LIFE CHANGING

4.20 am

5:08 am

If you have a digital clock by the bed and you occasionally wake during the night, this could change your life forever. However, if you don’t meet those two criteria and you don’t have some knowledge of motor vehicle engine naming, then please, do yourself a favour and read no further. (Well at least that got rid of a bunch of women readers, although I still may have Deb, Fleur and Peta reading on.) Don’t think cousin Brian (who couldn’t pick a Datsun from a Mercedes) or Pa Pete will be still in attendance.  Hopefully Bill, Stivmac and Stiv’s daughter Brienna will still be with us.

At this stage I need to point out how life has changed since the intro of digital bedside clocks. Once, you might’ve mentioned that you didn’t sleep too well, woke a couple of times, maybe a bit after three. Now, sadly, since the inception of the digital bedside clock, that same conversation might be, “Yeah, didn’t sleep too well. Woke at 1:18 and stayed awake till at least 2:53. Then I remember seeing 4:12 and even 5:11. Hopefully I’ll get a better sleep tonight.” (Mainly because he would be more tired the following night.)

I have a friend who has two unusual attributes (at least two.) He is not a good sleeper AND he is a rev head. Neither of these character blemishes is catastrophic in itself, but put them together...quite a handful, or even a headful.

3:34 am  

(Actually pm as I'm not awake at 3:34 am). 

He will wake at, say, 3:15 am (yes, a quarter past three). That brings to mind – to him – a BMW 315. If he wakes at 4:20, then he is mindful of the 4.2 Jaguar. See how it works?

Many makes of cars have a model number on the rear e.g. MB 240, Volvo 440, Mazda 323, and Peugeot 307. Yet there are other vehicles that may simply have a model name e.g. Corolla, Cressida, Crown, Corona, Caprice and Calais. Of course the connoisseur would know that the Corolla engine is a 1.6, the Corona a 2.0 etc.

Easy isn’t it?

If you woke at 2 am – Audi Quattro 2.0, 2:40 – Volvo, at 3:25 – BMW, at 4:07 – Peugeot, at 5:38 – BMW and so on.

Special thanks here to Peugeot who, knowing my friend’s situation, have come up with the following models: 104, 105, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 304, 305, 307, 308, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 504, 505 and of course 508. (I may have omitted a couple here.)

My wife, the good wife, would prefer to see the following: 8:15, 8:30 and even 9:08. Correct, she is not a morning person, although she does wake during the night and see the bedside clock quite a bit. Of course there are not too many models like 815 etc that I’m aware of. The good wife doesn’t know a Holden 149 from a Datsun 120Y, so it would be pointless. Too bad about the following vehicles; Commodore 3.6, Cherokee 3.7, Boxster 2.7 and Grand Voyager 2.8.

Oh, are there a few numbers I’ve missed? Keep an eye out during the night and see what you come up with.