Healthy Car

Posted: Sat 6 February, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Car Repairs, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel | Leave a comment »

Following on from the car’s various issues over the last month, it now appears (touch wood) to be all sorted.

However, it means that in the last month it’s had

  • MOT (Passed with no problem)
  • Two separate broken pipes to the turbo, on different occasions – but weirdly, at the exact same location. (i.e. while driving, both times the engine management light came on at the same junction)
  • 150,000 mile service, which included a couple of other small fixes too

Thankfully, it’s not been massively expensive, and the fixes have been small ones. But still, it would’ve been a nicer/easier month without having to do them. (as well as the hire of replacement cars while it was being unreliable) Such is life.

There’s one more bit that needs doing, which is booked in for a couple of weeks time (a bit annoying, as I thought they were doing it at the same time as the service, but such is life) but for now it seems like all’s well again.

Since the main bits of work, it’s had another 1,000 miles added on, so it all feels like it’s settled in again. But as always, time will tell.

Slowing Down – Sort of

Posted: Fri 5 February, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Music, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »

For the first time this year, I’ve got a weekend that’s being spent primarily at home. It’s about time.

As I’ve written before, it’s been a chaotic start to the year. I don’t regret a bit of it, and it’s all been my choice, but at the same time I’m definitely knackered and glad of a pause.

The last couple of weeks have involved mid-week concerts – one in Manchester, one in London – which have made for late nights (well, early mornings) so having a weekend without a lot of mileage is definitely a boon.

I’ve still got more stuff booked in, but it shouldn’t be quite as manic for the next couple of weeks, at least.

Car Health – Hopefully Sorted

Posted: Wed 27 January, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Car Repairs, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Another day, another visit to the garage.

Having been repaired last week during the MOT, the same issue (or at least what appeared to be the same issue) recurred on Friday. Annoying, to say the least.

With everything else that was going on, the car didn’t get to revisit the garage again ’til yesterday (Tuesday) for them to find out what the problem was this time.

It turns out to have been *another* pipe to the turbo inlets that had perished and snapped. So – a similar issue, but not the same one, even though it presented in precisely the same way. (And bizarrely, occurred at precisely the same place)

Thankfully, both issues have been resolved quickly, easily and fairly cheaply. All the same, I’m hoping that there won’t be any more for a while.

In a ‘tempting fate’ moment, I took the hire car back today, and I’ll use the Saab for tomorrow Manchester run. If it fails me on that run, then I think I’ll be starting to look for a new vehicle before very long at all.

Low Steppage

Posted: Mon 25 January, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Health, Introspective, Laziness, Milton Keynes, People, Thoughts, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Because of the issues with the car last week, it meant I actually got out a lot less than usual.

I’ve written before about my general aims to get out more, walk more and so on – although I do a lot of walking anyway, in comparison to most people.   As part of that, a couple of years ago now I started using the FitBit activity trackers and so on, which allowed me to keep an eye on things.

I have a 5,000-step-per-day ‘target’, which I normally blast through (although some days are closer than others) and average around 50,000 steps per week. Last week, for the first time since getting the FitBit,  I did about half that, and didn’t reach my daily target on most days.

A lot of that was simply that I was working from home, rather than in my office in Milton Keynes. That meant I didn’t go out for a walk in the morning, nor to get lunch and then take the ‘long’ way back to the office – all of which contribute to those totals.

Additionally, I wasn’t feeling great – just a bit burned out, and with this nagging cough (nothing serious, it just keeps tickling and being a twat) it meant I didn’t want to go out as much as I usually do.  And then not doing my usual weekend stuff of going to the cinema, walking round Milton Keynes etc. – it all conspired to make it my worst week in two years.

Of course, my worst week’s activity is still a lot better than that of a lot of people, but it’s annoyed me anyway.

Final High-Mileage Weekend

Posted: Sun 24 January, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Gigs, London, M1, Travel | Leave a comment »

As per previous posts, January has been a busy month, with a fair amount of travelling every weekend. That’s not a complaint – hell, I kind of planned it that way (well, events combined to make it all into busy weekends, but I allowed it to happen, so yeah, that qualifies as planned) but it’s definitely been busy.

This weekend was the last weekend of high mileage for a couple of weeks. (The week itself is another matter, but we’ll gloss over that for now)

Yesterday, I took my dad in to London to see Billy Connolly at the Hammersmith Apollo – and it was a really good day. We got in to Hammersmith really easily (despite a large number of tosspot drivers etc.) and parked, had food, and enjoyed the show. (I’ll write more about the show itself later in the week) Once that was done, got dad back home, and drove home myself. As usual, getting back around 2am. (I don’t know how that’s been so consistent over the month, but it really has)

Today was a far dafter plan, involving a blast up to the outskirts of Manchester and back.  Basically, I’m up there on Thursday for a concert that I’m going to with two friends, and it’s been spiking my brain that the tickets are with me, and I don’t want them to miss out on the concert if there’s problems on the M1 for me on Thursday.

So I took the opportunity today to blast up there, drop their tickets off, and come back. It means that whatever happens, everyone’s happy – I’ve got my ticket, they’ve got theirs, and we don’t have to go through hordes of organisational stuff for meeting up, getting everything sorted, and that if anyone’s transport screws up, it doesn’t fuck things up for everyone.

All told, it’s been the best part of 600 miles this weekend.

I must be a complete barmpot…

Car Health – Back On Blocks

Posted: Fri 22 January, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Car Repairs, Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised | Leave a comment »

I spoke too soon – when I took the Saab out this morning, the exact same problem occurred as had been ‘fixed’ yesterday.

Safe to say, I am unamused – and the garage are aware of this unamusement.

It goes back in on Tuesday, as I haven’t got the time to sort it before then, due to travelling.  It’s a good job I kept my booking for a hire car for this weekend’s idiocy…

Car Health – All OK

Posted: Thu 21 January, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Car Repairs, Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

The car, it turns out, was fine.  The problem was that the hose(s) to the turbo had perished, and were leaking, which was roughly what I’d thought was happening.

So, that’s been fixed, and the MOT has been passed with flying colours. A couple of advisories that I’ll address in the next month, but really, all good.

This has made me much happier than I’ve been the rest of the week – while I may have been ‘pretty sure’ of what the issue was, I don’t have the confidence in my own technical knowledge to be 100% certain. Knowing that it actually was a minor thing is a weight off my mind.

All good – onwards and upwards, mes amis!

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