an unusual one, car's, dirtbikes, and books? hello all from Australia!

[ttoks]

g'day all, my names Scott from victoria australia, i'm 20 year's old, i'm guessing my interest's differ a little from most i know that are well into reading, and honestly i've only recently got stuck into it myself, even though i've been interested, but kept busy by other activities, my two other passions are car's and dirtbikes, in fact one of my current project's is to put this



a 600 hp nissan skyline engine into this



a 1986 holden commodore family wagon

another project in the midst is refurbishing my dads 1996 model holden commodore V8 ute


onto my other passion, dirtbikes, since i was little i've always ridden.



i'm a boilermaker by trade, i left school at 15 to start my apprenticeship, and to be honest i never did well at school, but i make a decent living working in the electricity and gas industry's local to me in eastern victoria, one of the recent project's i work on was fabricating large diameter pipe for a few gas refinery, in what we call "spools" the pipe here is 300mm (or 1 foot) inside diameter with a 12.8mm (or half inch) thick wall, each weld on this pipe takes around 45 minute to complete, and we get paid around $150 per weld, all welds are gamma ray tested to detect defects, defect's are repaird in our own time.



anyway to get into the book side of things, at high school i got really stuck into the artimas fowl and alex rider books, then due to my apprenticship and dirtbikes, and recently car's i did very little reading, however in the last two month's i've taken a massive liking to the tomorrow when the war began series, and the ellie Chronicles series (which all follow the same story line) by john marsden, i've realized i really enjoy reading adventure novel's, and want to expand on these, hence me joining this great forum.

i hope to fit in well and get to know some member's of the forum, and am glad to be a part of it

 

[Peder]

Welcome! I'm a retired system engineer and it thrills me to see some real hardware.

 

[ttoks]

to go a little deeper, i come from a family of un educated bogans (aussie rednecks basically) my mother came from a dairy farm before she married my father, and until recently has been a house wife, my father is a boilermaker, it could be said i followed in his footsteps, being that he started his apprenticship when he was 16 (mine when i was 15) we've always had a much greater understanding of nature and mechanical's then of literature and culture, until i was ten we lived on a 2 hectare block of land in the middle of the bush far from any other human activity, as a child i'd wander the bush and rainforrest in the area around our property on pushbikes, on foot and in old car's looking for adventure, climb tree's 300 feet tall and fish with spear's for trout in a small local river at night, dad worked long hard hours while i was young so i didnt see much of him, so my oldest half brother (jason), who was 9 year's older then i took the the role of the fatherly figure while he was away, i supose this is where my thirst for adventure started, we'd camp for weeks at a time, living off the land while i was young, hunting for food, butching and cooking kangaroo's and rabbits at a camp site up the said river, far from anyone else, all in the school holiday's, at home most of our time was spent building tree houses without adult assistance and riding and maintaining motorbikes.

 

[pontalba]

Welcome ttoks!

Great pictures.

You sound as though you could write your own adventure stories/series.

 

[Peder]

Hi ttoks again,
It sounds like of boilermakers we have very few.
But of readers, you can be sure we have many.

My father was an electrician and got me interested in electricity early on. Reading abput amateur radio consumed my time completely, even before I went off to schooling to become an electrical engineer. Like you I came to reading more general stories later on.
I've done a fair amount of tent camping here in the US, around California, New York and Cape Cod. No fishing though. And I am no mechanic. But that is a spiffy looking engine and some neat wheels.
Good to have you aboard.
:flowers:

 

[sparkchaser]

Welcome to BAR. There are a few motorheads here so you should have no trouble fitting in.

The U.S. never gets cool cars like Utes and Hiaces. :sad:

 

[ttoks]

Welcome to BAR. There are a few motorheads here so you should have no trouble fitting in.

The U.S. never gets cool cars like Utes and Hiaces. :sad:

without a doubt, here they're like a sub culture here, utes i'm talking about, i've got a 2009 holden commodore ute, looks pretty with the rims, but i can vouch for it being able to carry a tonne and a half of firewood, stretching the limit a little perhaps lol, but it's a good car, converted to run on LPG (liquid petroleum gas) it's economical, comfortable, safe, reasonably priced and handles very well.



dad's ute about a week ago, almost up and running again now





i'd love to write, but i just don't have the attention span for it, i used to do a little bit of it, but i'd get halfway through a story plot and loose interest in it before starting another, completely different story, i was diagnosed with ADHD fairly young, i've been told it partially explains my risk taking behavior, chasing the next adrenaline rush, drug use i've taken part in, not being able to sit still for more then a few seconds, and insomnia i suffer with (i haven't slept for 30 hours as it is, just don't feel tired at all) i dunno maybe as i get older things will calm down a little and my attention span might grow abit, it's strange though, i can strip and engine down to nuts and bolts, measure big end clearances and cylinder wear, note everything down in little time like i'm an auto pilot, or i can weld a spool out, or do improvised repairs on a power station boiler and keep focused, maybe it's something to do with the physical exertion? i'm not sure, but i can't sit and focus on one thing for any amount of time before my mind start's to wander, but then why i can read a novel in a night after work?

i appreciate the welcome i've been given here, thanks to all that have posted

 

[ttoks]

i feel a little obligated to dedicate some more webspace to my dirtbiking passion as well, so a few pictures from on the bike