Cars and Plumbing and Stuff

Last friday, my little car was taken away to be scrapped  live on a lovely farm with other happy little cars.

I'm currently driving around in a hire car - I decided that hiring a car for 3 weeks would be a sensible thing to do, so  have time to shop around, and do a bit of research, and decide what I want to replace it with. The current hire car is a very-nearly brand new ford fiesta - it has less than 8,000 ,miles on the clock, and it turns itself off every time you stop. I am not sure I like it.

So, last weekend I went to a number of different used car places, and drove 4 different cars. Which helped me to decide that I do not want a Toyota Yaris, or a Ford Ka, and  probably not Ford Fiesta.

A VW Polo is still in the running, and I want to test drive a Honda Jazz to see what they are like.  Although my colleagues have told me that I am too young, and have threatened to buy me tartan blankets and thermos flasks if I buy the Honda....

Tomorrow will see me visiting more car salesmen :-(

Meanwhile, my heating is  not working properly so I had to get a plumber out this evening. He unscrewed stuff, and checked on ballcoxks and things, and at one point hit some pipes with a large spanner. My ball cock was stuck, and now it isn't, but unfortunately that isn't what was causing the heating issue, so he is going to come back on Monday to check (and if necessary replace) the pump, and if that doesn't work, to flush the radiators and pipes.  Apparently I have inferior pipes.

So, it's a little chilly here (although i do have other heaters).

And I am feeling a little fed up, what with one thing and another.

On the plus side, my parents are visiting next weekend, which will be fun.

RIP Smart Car

My little car was inspected on Friday morning, and on Monday I got a text message (Honestly, this doesn't warrant a phone call?) from the underwriters,to say that they do not consider the car to be economical to repair so want to write it off. To be fair, they are probably right - its 12 years old, so not worth a vast amount, but I have owned it ever since it was new, and I got very attached to it.

So, I now have to buy a new (to-me) car. And I am finding the idea rather stressful, partly because I'm being bounced into buying at short notice. Also, because I am trying to move house, its  not the best time to be buying a car - I'd rather do it after I move, when I have a better idea of how much spare money I have. But needs must.

Ttoday, I had a conversation with the insurers to get hold of the engineers report to double check the figures, and to run it past my Smart guys (who confirmed that both the costs if it was repaired and the value are probably about right - it's not really possible to do a direct comparison, as there are very few of the age, make and model as mine around, and those which there are all have significantly lower mileage. The ones which are older are all left hand drive, as well, which makes it harder still. But I think if my garage who knows both the car, and the make, very well, think the figure is fair, then they are probably right.

So. I think I am going to hire a car for the next week or two so I have time to look around, rather than buying the first car I see because I have to give the hire car provided by the insurers back and need a car urgently - I think that spending £300 or so to make the time to find the right car rather than the first one I can find is probably a sensible idea.

But I can't really summon any enthusiasm for the task.

Ouch!

Last Wednesday was not a fun day.

I had a meeting at work so was a little later than usual going home. I was looking forward to a quiet evening, and was not at all happy when, as I innocently waited at a junction to turn left, another car slammed into the back of mine. Which was not fun.

The bloke who hit me did the right things - stopped, apologised, gave me his details, and I was able to get home (although there is a rather alarming light on the dashboard, and if I had seen then how far the back of the car was shoved in  might not have risked getting home. I'm not planning on driving it anywhere else until it has been checked out by someone competent to make sure that there is nothing important like the engine, or the back axle, damaged)

I also got myself checked out at the local hospital, where they reassured me that while everything would hurt lots, nothing important (such as, y'know, my spinal column) was anywhere it shouldn't be. Which is good. Although they are, unfortunately, correct about the whole everything hurting part.

However, I am trying to look on the bright side. Not least that fact that the car coming along the main road swerved in time and *didn't* hit me as I was shunted into its path. And I Ain't Dead Yet.

I am, so far, not overly impressed by the insurers - it feels as though everything has to be dealt  with by a different person in a different contracted out department, none of which are talking to each other, so things are not going very fast, And I suspect that the insurer may want to write off the car, as although the damage isn't huge, it's probably quite a lot in comparison with the value of my car, given that it is 12 years old. I hope not, as I really could do without the hassle of having to argue with them over valuation (which I believe is inevitable in those circumstances) and then having to try to buy a car in a hurry. So for now, I'm hoping I'm being overly pessimistic and that they will be able and willing to fix it!

Ah well.

In Which Winter Arrives

I can't deny that, on this occasion, the whether had impeccable timing, bringing the first hard frost of the winter this morning, 1st December. It is on mornings such as this that I regret the fact my house has central heating only downstairs!

There was a lovely sunrise (and one good thing about this time of the year is that the sunrise comes at a relatively civilized hour of the morning!)

Then there was the less lovely scraping of frost off the car windscreen. Inside and out, as it turned out. Perhaps I should avoid breathing inside the car for the next few months?

Then off out for my drive to work. It was a pleasant change to not be going through pouring rain, and to be seeing blue skies and sunshine sparkling off the silver-grey grass, it was clear that the frost and ice were not confined to the the fields. There was black ice on the road, too. Particularly treacherous as the road had been gritted so mainly felt (and looked) safe.

As I came (thankfully slowly and carefully) around a corner it was to the sight of a car which had been driving in the opposite direction to me, spinning backwards into the hedge - I watched as it tipped up but, fortunately came back down the right way up, and the driver was only shaken, not hurt.

As we waited for her to extract her car from the hedge, and feel ready to drive on, a motor bike came (again, travelling in the opposite direction to me) - as he came level with the car in the hedge he also hit a patch of black ice. His rear wheel skidded and he and the bike went down. Fortunately he had already slowed down a good deal, presumably having seen the accident, so although he was clearly shaken and (I suspect) bruised, he was not seriously hurt and his bike wasn't badly damaged.

The rest of the journey was taken very carefully - and I passed another road-closure (police and all) which I suspect was also related to the weather, and a little later, the sight of another car in the hedge....

I arrived at work feeling very grateful that things weren't worse.

In more cheerful news, my parents are home now after spending the last 6 weeks in New Zealand, and I shall be spending the weekend with them (hopefully they will be more or less over their jet-lag by then)

I have also taken to heart Royal Mail's claim that the last posting date for Christmas, for stuff going outside Europe is this Friday (although I don't really believe it, and strongly suspect that I could post stuff for weeks and it'd still arrive in time) and have been writing cards for various non-european friends.

The frost was pretty, but I shall be quite happy if tomorrow is a little less wintery.