Yet another MoT
Posted: Wed 5 October, 2022 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, MK Kia, Thoughts Leave a comment »This week the car’s been in for its MoT test – it’s October, so it’s been time to renew Insurance, pay Road Tax, and sort the MoT. For the first time with this car, I didn’t bother using the proper dealership (the car’s on 200,000 miles, and I no longer give a sod about service histories and so on) alongside which, the dealership I was using were… less than professional on a number of occasions, so I wanted to try something else and see what they had to say.
I chose (on the basis of other positive experiences) to use KwikFit , albeit a branch/location I hadn’t used before. I booked a service at the same time, just to get everything done in one go.
As it turned out, it did fail the first MoT, and needed a couple of things doing. Which was fine, KwikFit sorted everything on the same day – although obviously it made it a long day all told – along with recommendations of what I need to do (in their words) “sometime in the next year”, which I’ll get sorted at some point soon.
But all told, that little Kia has done pretty well – I’ve put about 130,000 miles on it since I got it in 2016 (just under 22,000 miles a year on average!) and it’s still really running fine. (Mind you, I’ve been very clear to it on what will happen when it becomes unreliable, so no-one’s under any illusions) That was definitely a good buy.
Online
Posted: Mon 3 October, 2022 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »Happily, I’m now back to being connected to t’internet at the new house. It’s taken far longer than I’d have liked, and been expensive on mobile data – turns out, I use a lot more than I thought I did.
Even so, I’ve mitigated the mobile data use as much as possible, and I’m also making changes for the future, but yeah, not been cheap. Although the reality-check it provided has also proved useful, and will not be wasted.
It’s still going to be interesting though. I’ve stepped back from the “as much bandwidth as possible” option that was costing me a lot and was almost certainly not being used as much as it could/should have been. I’m looking forward to seeing whether I do notice the difference in the “downgrade” (honestly, I doubt I will) and of course I can always boost it up a level if I decide I need to.
But yes, anyway, back to a level of civilisation and connectivity. I’ve been OK with the mobile data, but it’s nice to be back to normality…
Offline (Kinda Sorta Ish)
Posted: Fri 16 September, 2022 Filed under: Business, Domestic, Getting Organised 2 Comments »So – I knew everything had gone too smoothly. Turns out my Sky internet connection won’t be activated for three [insert snarly sweary words here] weeks.
Now, before I go on, I have to emphasise – at least half of this is my fault. I didn’t read the “What’s Next” email completely, just looked at when the engineer would be out to fit the Sky stuff. I absolutely accept that I should’ve read it all through properly. But I didn’t.
On the other side of that, even the engineer didn’t see the information until I showed him where it was in the email – it is not evident that This Is Important – and also they didn’t send through any confirmation text messages which would’ve also made things clear.
Anyway, despite the new place already having in all the infrastructure necessary (access point, cabling etc.) it turns out that OpenReach “need to check everything” before they can allow the connection to be made. And that takes time, because OpenReach are a) a monopoly and b) fucking useless. I have to stay in on the day of the ‘installation’, even though they admit themselves that it is usually done remotely, and they won’t even book an appointment slot – I have to be inconvenienced all fucking day just in case there’s a problem. You can imagine exactly how impressed I am about that one!
As it is, I’m lucky. I’ve got a mobile-internet device (which is what I’m using now) so I’m not completely offline. I’ve also managed to sort out a desk at a local new co-working space for the month, so that I can carry things on without being too inconvenienced. It’s an absolute pain in the arse, and I’m really annoyed by it all (at least partly because I didn’t read that sodding email and try to push for an earlier connection) But it could’ve been so much worse.
As it is, I’ve got the SkyTV installed, set up, and pretty much sorted, I’ll have three or four weeks in which to learn more about the town’s facilities and centre, and… yeah, it could be worse. Plan C would’ve involved continuing to use my current office in Milton Keynes, and just swallowing that mileage for the month. Which would’ve been even more annoying!
Moved
Posted: Thu 15 September, 2022 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Getting Organised 1 Comment »So, it’s finally happened – and all went really smoothly in the end.
I’m still not a fan of having a removals company doing the packing/driving/delivery – I don’t like telling people what to do, and feel uncomfortable just directing things to where they should be. But the guys on the day made everything easy and efficient. They turned up on time at 9am, and everything was loaded into their van by 10:15. They had a break and then drove up to the new house, whereas I just drove up, they arrived by 11:30/11:45, and it was again all unloaded and sorted by 13:30.
Obviously there’s now a lot of unpacking and organisation to do (as well as construction of things like wardrobe, bookcases, and office desk/chair) before I feel properly sorted, but it’s all gone well so far.
Today I’ve been out and on-site, so not much happened.
Tomorrow I get broadband and Sky installed, and various odds and sods will be delivered through the day.
Mostly though, I’m just happy that the move itself went OK, and that it’s all looking positive so far!
Limbo
Posted: Sun 4 September, 2022 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised 1 Comment »At the moment I’m in the midst of the part of the moving process that I hate the most – stasis. It drives me crackers.
For now, I’ve done everything I can. 85-90% of the house is packed up (probably more, thinking about it) other than stuff I use most days.
I’ve done all the financial bits – the deposit, the first month’s rent and so on – but still don’t have the keys (I collect those tomorrow) so until then I’m not entirely convinced it’ll happen. I know, it’s ridiculous, but until those keys are in my hand it doesn’t feel like it’s real.
Once I’ve got them then it’ll be full-speed ahead. (Although again, that’ll still involve some waiting) I can get utilities here cancelled, and others set up for the new place.And, of course, ordering some stuff I need (furniture and the like) to be delivered to the new place.
I’ve already got a moving date in place, and I need to do some admin around that, but it’ll be fine. Then it’ll be about making sure I get the current place cleaned up (which is also already booked in) and be done and out by the end of September.
But for now, it’s all in limbo, all on hold, and it’s idiotically frustrating. I just want to get on with it now.
Autumnal
Posted: Thu 1 September, 2022 Filed under: Domestic, Thoughts Leave a comment »So, welcome to Meteorological Autumn.
How time flies when you’re having fun, eh?
Inconvenient Obsolescene
Posted: Tue 30 August, 2022 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised 2 Comments »On Friday, I started off a load of washing, same as I’ve done countless times before. Only this time, it started making some seriously bad noises mid-cycle – similar to what you’d expect from putting in just a pair of steel toe-capped boots and letting them bounce around inside the machine. (I’ve heard the noise a pair of trainers makes in this sort of situation, and it was worse than that, hence the “boots” analogy)
Once everything had finished, I checked it all out – the clothes hadn’t been properly cleaned, and the drum itself was making Very Bad Noises when rotated. Yes, it was entirely and comprehensively stuffed. Bugger.
Mind you, I can’t complain. It’s lasted me nearly 14 years, and done… 4 moves, I think. All told, it’s generally been excellent all the way through (And weirdly, it looks like the last one died in much the same way as this one) with the exception of the fact that when it kicked off at top-speed spin in this house, it would trip the fuse board. Turn it down by 200rpm and everything was fine from then on.
Anyway, it’s a bit inconvenient – I could’ve done without forking out for a new machine just when I’m about to move, but there we go, that’s Sod’s Law for you. But it’s still been fine. I ordered a replacement on Friday evening, to be delivered today (I could’ve had it quicker, but the delivery charge was ridiculous, so sod that, it’s only a couple of days)
It arrived this afternoon, in the planned delivery slot. The two guys came in, disconnected the old one, took that out, brought the new one in, connected it and tested it, all in far less than half an hour. And I know, it’s their job, they should be good at it – but it was nice, because they were good at it. Entirely pleasant, just got on with the job and did it.
And now it’s done its first full load, which has all gone through perfectly. And it is *so* bloody quiet (and energy efficient – an A rating these days makes for a really impressive bit of kit!) that I even had to nip out and check it was running, even the energy monitor I have wasn’t showing anywhere near the load of the old one. (And it turns out that ‘it’s so quiet I had to check it was working’ is also something I wrote about last time!)
If it lasts me as well as the one that’s just died did, I’ll be thoroughly happy with that.