Happy New Year (almost)

It’s snowing. Again. It’s the middle of March and I’m getting really bored of this weather.

That said, as ever, there are worse things that could be happening. Given the recent events in New Zealand and Japan it does feel somewhat churlish to complain about some snow.

That said, life continues. Mum is doing really well, and has definitely entered the final stages which will result in her getting home. She can stand, walk with a cane, and the movement in her right arm is slowly coming back. She’s getting stronger and stronger (you can hear that in her speech) and is her usually, bubbly, giggly, cheeky self for the most part. The house has had extra handrails installed and tomorrow she will be visiting the house, alongwith the Physio and Occupational Therapist, to see how she gets on.

My own little flat is getting there as well. Just waiting on my new sofa to be delivered and it’ll be as complete as it can get (it’s rented). Alas my car is a different story…

About 5 weeks ago (7th of February) I drove through a puddle that was deeper than I expected and managed to flood the engine. It was a stupid thing to do, and entirely avoidable if I’d been paying full attention. But I wasn’t.

So the car got towed off to the repairs garage my insurance firm use. After a couple of weeks with no updates I phoned them and was told that the garage had been ordered to strip the engine to check for damage and they were waiting on the results of their investigation. A further week passes and I end up speaking direct to the garage who, apparently, didn’t receive the instruction to strip the engine until about 8 days after the ‘incident’. He said that they’d stripped the engine and recommended a replacment engine be ordered.

A further week passes and, again when I phone them, the insurance company tell me that they’ve ordered the engine to be further stripped down so they can see if the water made it all the way to the sump. The findings of that were passed back to the insurance company on Friday last week. I am awaiting a final decision today.

Nicely, the terms of my insurance state that I get a courtesy car. For two weeks.

So I’ll take a moment to thank my mate Stuart who kindly offered me the run of his car for a couple of weeks as he was on holiday in Australia (and hadn’t been able to drive it as he broke his arm), and to my mate Ian who has now kindly let me use his car for the next few weeks (he’s got a hire car from his company for the next few months). It’s been a weird few weeks of driving, from my car, to a base model Toyota Aygo (courtesy car) to Stuart’s car (Mini Cooper S convertible) to Ian’s car (Jaguar XJ6). I’d really really like my own car back though (Ford Fiesta batmobile).

Mind you, there was a period where I thought my car might be written off and, as it’s less than a year old, it would actually find me ‘up’ in monetary terms. I had a nice wee second hand Audi TT all picked out too… oh well.

So, all in all, the next few weeks should see the ‘beginning’ of this year. My Mum will be home, my car returned, my sofa delivered and a raft of gigs (music and comedy) are lined up, oh yeah, and I’ll be getting divorced (amicably).

Maybe THEN, 2011 will start to behave and be the year I was expecting it to be!

Comments

  1. ‘Walking with a cane’ made me smile. Not a stick, but a cane. Sounds very dapper and as if your mother could, at any moment, start putting on the Ritz. Which I take as a possibility..?

    Personally, I am finding 2011 a bit of a bummer and a really ‘difficult’ year to get into.

    And is your new flat not any nearer work? Can you not cycle in? I was always pretty jealous of your Star Trek bike when we did the cycling proficiency, you still got that? The bike, I mean, not your cycling proficiency…

  2. Star Trek bike! LOL Ahhh my old Raleigh Enterprise.

    And yes, the flat is in the West End, I work in Inchinnan so once I purchase a bike (and the weather improves), a cycling I will go!

    I may have already volunteered to do a sponsored cycle later in the year so I’d best get some training in…

  3. Raleigh Enterprise! Black with Starship Enterprise decals. Oh yes.

    I suggest borrowing a heavy, clunky, terrible bike to do the journey the first few times. It will be hell. Even a mountain bike will be too heavy and daft, so maybe borrow one of those. It will take a long time. Then use this experience to spend that liiiiittle bit more on a decent road bike: light, responsive, fast. And then REVEL in the joy of the ride.

    I lived in Luxembourg for 3 months (ALL hills, who knew? I assumed flat like Belgium or Netherlands) and was about 20km on the bike to work through (HILLY) forest. It was absolutely ACE. Managed to get my time down from about an hour to 40 mins. Was told by guy who lived where I did that his road bike managed to do it in under 30 mins. I spent about half an hour every Saturday tinkering with the bike and it got to the point where the regular oiling and cleaning and everything being spot on just made the ride fan-bloody-tastic. It will be great.

  4. Uh … Your car engine flooded because you went through a deep puddle? I go through them deliberately all the time, just to see how big a scoosh of water you can get! (Only if there are no pedestrians nearby, obviously.) I had no idea it could harm your engine :-0

  5. Croila, my ‘deep puddle’ was about a foot and a half of standing water, about 12 feet wide across the entire road. Oops!

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