Car Review - Opel Astra 2.0i CSX

Make/Model: Opel Astra 2.0i CSX
Colour: Silver
New?: Yes
Engine: 2.0l petrol direct injection
Power/Torque: 92kW @ 5800rpm, 180Nm @ 4400rpm
Average Fuel Consumption: 11.7 l/100 km
Performance: 0-100km/h in 9.6 s, 201 km/h top speed.
Owned: September 2002 - December 2003

Notes: This was my first performance car, as I consider any car that does 0 - 100 km/h in under 10 seconds as a performance car. It was one of the best vehicles I ever owned - never giving me any kind of trouble whatsoever.

It had solid performance and enough features such as ABS, EBD, electric windows, airbags, power steering etc. to be a worthy upgrade from the Corsa. The only reason I ever sold it was my ever increasing desire for acceleration. I always wanted an Opel Astra Turbo Coupe, but never had the extra money for it. All I can say is I was never disappointed and it is still one of my all time favourites.

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Car Review - Opel Corsa 1.6i Sedan

I am one of those people who regularly purchase new cars... I guess I just like the feel and smell of a brand new car, and to experience different styles and performances.

During the next couple of weeks I'll play catchup on all my previously owned vehicles. I will write short reviews based on my personal experiences and opinions - they will NOT be objective reviews as my intent is to include emotion.

Starting then with my very first car - the Opel Corsa 1.6i Sedan.

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How my eels really swallow their prey

Nature Article

It's spring!!!!

The best time of the year... Spring is on us. Yay!

ASP.NET, Global.asax, Application_Error and "lost" Session

I recently ran into a weird issue with ASP.NET. In my Global.asax file I have a handler for Application_Error to display a standard error page. However, in the Master Page (the handler transfers to an error page that inherits from a custom master page), I read the session state to show a global status.

This works fine, until an unhandled exception is thrown. Then I suddenly get an exception stating that Session is null. This made no sense, and I even discovered a response from someone on the internet that once an unhandled exception was thrown, the session state is reset (which is preposterous). Eventually I found the reason - the Application_Error event is raised *before* the AcquireRequestState event is raised - which sets up the Session state.

Simple conclusion - Session state is not available in Application_error.