Mark collects his Mazda

Yes, Mark has upgraded from his first car, a 1.2 Fiat Punto to a 1.6 Mazda 3 TS. Age wise he has gone from a 1999 "banger" which was run on a shoe string to a 2004 car that is much more in keeping with both his job and the need to make regular trips to visit his girlfriend in Slough.


Mark collects his Mazda from Sunwin, Derby.

The Punto had 82,000+ recorded miles, this Mazda has covered less than 33,000 and has a full 12 months (Mazda backed) warranty, so here's hoping it does him good service over the next few years without costing a fortune along the way.

Parents become old people

Parents - usually nice to have and nice to know. But, they become old people and the same doesn't always apply. Like young kids they become demanding. And they don't just want it, they want it now!

Now I remember that all the way through my formative years we worked on the basis that there were 4 Sundays in a month. These were then allocated on the basis of one for a visit to Dad's mum, one at home, then one at mum's parents and one at home. If there were 5 sundays in the month then that was an extra at home Sunday.

But now our parents are old people, and yes, we still love them but even though we get to see them at least once a week, usually twice and often more frequently than that... it's never enough. They still want to "see more of us". They claim they don't get out. Now for my dad that is true, he does nothing because of his advanced MS, he can't, but mother walks the dog most days, gets into town and round the supermarkets to do her shopping. Likewise Sue's mum, while her dad is transported to an old folks "club" twice a week and every now and then his mate Tony takes him to The Legion for a night out. In the better weather he gets about on a mobility scooter but with sub zero temperatures currently bing the norm, then he's staying in more as we'd expect. Except he doesn't. He wants to be out.

So where does that leave us? Running around after the old folks. Doing the shopping that they forget because they won't write themselves a list but which we won't do unless it's on a list (see the irony there - they won't write a list for themselves but they will for us). Popping in and out, lots of short visits simply because if we just go for a few hours once a week then they say "we never see anything of you".

I love my parents but I'm not so keen on old people.

The banger is going!

Mark needs a reliable car and the Punto is past it's best. It has served him well and been really quite cheap to run but recent events have highlighted it's age. So while his car was off the road waiting on Andy's time to fix it and then the phased repair after the first fix failed to provide the permanent solution, "Dad's Taxi" gets hooked into conveying him around the dealers and car retailers in the local area. After several of weeks searching, initially without any idea as to what he really wanted and all the time mindful that he didn't want to blow all his savings, we finally found the solution.

Late on Sunday afternoon we dropped in on the local Mazda dealership, and after being advised that all the ones in the price bracket we were looking had been sold and leaving our details for then to "get back to us" we took a walk round a corner plot to see a lovely looking example of a 7 year old Mazda 3 TS at half the price we'd set as the upper limit of his budget. We persuade a salesman who obviously wants to be getting off home, to give Mark a test drive. The smile across his face when he returns tells me all I need to know. So, we agree that subject to an inspection by his bigger brother Andy, and the go ahead from him, we are seriously interested.

Andy has seen it, driven it, inspected it and on Tuesday after Christmas Mark will own a low mileage Mazda 3 1.6 TS in a rather nice metallic blue, complete with a 1 year Mazda backed warranty and home start, breakdown and recovery. What a nice way to end the year.

Exensive time of year

Yes, Christmas is upon us and it's traditionally an expensive time of year, but boy, this year takes the biscuit.

First the washing machine decides it wants to be a shopping trolley (i.e. have a mind of it's own) and not wash/dry what's put in it to the program selected on the dial.

Second breakdown was Mark's car. On the main, narrow and twisty road up through Castle Donington on his way to work it stops, having over heated. Due to the sub-zero temperatures it soon cools down without any coolant being added and he gets to work. And later, he drives it home. The water pump is leaking a pretty flow so that's the obvious culprit, and is duly replaced only for a second leak to then be found at the union of the block to the heater matrix part of the system - an elbow piece of plastic with a temperature sensor is having a hard time and leaking coolant at a rate of knots, so a new one is purchased and fitted. Job done, the banger lives again and at least he can get to work.

Next up, the boiler decides to follow suit so we get the local man in who diagnoses the fault and we then have to wait 10 days for the bit to come and for him to fit it, a ten minute job, an expensive ten minute job, but as always he sticks with his quote so we are just happy to get hot radiators when we turn up the thermostat.

Then yesterday Sue gets her car out to drive to work, only to find it's pulling to the left. that might be because the near side front tyre has a damned great big nail through it. That's one new tyre then.

So when I get home to insurance renewal notices for (i) my car insurance, and (ii) the home contents and building insurance I'm not well pleased. All due by the end of the year, they bring the tally for December to £1,600.

And I still have to find £300 from somewhere for a replacement exhaust for the motorbike - so that'll be on hold until February (at least).