets. Mind you, the R8 Spyder causes enough of a stir just sitting there, It looks mighty fine, and not an Emma Watson, understated sort of fine. Passers gawk and take pictures and MMS them to their friends immediately. No dog on Earth would draw up alongside to hoist a leg and use it for a toilet. It’s just that visually tasty.

Nor are the other senses neglected. Sitting just inches ahead of that big V10, you’re in the best seats for the most amazing engine howl, the uncommon cylinder population back there giving rise to a strange, delicious blend of notes. Savouring too much of the sound would mean trouble, though, for the R8 id viciously quick. Doubling the national speed limit should take about 10 seconds, so you’ll need restraint, or damn good eyesight. Ironically, the V10 makes for the better in-town progress than the V8, because the torque-everywhere power delivery of the former makes for smoother progress than the revvy nature of the latter. The ride is surprisingly plush too, so it’s not hard to think of the V10 spyder as everyday transport.

You’ll have to live with a gearbox that tests your neck muscles however. The six-speed R-tronic semi-auto in the R8 feels like a generation behind the latest twin-clutch stuff in terms of shift smoothness, leaving you to basically choose between lurching and violent gearshifts. And while the R8 isn’t a difficult car the drive, one suspects that it would be difficult to drive well. Agile as it is, the chassis is extremely sensitive to steering and throttle inputs, so if you’re less than silky with either, the Audi is going to feel downright twitchy. Ultimately though, the driving experience delivers on what the styling promises, and then some. There’s constant excitement, essentially.

Thing is, in return for giving us a faster, topless R8, AUdi is also asking a lot. $705,000 (with COE) worth of a lot, to be precise. That’s probably chump change to a target buyer, but it also puts the R8 V10 into competition with some properly tasty stuff. A Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet springs to mind. It’s quicker, has tons more motorsports pedigree, and its gearbox doesn’t behave like the mental patients I had in IMH. Or for a price leap of roughly 10%, there’s the Mercedes SLS AMG, which has more power, is easier to drive fast, and even more visually arresting. Then there’s the Ferrari California, which loses out because it’s a Ferrari, which means you get bucketloads of science and math guaranteed with zero passion. And it means you have got to have no penis at all or you would have to be an ape to buy that.

This will sound impossible to please, but at this sort of pricing the R8 V10 Spyder doesn’t make as much sense at the original R8 V8 did, even though the Spyder delivers precisely what I longed for from the start. You know what they say : Be careful what you wish for.

I’m starting to really wonder why do I stay with those people after training. Not much of a point staying if all they do is tell you things like “Oh you aren’t supposed to know.” Once or twice is fine but of every single topic there’s a secret! If it was a secret then what’s the point of saying it in the first place?! I feel so distant from the people there. In NRA, there isn’t much use in dancing well, it’s whether people there like you or not. I’m not afraid to say this not because nobody from NRA will read but because it’s a well known fact. Anyway, nobody reads this anymore so I can’t be bothered. Promotion in the NRA isn’t about skill, it’s always about whether the head likes you. There are people in the C class who are worse than some in MY class! Moral of the story? No much use showing how good you are in there. We have people who dance like handicapped chickens and still have a good reputation in there and those who are good but not recognised. Those recognised are normally those who show off. Dance isn’t about who can hype on the floor, it isn’t about being an ape in there, it’s about humility. If the NRA wants everyone to show off their skills, wouldn’t that be going against what a dancer should be?

Hey sis, I’m dedicating this post just for you. I wanna thank you for all those years of listening to my crap, my tears and my problems. You’ve seen every side of me, even when I was really angry. Yet you still stuck by me, I’m really fortunate to have a sis like you. Now when I recall back, I feel so grateful for all the times you were around for me. Those days that you made sure I messaged you every single day, The days where you’d just stay on the phone to hear me out and having to handle some of my problems. I really appreciate the support you’ve given me, despite not getting along well with XY that time, you still defended me and stood by me. Thank you for the many, many things you have done for me. I hope you are doing well in your attachment, final step towards poly life. Do well in your ITE, I’ll be there to hear and hold you out whenever you need. I hope I’ve been a good brother to you, I haven’t seen you in years and I miss you. Thank you for hearing me out these few days where I’ve been emotionally unstable, where I’ve been thinking of things that I shouldn’t be thinking of. Thank you for not giving up on me and still hearing me out. Very few are willing to do that. It’s only you, Janicia and two more people. Sooner or later, as much as I hope not, I predict that number to drop. You four, you know who you are. I wanna thank you guys for hearing my rubbish. Don’t ever think that just because one or two may not know me well, you’d be insignificant to me. I’ll never think that way about anyone, thank you all for being there. I love you all, really. :) sorry pardon my post, I had to post this despite feeling like a zombie now. My brain’s dying, can’t think well. :(

I find it funny how many think they are happy or strong when they are with a big group of friends. I’ve the biggest group of friends in my lecture class but I don’t find myself happy there. This is the perception for the little mutts we see sitting at the void deck of many HDBs. They think they are strong in a group, which is actually about the same as them declaring they are useless when they are alone. The difference between them and normal people I know is that firstly, we do not go causing trouble or fighting. Secondly, I do not go telling all my clique members about every single thing, I’m selective of who I tell my things to, just to who i trust or who I feel I can trust. Lastly, we are not brown. Sorry, a little racialism there. Psychology and Sociology paper is in 5 hours and I’m still not studying. Instead I’m here like some columnist wannabe ranting about my views. Happy anniversary baby! :D It’s been a great 7 months. Good luck for your exams as well. Although I know by the time you read this I’d be 670 years old. Can’t wait to see you later. I’m peeing from my butt again :( I really loathe diarrhoea.

Why do I dance? This is a question that I’ve been asked countless times, and also one that I always think of myself. Do I dance to express? Or to impress? I’ve been into dance for 2 years now and pretty obviously I’m still not up to my own expectations, but after all this time I still cannot find a reason in it? Strange. This may be a very small, unimportant topic to many but it means a lot to me. It’s something I used to love, a lot. Dance used to be something I looked forward to, an outlet that I could just channel everything to, a place where I can be someone I wanna be, something I can use to let loose. Those were my streetdance days. Then it made me want to learn more - housing, breaking, hip hop, locking, popping, LA. That was when dancing was the most thrilling and fun. Then I entered into NRA last year. That made me waver a little, seeing the different types of dance and culture there. I quitted it immediately, there were no challenges, there wasn’t gonna be any danzation and there is just too much politics. This year, I joined in again. Many great dancers are in this batch, I gotta admit. What happened to me? I stopped for an entire year, letting my pride completely consume my motivation to session or even practice. With my winning my school’s dance presentation feeding my ego, it made me complacent. The clinical depression I got also made me lose interest in it briefly. Next year heralds another year of danzation, and I’m not prepared for it. I can’t even handle a normal routine, I make a fool out of myself, I forget steps, I embarrass myself. I feel like a tiny shadow of how I used to be, as tiny as how shadows appear when the sun’s almost vertical at 2pm. Okay after posting this all out, I shall not look back anymore, that’s the past. Who I used to be is who I used to be, I’m starting from scratch, no more letting my pride get in the way, no more excuses. To all those who have ever called me a noob, watch me, I will triumph over you all. Arrogance is like a cancer, it consumes without much of your knowledge, I’ve gone through that. So watch it consume you. I know some of you guilty ones are reading this, so I’ll repeat. Mock me while you can, your time is limited, I will not let my pride get in the way again. I promise, I will come back. During then, we’ll see who gets the last laugh.

Jealousy. It’s a really stupid emotion isn’t it? It can drive one up the wall, make one resort to cruel acts, but on the same token, it can also motivate one to do better. It’s such an ambiguous emotion, impossible to tell if it’s good or bad. Most would agree it’s bad mainly because jealousy entices anger, encourages the weak to resort to cunning acts. As a songwriter for years, I haven’t been able to touch on the topic of jealousy because of it’s controversy. As I view all walks of life, I notice a trend of pretentious people and that’s worrying because it makes me not want to talk to them. Transfer that into the context of cars, it’s like having a perfect 670 horsepower lamborghini murcielago SV fitted with a true carbon fibre spoiler that came out some time back, and then this breed came where they only bought cheap cars, tune it to sound like a massive cow’s fart coming out of the exhaust and add tonnes of cheap, heavy steel spoilers on the car to make it look aggressive. I may be too young to say this but the world is changing so much in such a short span of time. Generations by generations, as people reproduce they produce the same product visually but mentally, the young are developing what we got when we were teens. Do we have a phone when we were in kindergarten? Now those people have one, not sure what’s it for, probably to listen to their little phoenics or call for their diaper service. The PSLE papers are getting harder as well. But quite ironically, the Ns aren’t! Was teaching my cousin yesterday and I swear, I have never seen a paper easier than that, even in my secondary 1. Have we comcluded that the younger generation are smarter? No, I remember MY Os to be harder since I didn’t take the revised syllabus. So is it right to say that the generation under me are stupid? Also, no. It’s the government’s multiple attempts to try and push stupid people like some mutts up so that they won’t be a potential deviance to the society, like society needs them anyway. My aunt is one of them, she made a taxi driver compensate $500 just for a mirror damage that only costed $60, which is only half the price of one of the car models I own. How can somebody bear to extort that excess $440 from a TAXI DRIVER?! How much does he have to drive to even earn that money back after paying his rental and desiel charges? My conscience would have prevented me from even letting that come out of my mouth much less extend my hand out. So now we’ve seen that some older people are still blockheads, like my aunt, and that some young people are also equally ‘intelligent’, like my cousin. Either there is a dip in intelligence after every alternative generation, or, like mother like son. Very soon, things that we have or used to have will be gone, like movies, or telephone, or maybe even the old mp3 we used to have in our pockets. Our technology in the future generations are anachronistic. Sorry, I’m really bored and since I’ve just deleted a few posts, I just had to fill this up.