Video from 1991 ;

         This was taken in 1991 December or so ; the start of the video shows my Dad Geoffrey entering the house, he was 70 then, still very strong and sprightly. Also our pet cat Tommy, who was crouching by the side of my car. It was the first car I owned and it was an Alfa 33 TI (twin injection) system. A 1.5 litre black roadster, it hugged the roads superbly though it gave me no end of small headaches just taking care of the fuses which blew ever so frequently, the power windows broke down (2 in all). The car's acceleration and road handling was superb, (considered a sports sedan then), the manual stickshift was not easy to handle, and the clutch,brake and acceleration foot pads were all positioned so close I could practically operate all 3 from one foot (though I never did it), hence the reaction time to accelerate and brake was faster than many other cars. 

       I had owned the car from 1987 - 1993 till the year I got married, or 6 years. 

       This car took many of my foreign principals from Frank Rigley and his family, to Mr. Hehl (the then Weiss Technik MD) to Ito san (8 Sangyo), Shimizu san (Sunteh) and Genda san (Yoshida Seiki)

       I was still a singleton then, and the car was my constant companion. Its black colour was quite appealing though inside it, the car (being something of a 'black body' absorbed more heat that only lighter painted cars and hence it was sweltering inside, much to my disdain. In addition, the indicator arms were opposite to that of conventional Japanese models, so it was a challenge when I switched and drove my Mother's Mazda 626 from time to time (when the Alfa was in service workshop for example). Frank Rigley's family took the car once and later decided to take a taxi to meet me in town, for subsequent gatherings ! It was that hot inside ! Coupled with a weak air-conditioned blower and the car was (I must admit) nice to look at but not too comfortable for transporting passengers.   

       The second half of the video shows the front of the house, my room's windows and heading to the back, in the kitchen was our Sri Lankan maid, Mary. The backyard was chock a block full of undiscarded stuff which my Mother used to keep (horde more like).

      The video camera was a Sony VCR7 bought in Akihabara district famous for its electronic goods. I can testify fully that the salesman's who sold this to me, his pitch that "Made in Japan" products like this one - made in Japan and sold to Japanese domestic market, was truly superior to the other electronics products made in (then) Malaysia and Thailand (this was way before the Chinese factories started making all the world's electronics good in late 90s - early 2000s.).  This camera gave me great service, never once breaking down or exhibiting any problems with recording, editing or playback. 

      Well, it does bring back lovely memories for me.