Markeh

Sod the company, do the bare minimum you have to do and spend any time you can at work looking for something else - they can't blame you for doing it if they're all in the same boat. When I was made redundant nearly 3 years ago (I appreciate that I'm in tech so different industry), I was on phone interviews in my car in the car park or stood outside the building (and this is literally only because we didn't get good signal in the meeting rooms!), redoing my CV, replying to people on LinkedIn, searching for listings, doing technical tests on my own laptop sat in the office, I did the square root of fuck all for those 3 weeks (AND still had time for the contents of my desk drawer to disappear into a carrier bag - I'd advise liberating what you can) When they said they'd found a job for me in the new structure at the end of those 3 weeks it was quite satisfying to say actually, no, I've found something paying literally 50% more and doing what I want to do.

SOLD, to the Essex trader buying up cheap petrols in the north to take back down and flog to the ULEZ crowd for £1100. Being collected on Wednesday. Sad to see her go and be down to just the modern but it's for the best.

The Meriva is now force hail

Not much going on with the Meriva at the moment. I've been using it for post office runs and park and ride trips. Have done all the tip runs I need to do in it. Drivers electric window was being a little dodgy but a blast of silicone spray down the window channel seems to have sorted that one. Not bothered sourcing any wheel trims because I can't bring myself to put cheap aftermarket ones on and Vauxhall ones are either too expensive or worse condition. I've ordered a touch up paint and not used it, I've had a terrible go at polishing up the bonnet by hand with some G3 and it looks better but not great still. While it's proved useful, I've only done about 550 miles in it and a good chunk of those were driving it back from Reading. I think I'll get it valeted at some point this week and I'll probably look to list it for sale. I've no idea what to ask for it.

Bright blue Audi Q2 drives round here a lot - plate's legally spaced as LE51 SME. Right below the plate across the back bumper in white stick on letters (in the correct font no less!) it's illegally spaced as LE5 1S ME.

This morning they announced redundancies at work. Our team is safe but the time this morning where we didn't know what was happening/that we were okay has given me flashbacks to when it happened at my last place and has left me feeling shit most of the day so far.

Part of me always questions what sporty little Mazda can accommodate three lovers. I have visions of three people trying to do the deed in an MX-5! Seen them live twice now (Fascinating Aida not the doggers), always put on a cracking show (see previous comment). No car of mine has ever seen any action, though I suspect the Nissan would be suitable enough. Meriva lacks the space and has too much window!

I've only done it once. Went back to Lincoln for a night out with some friends a few years below me after I'd graduated. House party followed by venturing into town, and then I was gonna crash on their sofa when we got back. Only another guest decided to throw up all over said sofa, so when I got back, it was wet from being cleaned and had no cushions as they were all in the washer. A bit drunk at 3am and ready for bed, I decided that the cold tile floor didn't appeal as a sleeping surface and elected to sleep in the back of my Megane. I put the passenger seat all the way forwards and sort of slept in an L shape across the back seats and into the footwell while wrapped in a double duvet with the window open a crack. More frustrating was the next morning when I needed to use the facilities and no-one answered the door at the house, ended up driving down to the local McDonalds!

I generally try and request that if they can, provide something other than a Micra unless they can provide another for the other foot.

I just get various Nissans. Generally end up with either a Juke or a Qashqai, although trying to shoehorn myself into an automatic Micra was fun, being 6ft 4 in both height and circumference.

Taken the Meriva today to my mate's work to service it and change the thermostat. Oil and filter change, air and cabin filters and change the clearly stuck stat. Stat didn't look too happy. Original GM item by the look of it. Air filter was a bastard, all the screws had been rounded off and rusted. Took a lot of work to get them off. Didn't look too grim. Cabin filter also an original GM. Given it requires removal of the scuttle panel and the wipers, can't say I'm surprised! He decided to clean the engine bay afterwards, it's not looking too bad now. ] We were tight for time but he has done a corner of the bonnet and it seems to have come up well. Will be getting some G3 to finish off the rest of the bonnet. Also need to order a touch up paint, couple of blebs on the bottom of the bonnet and top of the wing, and the bit of paint that came off the tailgate. So did the thermostat fix it? Yes it did! Gets up to temp nicely now and heater gets lovely and hot as well. To do list: - See if I can get some better Vauxhall wheel trims for it - Touch up paint and sort the bonnet - If I happened upon a head unit and bits cheap enough I'd stick a more modern one in but the CD player in it works well enough. - Get the whole car valeted. And then I'll look to move it on.

There's a Note half way up a reasonably well used road near me that's clearly been twatted up the rear and punted into the kerb, wheel on the rear corner not looking healthy. First clocked it on Boxing Day, still hasn't moved and now has at least a broken rear quarter window. Might try and get a pic tomorrow.

Probably not, although I wouldn't be upset if it took a while to sell. Not exactly the most engaging driving experience I've ever had but it's capable enough at being an car.

New year, new badly scuffed wheel trim from twatting a kerb. I treated it to some mats off Ebay, £12 posted and they clip into the original clips and fit pretty well! It's been used as a tip run car to get rid of a load of rubbish from the back alley my garden backs onto and at least two Christmas trees. I've also been using it to do the mile round trip to the local post office/UPS point to drop off parcels, and taking it on small journeys because it had more petrol in it than the Nissan. Just ordered the bits to give this a service and hopefully change the thermostat. My mate (same one who cleaned up the Sedici and bought the 206 with me) is hopefully going to help me do this at the weekend. Given the muddy state of my driveway and limited time, we're probably not going to get round to washing it. All the service bits except some new coolant (which my mate has plenty of) and the new stat have cost me just a smidge over £100, although it's Euro Car Parts so I'm not holding my breath. Once I've done a few miles in it after that (probably including standing some car boots if the weather dries up a bit!), I'll probably think about getting it cleaned and moving it on - it's a tight squeeze and very muddy to have two cars on the front at this time of year, and given next door takes up most of the on-street parking near me, that's not too much of a viable option either. By the time I need to do more tip runs and such I probably won't be as worried about making a mess of the Nissan. Although part of me would be tempted to swap for something more interesting (because it certainly can't be less interesting)...

The irony is I've got the opposite problem, I finance a new car and some of my friends are the ones who roast me about spending x amount of money on a car a month or taking the piss should something go wrong with it. Didn't get nearly the same amount of stick from them when I had the Megane. It's not as if they're into older cars either, the worst culprits have a financed (albeit much cheaper and bought second hand) 17 plate Sportage!

Intended to rent a van when I moved into this place, as I was moving out of my folks it didn't make sense to hire proper movers as a large amount of my stuff was boxed up ready to go anyway. Figured an SWB and a few trips will be fine. Delays with exchange meant I had to book the van the day of completion for the next day. And that's how I ended up behind the wheel of a Luton Transit. Looking back it made life a lot easier (except for anyone I was with who was made to watch me reversing because I was petrified of hitting something)

Even better if you can grab it on a S*n £9.50 deal like most of the big chain caravan sites. And even better than that if you find the codes posted on social media so you don't even have to buy the bloody paper in the first place!

Center Parcs has definitely gone downhill over the past 10 years. I believe they got bought by another company and cost cutting started big time. My mother worked as a villa cleaner in the late 2000s at Sherwood. The perks were pretty decent back then, she could take people in for day visits to the facilities like the pool and spa, we could book unused chalets with a week or two's notice for something crazy like £50, any household stuff that was left behind could be kept - in 5 years we never had to buy toilet roll, washing up liquid or dishwasher tablets. Anything alcoholic or decent had to be handed in but if not claimed in x amount of time could be had. Big hampers of stuff at Christmas, invites in for events like fireworks shows and that sort of thing - Nothing like that now, I'm led to believe! I stayed at the Woburn one which is reasonably new just before covid kicked off - it was nice, probably because it was still new, and they did bend over backwards to help two people with mobility issues in our party, but £600 for a 2 bed "executive" for a weekend in January seemed steep! The maths only works out if you're going off-peak with a group of adults and are splitting the cost I would say. It's mad the amount of local people who go there for a holiday as well - I don't understand how you can go on holiday somewhere that's a 15 minute drive from your house. For the money, I'd rather go abroad.

My old Qashqai, Fistral Beach, October

The yards round here still seemed alright the last time I went to them, although at least one (forgot the name but it was in Kirkby-in-Ashfield) has gone now. We still have Albert Looms in Derby and Ray's in Rainworth, last frequented in 2018 when I needed a new alloy for my Megane after an unfortunate pothole incident. The old yard in Kirkby let me have a load of bits for free, probably because I'd been honest and not pocketed them (little plastic covers and a book pack). Think the most I've ever paid for a scrapyard part was £15 for the Renault alloy. Was hoping to have an excuse to go scrapyard hunting for bits for the Meriva but annoyingly it doesn't need anything!

Today on my way home from visiting family in West Sussex I decided to take a detour and visit a farm shop made famous by a certain Amazon series. Viewers of said series may note the episode where the shop opened and cars were being towed out of horrific amounts of mud by tractors. The shop website also points out that it's in a field and suitable footwear should be worn. So of course I tried to visit in my ratty old trainers with no grip. You can guess where this is going... flat on my arse in the mud about 2 minutes after arrival. Managed to slide back to the car after scrounging some loo roll to help clear up. Thankfully I had a change of clothes in the car, which given the only thing not covered in mud was my hat was quite fortunate. Turns out the new Qashqai is not very easy to get changed in the back of if you're 6ft 4 and trying desperately not to make a mess of the inside or get done for indecent exposure. On the bright side, who should come barrelling past in his Range Rover as I was trying to get to my spare clothes but Jezza himself! Thankfully I didn't get spotted as I'm sure I'd have had the piss taken out of me. Side note - I've driven from the north side of Nottingham all the way to Horsham and back with a day trip to Brighton in the middle over the past two days. In that time I've had to move out of the way of people and use my horn 4 times. I'm not saying the people of Nottingham have forgotten how to drive over Christmas, but every single one of these occasions was north of Trowell services. Another side note - £17.50 to park in Brighton for 3 hours can get in the fucking sea.

I might be free for this if nothing comes up between now and then.

I was able to identify the Kia Cerato that overtook me in the middle of Mansfield about 3 or so years ago as the towcar in the episode of Top Gear where they went caravanning. Shockingly, my passenger was not impressed by said fact.

I damn well hope I've got enough years ahead of me that my current cars don't see me out - especially hoping the Qashqai doesn't as I'm replacing it on Friday! My gran bought her 68 plate Ignis with the intention of it seeing her out - given it's still only in 4 digits on the mileage I think it probably will.

In for MOT this morning... That'll do! All I've done is put some screenwash in it. She now has a name as well - the previous owner started referring to the car as Proud Mary after it unexpectedly passed an MOT a few years back, so given most of my cars are referred to as music references or songs (Silver Machine, Black Betty, Jeff (as in Lynne > ELO > Mr Blue Sky)), that name can stay! It is clear the stat is stuck open so that's hopefully on the list to sort in the new year alongside a service and a good clean/polish. For now I'm going to run it as she sits for popping to the shop/tip runs/car booting, my mate will help me tidy it up some time in January and will probably look to sell/swap for something more interesting than a greyish-blue blob.