Waiting!!!!

Well, here I am again and still waiting for the money from the insurance company!! I phoned them friday only to be told they are still in enquiry mode!! As I was phoning from reception at work I could not go into details so I will be phoning tomorrow morning and saying 'what the hell do you mean enquiry mode?' .............Now I (along with many others) was of the belief that once an offer on a write off is made, when you are fully comprehensive, that once all the relevant documents have been received by the insurance company (i.e. service docs, mot, vehicle registration etc) then you gets your cheque and all is hunky dory with the world and they continue with getting their monies back after they have paid you out!!! Or am I wrong???? No I did not think so..........so tomorrow someone is going to get an earful as it is causing no end of trouble with Rob and I car sharing, not to mention all the added miles/wear and tear on his car bearing in mind he works some 16 miles away and I am having to take him to and from work so I can use his car whilst he is at work - 2 round trips of a total of 32 miles each time so at the moment we are averaging 80 miles a day - (the bus service in this neck of the woods is hopeless!!!) to do all the weekly errands and getting to & from my work!! This coming week is going to be fun as he is on early start so I will be having to get up with him at 5.30 a.m!!! and collect him in my lunch hour which is 1.30 - 2.30 .......I end up eating on the go!!! If I am wrong regarding the fully comp insurance aspect then please correct me, but I am sure I am right!!

I spent the evening cake making yesterday as Rob was out at a gig and I could not leave Sascha for all that time (9 hours) if I had gone in his car - I usually follow on later and then leave to come home earlier if I have my own car.............apparently I missed out on a damn good evening...Arrgh!!! My cakes turned out lovely so that is a plus, only drawback is that Rob keeps wanting to eat them (mainly the chocolate one) so I have put a padlock on the cake tin, LOL!!!!

As I write Rob is installing a new safety gate for Sascha's benefit!!! We leave her in the kitchen when we are at work but as there is no door from the kitchen into the conservatory we have a safety gate to stop her getting into the conservatory; the old safety gate is now too small so Rob had put some old fence trellis on top of the gate to stop her jumping the fence, LOL!! All well and good and it has been working but she has now discovered that if she gnaws at the wood it will eventually disappear (she so far has not got splinters thank goodness!!!) and she can then jump over again (yes she has grown that much!!) !!! We have now got an extra tall gate from the pet shop and in theory it should stop her but as it is a different fixing system it is proving difficult to get it to stay in place (the old one you could bolt into the wall....this one you cannot!!) and she just may push it over!!! The only reason we have not got a door there is that we cannot find a chippy (carpenter) to do it for a reasonable price.....we have the door, the 'furniture' and can get the frame so all they would have to do is fit the darn thing but I refuse to pay in excess of £150.00p for a couple of hours work!!! Someone has said they would do it for us but as it is a friend of a family member, trying to pin them down is a nightmare! The only reason Sascha cannot go in the conservatory at the moment is 'cos Rob has some band equipment in there and she may chew it .......we are going to be selling it so once it is gone she can go in there again.

Anyway, I am off to make a cuppa and put dinner on (roast gammon, cauliflower cheese & new potatoes, followed by a small piece of my choccy cake I made last night!!)......by the way talking of food,...... I have lost nearly 2stone now so I am feeling quite good about myself and have been slimmer of the week 3 times now; I just missed last months slimmer of the month by 1lb but runner up is quite good!!! I have given up proper chocolate (galaxy, lindt....etc.) completely now and Rob does not know but the cakes made last night were done with low fat butter and canderel & he loves them saying they are my best ever, tee hee!!!!

Loads of love

Joan xxxxxxx

Found One!!!

Well, this is the vehicle I have chosen to replace the Omega!! Definitely a 'hit me if you dare'!! It is a Landrover Freelander and it took one helluva day yesterday to track a decent one down.

I had seen an older one not far from where I work and quite liked the look of it (we even got as far as sitting in it and starting the engine up, lol) but the place where it was for sale was not really my choice of a car dealer (a portakabin and land space that is getting smaller by the week, LOL) to get a vehicle from. So a search was done on the Autotrader website and we went travelling yesterday to find the few I had selected. We went furthest away first (about 30 miles...the other side of Peterborough), and the one that we had seen pics of looked lovely in burgundy and immaculate....haha, joke on us.....when we got to the 'garage' the car was away from the bulk of the vehicles and sporting that many scratches that it was a prime candidate for a total respray!! Needless to say we did not even get further than glancing at it and promptly left!! We then went to see another in dark blue which I test drove, again it had a few scratches but would have t-cut out but on the test drive it was not very responsive accelerator wise which was a blessing in disguise cos the brakes were virtually non existent!! Again we gave it a definite thumbs down and by this time I was feeling pretty fed up, but I did not give up as we went and looked at a 3 door (not practical but it looked good) which again we decided against, however the garage owner did give us a few tips and alternatives to think of & look at, but you know what it is like when you decide you want something in particular......it won't leave you!!

Anyway, feeling pretty hungry and thirsty we came home and after some sustainance I did another search on the auto trader site.....this time 2 more appeared that I swear were not there in the previous search and wayhay they were local and not 30 odd miles away!!!! Anyway, off we went - post cuppa - to the 1st garage which is in our local high street (that is close!!) and we came across the above Freelander! Now I have never done green cars , my father hated them and I have never felt an incling to get one either, especially in dark green, but I thought heyho I'll give it a whirl especially as it had no scratches or marks on it whatsoever, immaculate inside as well; it is not a normal metallic green - it has a sort of glitter in the paint as though a glitter top coat has been put on it....very sparkly!!! Needless to say it drove very well but the sun roof opened (we test everything!!) and would not close!!! We decided to see what deal he could offer....quite a good one as it happened and then went away to test drive yet another one whilst we mulled over the guys offer. The final one was at the garage where we got Rob's Frontera 4 x 4 from; it was the newest of the lot on an x plate and looked a really nice burgundy.....then the guy started it up!!!......it rattled and did not sound too clever but we still decided to take it for a run just in case the rattle was just on starting up after being stood for a while. To say I had my foot flat to the floor when accellerating and struggled to get 50mph out of it is an understatement!! Even going through the gears the accelleration was non existent........to be honest I think we were lucky to get back to the garage without conking out!! When we got back to the garage with it he started offering us all sorts of 'freebies' i.e 36mths warranty, 12 months tax, free servicing including the parts!!......alarm bells started ringing with both Rob and I ....... just why did he want to sell it so badly in offering all that? So as you can gather we settled on the green baby and it came to the garage we are getting it from via a very reputable vauxhall maindealer........and because the sun roof does not work properly (it can be fixed eventually) he is putting 12mths tax on as well, and a good warranty. So now I just have to wait for the monies to clear from the settlement of my write off and I will soon have it sitting outside the house!!! Robs only complaint about it was that he slid around on the leather seats, LOL, so he would need velcro on his trousers to stay in one place!!!

As I write this Sascha is sat at the side of me and is watching Animal Park on the tv and is totally fascinated by the Lions!! She is such a tv addict........anything involving animals definitely keeps her occupied, plus if she see's anything with a ball or similar she tries to chase it and when it goes off the screen goes looking for it!! She is one crazy doggy!!

The sun is shining again!! It was lovely and warm yesterday so here is hoping we reach similar temps today.....at one point when we were out in the car the external temp reached 23c which was lovely, only drawback was that I had a long grey angora jumper on with long sleeves and cowl neck so I was cooking!!! I just may venture out and do some more pruning back of the last of the roses if it gets warmer after lunch!!

I still have not figured out how to transfer my StrannyDayze over as I keep getting the 'email does not exist' sign. Do I have to create a new google account with my aol address or can I do it another way using my new bt email addy without the damn email does not exist sign once I am signed in? Arrgh, I don't want to lose StrannyDayze but the way it is going it looks like I might!

Anyway, ttfn.....love to you all and enjoy the rest of the weekend!!

Joan xxxxxxx

Well I am looking again!!!!

Well, the inevitable has happened and my car has been written off!! I was partly prepared for it but it still came as a bit of a blow!! Plus they took my courtesy car away today so I am car-less until I get some money through for my car!!! I just may get a chieftain tank this time......hit me if you dare!!! I had not expected the courtesy car to have been taken so soon but hey ho, it has happened so I have to live with it! Getting to & from work is another matter now but I will worry about that on Sunday evening, if it comes to it then I will just have to use Robs car and then run him to work in my lunch break then collect him later when he is finished; it will mean a lot of running round for me but at the end of the day cheaper than hiring a 2nd car!! The bus service here is just not good either so I could not use that option and a taxi twice a day would be approx £15.00+ each day, so doing extra journeys for running Rob to work and back so I can use the car as well for a short while will be the best of the options until I am mobile again in my own right! I am pretty sure what I am going for this time but I am not saying what it is until it is finalised......all I will say is that it will be a case of 'hit me now you bxxxxxds!!'

I have got over the worst of my chest infection; I am still coughing a bit but nowhere near like I was! I am stressed but I think I am excused that at the moment!! Other than that I am feeling quite okay I think!!! Rob gets concerned about me but then again I would be concerned if he was not concerned .....I think that makes sense!!! I always know when I am stressed, the skin on my thumbs (only my thumbs which is wierd) cracks and starts bleeding if they get very dry......strange how stress causes things like that, I have a friend that breaks out in a pink rash through stress and another that gets a blotchy face!! Stress has a lot to answer for!!

Anyway, I am off to make a cup of coffee.....(no I am not reaching for the choccy under stress either) and then probably head to my bed as I am tired after a long and eventful day!!!

Loads of love to you all

Joan

Oh no, not again!!

What is it with me? On thursday my car was hit big time by another driver and I will possibly have yet another written off car on my hands!! To say I am not happy is an understatement because if my Manager had done his job properly I would not have been in that position to be hit!! Yes I am angry, very angry because I should have been at home trying to get rid of this damn chest infection when I got a phone call to say that I had an hour and a half to get my time sheet signed before cut off for that weeks time sheets!! I had been told the sheet had already been signed off but it appears my ditzy manager had photocopied and not signed it! Needless to say I could not afford to go another week without that wage so I had to go out to get it done.....that is when the accident happened and I have a loan car yet again!! To add to it the perpetrator disappeared as soon as I said I was calling the Police (mainly to do with the debris on the road) but not before my witness (a lovely lady called Sue) took the vehicle details etc......the culprit even left his car parked up!! Needless to say the cops were not happy at him disappearing but they have tracked him down I believe so at least he will be bought to justice as we believe he may not have been driving 'in accordance with the law', mind you I hasten to add that is just pure supposition but why else would you disappear when you know the police are going to be attending?? I now have to wait until I get the decision from the repairers but I am prepared for bad news and this time I have removed everything from the car just in case.......it is not nice having to go and retrieve things from your vehicle once it has been given the thumbs down!!! This time if it is written off I am going to by a chieftain tank.....write that one off I dare you!!!!

Anyway, I was planning on this 2nd entry to be more of my bad luck so please forgive me!!

You will no doubt notice a bit of a change in our Sascha!! She is now 8 months old and bigger than Sam already! She is full of life and an incredibly waggy tail. She loves water (I can't even wash my hair without her poking her nose in!!) and keeps us on our toes big time! I will try and post a video of her soon!!

To me the pics are a bit haphazard but I will sort myself out at some point with them. I am keeping StrannyDayze open until the very end but I think all my postings will be here until then.....I have put a bye bye on there so if you want to pop over and read it then click on: http://journals.aol.co.uk/aniracj/StrannyDayxe/ . I could not bring myself to call this Stranny Dayze 2 so that is why I am Dayzed again, LOL!!

ttfn, loads of love to you all.

Joan

First steps!!

Well, seeing as my other blog over at aol is going to be coming to an end I will be joining many of the aol ex-faithful over here at blogger!!!!

I will fill in more about myself as time goes on but for now I have started this with a fresh mind and hopefully have the same friendships here as I did with J-land!

I will be back when I have more time........and my brain is not as fuddled as it is today with the remnants of a nasty cold!!