Birdstrike

A poor unfortunate pigeon almost certainly bought it when he collided with the passenger side window/rear view mirror of my car as I drove home this evening. I saw it out of the side of my eye and was already half tensed up when it hit the car, fortunately it seems to have done no permanent damage to the car but when I looked in the rear view mirror all I could see was a sad swirling cloud of feathers.

It was my 3rd Bloggiversary yesterday which I totally forgot about in the fun and excitement of bimbling about at home. I always need a couple of days to recover from a holiday, I've only really just got round to starting to upload photos to my flickr stream. This one is my favourite so far.



Barcelona was great, I wish I had brought my walking boots with me though because it demands to be walked through as the buildings are spectacular. I will blog about it more as I upload more photos.

Hard Sell

I am now seeing through a pristine windscreen (shield for our ex colonial friends to the west) the old one developed a crack over the weekend which required replacing rather than fixing, and seeing as the recommended company from the insurers is no where near work and it would take at least an hour to cure, it meant that I couldn't get it done during the lunch hour yesterday. So I took the day off, (I've saved leave days for the car* like others save them in case the children are ill, we are either going to need a new car or very healthy children.) it was nice to be cozily wrapped up in bed this morning watching the snow trying to make what was left of the winter count. By the time the chap came round to do the windscreen the clouds had temporarily scudded away and the sun was doing its best to shine.

We got more snow, hail and wind in the afternoon but it was far too warm for it to stick, I think that could be the last gasp of a rather pathetic winter.

Just watching a programme on BBC4 called Hard Sell - they are discussing the advertising of alcohol, quite a few of the commenters are saying that the days of advertising alcohol are numbered much like it became clear that tabbaco advertising had a slow and lingering death. But no one has really commented on whether the increasingly strict advertising rules have worked in reducing the amount of drink related deaths/accidents/arrests. The anecdotal evidence seems to suggest not, but I don't trust anecdotal evidence as it isn't evidence it's just what someone thinks. I wonder what the real evidence is.

*to be fair, the car isn't a lemon by any means. We were a bit unlucky with it been broken in to as well as the gear box linkage chain thingy seizing up. It's just any problem that needs a garage immediately or a man to come out gets amplified by a 90 mile round trip to work and a strict "no tradesmen on site" rule once there unless it's a case of towing or getting the car started.

Aww Shit

Aww Shit
Originally uploaded by Jane Goth

A bit of a crap start to the month, we discovered this when we went out this morning with the intention of going over to the flat to do more decorating. Instead we spent the morning and early afternoon on the phone to the police, various banks and card providers because it was Simon's wallet they were after. Waiting for the police then Norfolk CSI to turn up. Ringing up more people to organise a replacement window, brushing up broken glass from the ground attempting to pick up some of the broken glass in the car, noticing the gathering clouds, taping an old bin bag to the window to make the car weather proof. Ringing up various Aged Ps to spread the joy, we had said that we would go see my mum this lunch time as we were going to be over in the area; can't now! It was raining last night so the seat on the drivers side is very damp as it the foot well the car is gonna smell lovely tomorrow. I've had to take tomorrow off so I'll be bottoming out the car to get rid of as much glass as possible. Oh deep joy.

This Could Become A Habit

This is just the second day of having the car, and already I'm hooked which is scary as I've got to give it back to Simon on Friday as it is really his car. But man, without wishing to trivialise the effects of drugs that car is like crack I can't bear to think about giving the car back. The ease of just driving to work instead of catching the bus, the fact that I could if I wanted just get in the car and drive anywhere I wanted to instead of having to ask someone to take me there if it's inaccessible by public transport.

It's great.

That I still don't really need a car, I can walk to the shops easily, to the bus and railway stations and the bus to work drops me off as close as it can get, which is pretty close, hasn't changed but yesterday it was freezing I didn't have to wait for the bus in a freezing shelter, today I was able to give a colleague a lift home which was really nice to do. Gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

I know intellectually I don't need it, that a car is an expensive habit which I can't really afford even considering the petrol. But.... oooh I like the way it makes me feel (warm and home a lot earlier than usual)