Think I'm Turning Japanese...

After the untimely demise of my last car I needed a new one, fast. So it was off round the car showrooms on Saturday weighing up the pros and cons of different cars and I ended up with a shiny silver Honda Civic that has less miles per year than my old car, is a diesel (essential for the amount of miles I do), has a huge boot, spacious interior and 5 doors and is costing less than my old monthly payments.

All in all I was quite chuffed so decided to celebrate on Sunday evening by going to Ichiban - Japanese car = Japanese food, obviously. I'd been told it was the same deal as Wagamama but better and they weren't wrong. We shared a sushi platter and salmon teriyaki, each had a chilli chicken ramen and a couple of drinks all for less than £40 plus the sushi platter was £12 which you wouldn't necessarily have each time so it turns into a bargain night out. Plus Alasdair lost his chopstick virginity and it has to be said he did really well - everything in his mouth and nothing on his lap!

Anyway we're leaving Japan (and Scotland) and heading to The Netherlands this weekend. Forecast for Amsterdam is 20-22 degrees all weekend so I'll be spending today frantically de-fuzzing and fake-tanning the legs so I can wear an array of summer dresses and feel all sunny.

Lovely.

Condorrat Killed my Car!

On Monday 21st April at approximately 1.25pm the engine on my car chucked it just as I was driving over the brow of the hill. Luckily the big scary looking lorry on my inside realised that I wasn't just some dafty who had decided to change lanes and that I needed to pull over. Fast.

After over an hour at the roadside recovery centre with numerous mechanics trying to get it started again I decided just to take it back to the garage that had been working on it at the start of April. On Thursday they agreed that it had actually died but are looking into the possibility of a reconditioned engine for it.

All in all it's not looking good for my wee car but I have had more than my fair share of miles out of it so I can't complain (too much!). Any suggestions for what happens now will be greatly appreciated. Other than the engine the car is in really good condition so it's a bit of a pain that this has happened.

Enough to Drive Anyone Mad

Every now and then something, or rather some things, happen which are sent to try you. These things are usually out of your control, extremely irritating and costly. In the past few weeks it's been car trouble all round at our house. Starting with my car and the suspicious engine grumbles quickly followed by warning lights and lots of stalling. Turns out my engine has been consuming oil like it's about to go out of fashion which has resulted in parts of the engine burning out and having to be replaced, I'm sure you can feel my pain.

While my car was off the road, my parents very kindly offered me the use of their lovely (very expensive) motor to make my life easier trying to get heavy equipment to and from Dundee. To repay them I decided to replace the petrol I'd used before they asked.

Big mistake.

Instead of replacing half a tank of petrol I should have replaced half a tank of diesel!

Make that 2 cars off the road. To add insult to injury we had to be towed home by the second roadside recovery man who came out to us (although the first one was the voice of doom so I was quite glad to see the back of him - lot's of sucking in air and quotes of £4000-5000! not very helpful at all).

Thankfully the voice of doom was precisely that and the car was drained, cleaned and back on the road within a day. My car took slightly longer, however. Seven days in total and a hefty bill at the end of it just for fun. Add that to my public transport bill for the last week and it's been an expensive week all round.