Hot Wheels

I bought a new car last week, a Mazda 626, 1997 model with 123,000 miles, or a Mahzda as my Canadian friend calls it. (FYI, the Canadian dollar pulled even with the US dollar last week. Thought you should know.)

I hate buying cars. Why do we allow the practice of car selling to continue as it does in the USA? For me it is the same as going to the corner store for a tube of toothpaste. The tube has a list of features on the price tag and then the price of $12. A salesperson talks to you about the chloride etc and even lets you brush once with the toothpaste. Then you offer $3 for the toothpaste and they "go to bat" for you against their manager, to get him/her to agree to the lower price. (Please!!! Honestly, I once had a sales lady use this term when I wouldn't sign a hastily scrawled contract saying I would buy the car if she could get the trade price for my pickup that I wanted)

Eventually, you pay $6.50 for the the toothpaste, plus tag, title and tax ($8.12 out the door). As you sit on your hemmorhoid donut on the way home, you manage to convince yourself you paid the right price for the toothpaste.

Why is this legal? Can't they just markup cars like they markup products at any store and tell you the price? Why should the price you pay be contingent on your ability to 'drive a hard bargain'?

Anyway, I paid $3500 (out the door, or on the road as they say in MY) for my car and feel that is an OK price. No bargain, mind you, but I don't think I got taken. If you think otherwise, please don't tell me and allow me to live the delusion that is my life. Thanks for you cooperation.

The long anticipated Mataking-Sipadan photos

Before I left Malaysia I knew I wanted to dive Sipadan, the most famous of Malaysian dive sites. I also spent 4 days diving another island in the area, Mataking. I finally figured out my camera (arrgghh!) and got some great underwater shots. Nudibranch

Clown frogfish. There are two of them. I only noticed that after I looked at the photo because my dive master was in such a hurry.

A huge school of jack or big-eye trevally.

Giant frogfish-yes there is a fish in this picture.

Purple-fringed flatworm.

This turtle was in Mataking but you see about 8-10 turtles PER DIVE in Sipadan.

My dive buddy, Rombout (a Dutch guy who was staying at Seaventures).

Whitetip reef shark resting in the current. There are lots of these at Sipadan, sometimes you can see 10 or more on a single dive. And no, not dangerous or aggressive, unless you are trying to eat bloody, raw steak.