Month: September 2019

End of an era

/ Loony Feminist / Leave a comment

For me, anyway. I have had my Ford Ka for 20 years. I bought it from a local Ford dealership where it had only been used as a demo car, and it was six months old. It’s done 47,000 (UK) miles, and been serviced and MoT’d regularly. (MoT stands for Ministry of Transport [roadworthiness test]).

Well, it failed the MoT spectacularly on Tuesday. The garage said I can still drive it until the old MoT expires on 5th October. However, hubby and I have been talking casually about our next car being an electric one and had done some research.

So we took the plunge and on Wednesday bought a three year old BMW i3 after test driving it. It’s a bit (very) odd, but handles very well and drives like a dream. Most of my driving is local. (I can’t drive for more than 15 minutes at a time). We’re picking it up on Tuesday next week. Very, very excited. The Ka didn’t have air conditioning, electric windows, and was a manual gear change. None of those things were a problem, but to have all the fancy schmancy mod cons is quite exciting. I loved the Ka. It was easy to drive, park, and worked for 20 years. Not bad I think.

Am looking forward to learning all the computery bits and driving it. The only complication is charging it up. We are having a “fast charge” point fitted to our house, and we’re unlikely to use it for long journeys, but there is a bewildering range of public chargers. Some are free, some are not. A variety of different providers. Some do fast charge, some do not. I will ask the garage for advice but honestly! you’d think there would be some sort of universal charge card that would pay for whatever you use wherever you use it. Perhaps there will be eventually.

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Finished the toy I was knitting. It’s lovely. No pics, it’s a gift. Started a new project – a cardi for ESW who is almost 4 now. After that will be a hooded jacket for LCS (he’s nearly 5!)

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The garden is lovely. I absolutely adore autumn. The sun is shining but not too hot. The colours are mellow. Love it.

“interesting times”

/ Loony Feminist / Leave a comment

Well, in the UK, at least.

I’ve been trying not to get too depressed about the news, but today I was cheered up a little because Scotland’s highest civil court has ruled the suspension of Parliament unlawful. There will be an appeal next week but fingers crossed.

It’s “interesting” because we’re just watching a series on TV about the rise of the Nazis, and we’ve just got to 1933, when government simply got rid of all the inconvenient checks and balances and took over the police, the press, anything that got in their way. As I’m of Jewish heritage (from my dad and his family) I am particularly interested in this stuff.

Anyway, anyway. Did a bit of gardening yesterday – hubby got out the electric handsaw and pruned some very over-exuberant shrubs, I picked up the debris, cut it smaller, and put it in our green wheelie bin. Which, I may say, is now full to bursting.

Today went to the hospital for my eyes to be checked. Tomorrow off to the osteopath. And all last week was not at all well with an infection which actually needed antibiotics. A three day course and I’m much better now, if somewhat thinner. (no, not D & V! I just don’t eat when I’m ill).

Managed a bit of knitting, finally, and it’s a toy, so small pieces. Quite satisfying really.

Just drinking a very welcome cup of tea after my afternoon sleep and then I’ll do the shopping list. We have it delivered so it’s “do the list, log in, order it all, and wait for them to arrive”. Excellent. Much better now we have broadband. In the early days with a dial-up connection (remember those?) the whole thing would crash half way through an order. Very frustrating.