I woke up in the middle of the night the evening before last which is not that unusual and whilst I was up and about, I decided to get things put into place for the documentation for my son’s car which he is handing on to me. I made a new folder on my main computer system so that I could keep all of the documents relating to the car in one place. The first document was proof of the No Claims Discount to which I am entitled and evidently this is readily available should my new insurers request to see I also had an almost completed application form for the breakdown service offered by the RAC and I believe I have got this at a good annual price. Anyway, I checked out with my son that this was a ‘good buy’ and then went ahead and bought it. So in the morning I got up and our domestic help had already arrived and so we had a good chat because I had not seen her since Meg’s funeral. Later in the morning my son called around and we got to work transferring the vehicle over to myself and this went very smoothly and without a hitch. I also showed my son as a named driver as he appears on the insurance document and this helps to cheapen the overall piece of the product. Then my son heated some delicious soup which his wife had prepared the evening before and it was delicious. Then in the afternoon, I went online to get the car taxed and this was as straightforward as it was possible to be. So by the middle of the afternoon, I had become the registered keeper of the new vehicle which is now fully taxed and insured and with a breakdown policy in place. I have also recorded all of the important details regarding the car in an .html file which I am going to use for my own u=internal record purposes and not, evidently, for publication on the web. As under the Motability scheme all of these things were done for you, I am out of practice with the procedures for keeping a car on the road and now I am having to learn it all anew. But over the years, it is now made so much easier to do things on line rather than have to turn up to a Post office with masses of documents. The final thing I am going to do is to set up a little savings account so that monies can flow into from savings and the balance can be use to fund things when they become due, generally in a year’s time. My son has kindly offered to get the car serviced and MOT when it is handed over and then I shall need to take care of things for myself. Another little thing that I am going to do is to persist with the habit which I have just re-started which is to save each £2 coin as I receive it in a special little container. Then each month, I can raid the little piggy bank and whatever I have saved will be transferred into my ‘car’ account so in th1s way, I trust that I can keep expenses in check by a regular savings routine. Over the forthcoming weekend, I need to go through the variety of mats and other useful articles that I like to always with me in any new car. About two or three cars ago, I did but a couple of utility baskets for the boot of a car. I have found these to be very useful as a container for such items such as filled shopping baskets so that one’s shopping does nor roll around the boot but is relatively contained. I have a boot liner preserved from the previous car but I have a feeling it might be a tad too big to fit into the latest one. There are certain things that I always like to have in the boot such as a little flagon of water and some disposable wipes so that I can quickly et rid of bird poop if the car has been hit by the latter, I always tend to carry around a spare looped car wheel brush which I devote exclusively to getting rid of some of the grit that shoes are prone to deposit in the footwells of the car. I have also prepared an envelope with details o the breakdown service so that I can access this quickly in the case of emergency.
In the afternoon, it was time for the bins to be put out ready for collection in the morning. Also, the weeds were going mad in the gravelled area which runs alongside our principal roadway. These were mainly of the shallow rooted and easily grasped weeds so I spent nearly half an hour in the pretty hot sum disposing of the worst of these. I read the newspaper for a little outside but eventually had to retreat to the cooler areas inside the house. Later in the afternoon, I decided to refine the table I had constructed of the various costs associated with my motoring in the next year. This really gives one pause for thought and it might be the case that a year or s, I abandon the car altogether and start to think of a regime of taxis whenever I need them, which could well work out as being most effective. As soon as I receive the details of Meg’s pension from the Teachers’ pensions Agency, I might get a closer idea whether I can afford to run a car in the next year or so. As I had a repast of soup at lunchtime, I thought I would cook myself a bigger meal for this evening so I heated up half a quiche which I had taken out of the freezer in readiness and ate it with some quickly microwaved vegetables, As I was finishing this, there was a news report of the latest score in the England versus Holland Under 21’s in which England are actually the defending champions. As I tuned into the channel, The English team had just scored a second and winning goal five minutes before the end of the match which always makes for a very tense final five minutes. The actual final is to be held on Saturday evening but I am not sure who the other team in the final is going to be.