Spooky You'll recall from two entries ago that I rambled on at length about Claire, shark-attacks, apparent-but-not-quite resurrection (because the kid wasn't really dead, you see) and then spent a goodly amount of text singing the praises of the good folks at Maranello near Modena in Italy, home of the legendary Ferrari. Well, it seems that the good folks at Sant'Agata in Bologna in Italy have stepped up to the plate. Yesterday, for the first time ever, I got up-close and almost personal with a shiny black massive brand spanking new Lamborghini Murciélago. In the carpark, at my mom's office, literally over the road from the Ferrari Shop in Cape Town. Fuck me was it ever awesome. I don't even want to know what the car is worth. You can't get a new Ferrari for under 3 million these days, and Lamborghini have always been a little harder on the wallet than Ferrari, so I'm guessing that little beauty was worth 5 million plus. And it's not little, either - man, that is one enormous car. It's long - a good 15 feet or so. And wide. And (I'm told, and it looks it) extremely heavy - more than two tons. The car is named after a famous bull from a famous bullfight in Italy in 1879. All the Lamborghinis are named after bulls or breeds of bulls - Miura, Diablo, Gallardo et cetera. Ferrucio Lamborghini, founder of Lamborghini, was a Taurus, presumably therein lying the inspiration. Yeah, I know a lot of arbitrary shit about a lot of arbitrary shit. I think I'd do quite well on the Weakest Link. I was inspired yesterday, that's for damn sure. I can see why someone would spend that sort of cash, having been so close to something so awe-inspiring. As I said in the earlier entry (the red 575M), I was big into Lamborghini when I was a kid, because the Countach, the ultimate Lamborghini, had held landspeed records and was the fastest car in the world to my little kid brain, even though I think it held the record in like 1962 or something similar. As I grew older, I became more a Ferrari enthusiast - quite possibly because they were more accessible and easier to find and see in the flesh. To the point where mates and I would catch a bus to town in the school holidays to go catch a movie - it took a while before they moved moviehouses into the suburbs here in .za - and make a point of visiting Bloomsbury Carriage while we were there. This is because the Ferrari shop I now travel past four times a day was nowhere near the moviehouse in town; Bloomsbury wasa two minute walk away. Bloomsbury Carriage was the place you went to when you died if you'd been a good boy, we thought - new and used Ferraris, Porsches, Maseratis, Lotuses, Lancias and Rolls-Royce and the exotic 500SL Mercedes were their usual fare. Once, to our abject horror, someone came in to collect their old blue Ferrari Mondial which had been in for a service, and while he was driving out of the garage behind thɥ showroom, he misjudged the kerb and scraped a shitload of fender and underside off the car. He was probably trying to impress us by doing a neutral-drop and wheelspinning - the four of us were all starry-eyed anyway - and then the nitwit scuffed the fucking thing. We were stunned; he didn't even stop. I picked up some of the shards of Ferrari off the pavement and we all stared at it on the tip of my finger, amazed at the clown's idiocy. (An Aside: I still feel the same way when I see artists on stage smashing up their instruments - if you don't want the guitar, give it to charity, you stupid prick!) Anyway, I have about 50 bucks on me; need about 9 million rand more in .za money and I can have both a 575M Maranello and a funky Murciélago. Donations welcome. -d-