Knocked Down
Posted: Tue 21 February, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Health, Stupidity, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »After the events of last week, I pretty much exhausted myself – as evidenced by the fact that since then I’ve been dealing with a heavy cold and nascent chest infection. It started up on the evening of the Thursday, once we were back from the Fat Duck. (Of which more in other post, most likely)
As usual, basically it all kicked in once I’d stopped. It’s pretty standard with me – I can keep on going for as long as I have to, and then once I’m done, it’ll all catch up and whack me with a hammer.
I was rough on the Friday, and the Saturday was the worst, although I hadn’t realised how bad it was until too late. I’d been at the parents and doing some other stuff, and started to drive home. I’d not been feeling great, but it was only once I was driving that I knew it wasn’t good. I’d burned myself out completely, and all I could do was just get home and that was it.
For the first time in at least a decade (and that’s something else I’ll come back to in another post) I found myself thinking that I wished I’d got someone else around, someone to call on, so I could get home safely. It didn’t happen, of course, so I just got on with the task in hand, and got myself home.
I’m truly not proud of it, of having carried on and done the dumb thing instead of pulling into a layby or whatever and having a sleep. I did get home, and did so safely, with no problems. But that was, to be honest, more by luck than judgement. I honestly can’t remember at least half the drive, but I know that if anything had gone awry, I’d have remembered it, so that’s kind-of sort-of reassuring in some warped way.
I effectively took Sunday off after that, changed all my plans so I could do as close to sod-all as I’d let myself do, and it was needed.
It’s all on the mend now, but man, that weekend was really no fun at all.
Stoppage Time
Posted: Fri 10 February, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Driving Leave a comment »Over the last ten days or so, my car has been making a bit of a grinding noise when braking. Not all the time – usually the first four or five times of braking, and then it was all ok. But I get wary of the car making new grindy noises, so I booked it into the garage to find out what was going on.
Turned out that it was a good thing I did – it turned out that some part of the brake assembly wasn’t releasing properly, and the noises were something to do with the brake disc grinding into the pads. It hadn’t done serious damage, but could’ve done if I’d ignored it.
So an hour later I came out with complete new pads and discs for the front brakes. It’s an expense I could’ve done without, to be honest, but it’s a necessary one, and I can certainly feel the difference in the car.
An evening at home
Posted: Fri 20 January, 2017 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Theatre, Travel Leave a comment »Tonight is the first evening this week that I’ve actually been at home, and not working. It truly has been one of those weeks, despite my best-laid plans for calming things down this month.
So what’s been happening?
- Monday was in the South Bank Centre in London, seeing a talk by Stephen Hawking, and a small celebration of his life in the week of his 75th birthday. When I got the tickets, he’d been supposed to be there in person, but ill-health meant his speech and question/answer session were conducted on video screen instead. Disappointing, but fair warning of this had been given, and it was still a good evening. It would’ve been great to see him in person, but there we go.
Interestingly, the event was sold out, but on the night it was only about half full. I suspect that a lot of people decided to not bother going, once they knew it would ‘only’ be a video appearance. Anyway, their loss. - Tuesday was at home, but doing a bundle of work that needed doing because….
- Wednesday was back in London, taking the parents to see the matinee performance of Amadeus at the National Theatre. Which was bloody excellent, and will probably be written about more in another post. Having seen it, I then drove the parents home, and got back to mine about 11pm. Looong day!
- Thursday evening was at the cinema, seeing the truly ridiculous (and thoroughly entertaining) xXx 3 – The return of Xander Cage. A film so bad and ludicrous that it went full-circle and was stupidly brilliant.
Even today has been spent on-site rather than in my own office, so it’s still been harder on the braincells than it could’ve been.
All told, a bloody long – but also good – week, and one where I’m really quite happy to have nothing lined up for the weekend, so I can spend some time vegetating. Seems like a plan to me.
Three Thousand
Posted: Mon 28 November, 2016 Filed under: Commuting, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving Leave a comment »It’s six and a half weeks since I replaced the Saab with the Kia. And I’ve just gone over the 3,000 miles with it this morning.
Bear in mind, this year I’m doing far far less miles than I usually do (short commute, etc. etc.) and it’s still only taken a month and a half to cover 3,000 miles.
There’ve been a couple of longer runs with it in that time, so I know it’s doing OK, and that everything is – so far – running smoothly with it. And no, I’m not going to curse myself with the Gods of Fate any more than that. So far, I’m happy with the car. It’s nothing glamorous etc., but it is doing its job of getting me from A to B without needing recovery, garage visits and the like.
Anyway, that’s the basic warranty ( three months, or 3k miles) blown away – but of course, it’s still warrantied for another 17,000 miles, so that’s something to be happy about.