Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

The bad news is it's not fixed yet. The good news is garage chappie has painstakingly tracked the fault down to an obscure combination of wiring/fuses and is ordering the parts I need (via breakers yard!) to replace the faulty bits. So hopefully by this time next week, I'll have a fully working car! And for about half the cost originally thought. Bonus!

Today got off to a great start when I got a call from my garage around 10am going "Umm, you were supposed to be bringing your car in today..?" Cue headdesking and hasty scampering. Hurrah for an understanding line manager and my garage being over the road from where I work :P

And then work was busy all day. Not completely overwhelmingly so, just often enough and persistent enough that I was never able to take my eye off the ball. And nothing seemed straightforward today, everything seemed to need something checked or created or sorted before being processed. Gagh.

And then tonight it took me two attempts to boil water - someone got sidetracked and forgot she had put a pan of water on to boil until someone started sniffing the air and going "What's that burning smell?!"

On the plus side, I made a great dinner of stuffed peppers with smoked sausage and I have an excellent episode of Mythbusters to watch. Hopefully the day's ending better than it started :D

Car's all fixed! I wasn't able to leave early enough to collect it tonight but it's a simple thing to stroll to the garage in the morning and collect it. Hurrah!

Met FogHorn's other half for the first time today - he needed the car so rode with us to work. Nice guy, as pleasant as I expected having spoken to him on the phone several times. He's celebrating landing a new job, he was made redundant a few months back, so yay for him. They both made me laugh this morning: their daughter has been in Spain for the past week on one of those exchange visits and they were saying she's had four hours sleep for the past couple of nights and doubtless won't sleep a wink on the plane home tomorrow, so they're fully expecting to be living with a velociraptor for a few days :D I bet Mr FogHorn will be glad to go out to work again!

Right, football match has started (Arsenal v. Liverpool and I'm very conflicted about who I want to win - I usually cheer for Arsenal but if they win tonight, it'll only aid and abet Manchester Utd. Bah!) so I'm off to watch that! Hee!

I scurried out of the flat this morning, leapt into my trusty automobile, turned the key and was greeted with the sort of wheezing associated with motheaten bagpipes. Either the battery's died, or the ghosts of a Scottish Pipe Band have taken up residence under the bonnet :P

Cue frantic phone call to FogHorn who, thankfully, hadn't left for work and was willing and able to swing by and pick me up. I totally owe her chocolates. The downside was I was stuck in work until 6.30pm waiting for her to leave. Needing to do work was understandable and obviously I am totally and slobberingly grateful she gave me a lift but starting a 20 minute gab fest with the boss at 6pm strained my goodwill a smidge....

Ah well :) I'm home and there's food a-cooking, I suspect I'll live!

The garage is picking the car up tomorrow morning and taking it away to hopefully make it all better. I'll have to see how long I'll be car-less. Thank gods I can afford to be without it now! If this had happened a couple of months back, I'd have been well and truly screwed.

So oh lovely flist of mine, how was YOUR Monday? :)

*dusts*

*coughs*

So much for my attempting to post regularly thing. Ah well, I was bound to fall off that wagon around now anyway :)

Since last week, nothing exciting has happened, hence lack of posting. Work is slowly ramping up for our manic season, so I've been kind of enjoying the calm before the storm. I also got bushwacked by a fic for 803am, to the point where I stealth finished it at work - look, it ate my brain, ok? I'm hoping this means I can now have another swing at the Bones fic I owe jenni411 from 2007 o_0. As for the fic I owe jebbypal *cries* I need inspiration dammit! Jebby! Throw me some plot bunnies, you're good at that! Only thing is, I no longer watch Grey's :P

The car was in the garage today, where it has been fitted with two shiny new tyres and is now a happy Rover. We'll gloss over the amount of cash I had to part with :P

No news on the house sale but I'm assuming no news is good news and that things are progressing.

And..that's it really. Next week I'm anticipating hell at work, starting on Monday at 8am when I have to join FogHorn in trying to sort out some financial problems we couldn't fix before today's 4pm "We're going to shut down SAP now, sucks to be you" deadline. Dammit. And then the budget shares need to be out of the door by Thursday and I've heard we're running a little behind schedule. So yeh, I prolly won't be around much next week either.

On the plus side? Leverage kicked arse this week, so did Burn Notice, so I'm a happy fangirly :)

And now there will be sleep, oh yes!

My morning so far:-

Wake up to alarm at 7.15, resist urge to burrow back under duvet.
Peer out of window to assess weather. There's snow but not too deep.
Get dressed
FogHorn calls and confirms she's taking daughter to school, will meet me at 8.30am.
Hop in car and slither carefully to garage - snow has eased considerably, it's mostly a very fine rain/sleet.
Drop car at garage, arrange for boss man to ring me.
Trudge home, noting the snow is getting heavier. And heavier. And deary me, it's rather heavy now.
About halfway home, get call from FogHorn - she's changed her mind about venturing out. I agree wholeheartedly and tell her I'm taking the day off as we'd discussed yesterday.
Make it home resembling something like an Abominable Dormouse.
Slurp tea, attempt to thaw out.
Boss chap at garage calls - I ask if they're willing to do the MoT but wait for payment until payday*. He goes to consult with boss.
Garage calls back - nope, no credit can be given. Sigh in disappointment but it was a long shot.
Enjoy remainder of tea.
Clamber back into wet coat and soggy scarf and start the thirty minute trudge back to the garage. The snow has stopped, but it's raining deceptively steadily.
Reclaim car, rebook MoT for payday.
Drive home.
Collapse on sofa with more tea, toast and hot water bottle.

At least I have the day off to recover :)

* - just heard that my cheque for the car tax bounced and can they have payment NOW please. Dammit. So I had to use the money I'd earmarked for the MoT and living expenses this month. Eh. I can eat next month :P **
** Seriously, it's ok, just annoying.

Talk about conflicted. We're scheduled for heavy snow (possibly) tomorrow morning. I have to get my car over to the garage for its MoT by 8am and hoof it to the nearby HCC building to meet FogHorn who's giving me a lift into work. I don't wanna go in that early *whines* I don't wanna be up that early either *whines harder*

BUT if it snows, FogHorn won't go in and we've already arranged I can use a day's leave. So I could take the car in later (MoT's booked for 10.30). Yay! But IF that happens, it means the snow is really, really bad and I'll have to drive in it, albeit not far *whimpers*

I have no idea if I'm wishing for heavy snow tomorrow or not :P

razzing frazzin' jazzin' car!

Stoopid thing has come out in sympathy with the computer and is refusing to start. Dammit. I thought I'd driven it enough this week but thinking about it, I haven't used it since Tuesday. Bollocks.

So I ring the AA, who you will recall came out last week, no bother, only to be informed that my membership has lapsed and I need to rejoin. There was outrage but fair enough, it's entirely possible I missed a direct debit back in February. *snarls* So I go through the palavar of rejoining...and then I'm handed a bill for £162, which has to be paid in one lump sum. I was Not Pleased, that's like 5 times the current membership cost but because it's a callout situation, it's the standard charge. *seethes* Anyway, I got a number to ring and filed a complaint. I was very civil but made it clear I thought it was appalling customer service to a long standing customer. I'm not complaining about the rejoining, that's fair enough. But to charge a customer who's been with the AA for well over 15 years £162 to rejoin is bloody awful. It's not like I'm someone who's never been with the AA just ringing up to get coverage for the first time because they've broken down, y'know? A very nice lady called Shirley promised to pass on my comments so I expect I'll get a polite letter two months from now going "Thank you for your comments, unfortunately blah blah company policy blah sucks to be you have a nice day". Eh. At least I complained, I feel slightly better :P

Thank god I still have room on my credit card for emergencies. BTW, we have an estimated completion date for Eve's house of 1st December. It can't come soon enough. *eyes empty bank account and sighs*

AA got the car going and advised me to take it for a decent drive because the battery was so low. So I drove it around for 40 minutes and then headed to the surgery. Collected my new sick note (another two weeks off, hurrah!) and nervously went back to the car. It started! First time! Yay!

I still wouldn't fancy doing a long motorway journey just yet, even doing just that was really tiring, so best I avoid mega trips. But at least now I know I'm ok to get myself to the supermarket and back *happy* That does help :)

Acid test for the car will be to see if it starts first time tomorrow *grins*

And now for food, for I am a ravenous mousey!

I have a new sick note waiting at my doctor's surgery and I was going to drive over (it's not far) to pick it up. Figured I'd be ok for a short journey. Strolled happily out to the car, feeling pretty good, attempted to use the remote locking and...nothing happened. Then I recall that the car's been sat outside for the best part of 2 months with no-one driving it and guess the battery's flatter than a pancake. One swift manual opening of car door later, I put the key in the ignition, turn it and yep, absolutely nothing happens.

So I'm waiting for the AA to arrive *cuddles her AA membership* Adding Home Start to my AA package all those years ago was so smart :)

I'll keep you advised how the subsequent driving goes, assuming we get the heap going :)