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i grabbed the speedo out again to give it a rough once over this evening, unfortunatly i can't say i got too far, but as i'm not going to open it up i couldn't do it all that well anyway.  just before bed time harry came over to look at the speedo then sitting on the coffee table. he picked it up and i pulled him up onto my lap (just in case). firstly he said various things along the lines of "dad, we've got to fix the beetle", then he just sat there and stared at it only muttering the occasional "wow". he had this look of wide eyed amazement on his face. he looked as if it was the most amazing thing he had even held. it almost brought tears to my eyes watching him.

i share interests and hobbies with both my parients, i really hope him and i can share at least this one.

mind you my daughters are more of the age when i should start poisoning thier minds. i have considered buying them each a dead beetle and saying here is your first car, here are the tools and an idiots guide, you have 3 or 4 years till you can get your liscence, go hard. i just don't have the shed space (or spare cash) to build multipule cars. i'm far from the worlds best or most experienced mechanics but i'd love to teach them some stuff as i have found being able to do stuff with my hands and work through a problem so so useful over the years. i have had my eldest out in the shed on the ratchet and spanners, bolting guards on a beetle shell as well as putting her old bed together and taking it apart but that is just a start, mind you i think she has the right sort of mind to get it if she wanted to, it might take a little prodding to get her to think out solutions for herself and to trust her own decisions. her sister i'm not so sure about, she is truely amazing with her artistic concepts but getting her to focus and to listen to suggestions at times can be more than a little difficult. plus i'm not sure how she would take to the finite end point of mechanical problems/solutions. i guess there is only one way to find out.