Not only was Michael Heseltine in my hotel last week, but also the entire Bayern Munich football team. An odd combination. In addition, my shoes literally fell apart as I was walking around Essen. These things may or may not be related.
There will be more content here just as soon as I’ve recovered from man flu. I will use my illness as an excuse for the fact that January 2007 has seen the smallest number of posts in any month since this blog’s inception.
Official, apparently: Meerholz is the centre of the EU.
It’s that time of year again. Last year, I made five resolutions. I have made a good start on the first one, although it is a massive project and has taken much longer than anticipated, not least due to distractions of the Tom kind. The second I failed on miserably. The third hasn’t gone too badly, although it has improved of late. The fourth, well let’s not go there, shall we? – only 186 posts this year, including this one – not good enough. And the fifth one I’ve done reasonably well on – I’m certainly a lot happier on that score than I was this time last year.
So, for 2007, I’ll continue the good work where the good work has started. Beyond that, I haven’t really got that much that I feel I particularly want to resolve to do – there is plenty to keep me occupied.
2006 has been a year like none before it, entirely due to the arrival of Tom. He has, as I expected, changed life totally and for the better. In addition, we’ve had a lot of travel (I’ve been to Ireland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain and Hungary this year) and there is more planned for 2007, with trips to Germany, France, Netherlands (naturally), Portugal, Poland, Ireland and Italy on the cards. 2006 has also seen us starting to make new long term plans. We’re not yet sure if they will come to fruition, but the notion of emigrating doesn’t look beyond the realms of plausibility. We’re also much closer to finally sorting out our finances, which has to be a good thing and has implications for all areas of life.
New Year’s Eve this year will be spent with friends, eating and drinking too much whilst (hopefully) Tom sleeps. Then I’ve got to wind myself back up in to work mode after an extended Christmas break – which, when I wasn’t being ill, I’ve enjoyed and was much needed, particularly as I’ve spent nearly the whole break at home with Hels and Tom, undoubtedly a good thing.
Happy New Year to all grayblog readers. Keep coming back if you like this sort of thing.
My car is officially dead. Not going anywhere. The entire rear brake system and handbrake assembly needs serious work. So, if anyone wants to buy a 1992 Peugeot 106 1.4 that can’t be driven anywhere, really cheap*, let me know.
As a result, Hels and I spent the whole of today looking for a replacement. We visited sixteen dealers. Count them. Sixteen. 16. One, followed by a six. I think my brain is about to melt.
It seems that there is a great shortage of cars that are in our price bracket. There are many that are very cheap (and, therefore, crap or knackered) and there are many that are more expensive than we can afford (and, therefore, very desirable). We only found six cars that were suitable candidates today, of which four were Renault Méganes. We’ve booked a test drive for our favourite of these for tomorrow morning, so I hope to have transport available again soon. This, undoubtedly, will be a Good Thing, although I would have been happier to have found some options that weren’t Méganes, just to broaden the choice.
But, honestly, there has to be an easier way. Anything we found on the internet was already sold, miles away or entirely unsuitable. Stuff in Autotrader also had the same problems. Ultimately, it comes down to getting out and pounding the streets to physically look at cars on the ground, which is tiring and time-consuming. What’s more, with so many types of cars (I’m not an expert by any means), it is virtually impossible to make meaningful comparisons even between two cars that appear superficially similar. Maybe we should just be like the Soviets and all have identical Ladas (well, perhaps something a little nicer than that).
* Really cheap = about £80 to £100, plus you have to organise a trailer to take it away.
EDIT: the test drive was a success. Surprisingly, it turns out that it is cheaper for me to insure the “new” car, so it will become mine, not Hels’s. I’m not in the least bit gleeful about this; not at all. Honest. I should take delivery (or, rather, drive 120 miles to get it) on Saturday.
I want to visit the Minaret of Jam. Although, as we know, the jams are revolting and there will be no pie, only honour. But there is no honour without pie.
I have a draft post sitting on the server about our last trip to the Netherlands – if you’re lucky I might finish it and include a section about our latest trip there from which we returned on Sunday night. But know this: I’m still not very keen on Amsterdam, but there is a bit of the Netherlands on which we are very keen indeed.
…I promise. In the meantime, here is the testcard a photo of Oustreham port at dawn.
I like the way that my rather knackered Nokia, struggling with the low light conditions, has produced a fine piece of pointillist art.
The Motors. Bless.
Anyway, this post comes to you from the departures lounge at Gatwick’s North Terminal. Not bad considering I should currently be sitting in some nice bar in Budapest, having arrived about two-and-a-half hours ago from Heathrow.
So you can say that it hasn’t been a great day so far. Having left home on time, dropping Tom at his childminder en route, I soon ground to a halt on the M25. I had a rotten time of it on the M25 on Monday, but this was even worse, to such an extent that I stopped the engine and sat reading for 15 minutes. Clearly, it was even less of a great day for the unfortunates in the accident at junction 10, but it meant that it was soon obvious that I was going to miss my flight. Malev have been as helpful as they can be, given that they have no later flight from Heathrow and have got me on the evening flight from Gatwick, but it has cost me £100 (although that includes a compulsory upgrade to business class due to economy being packed to the gunwhales) plus £11 for a two hour trip on the tube and train (I needed to leave my car at Heathrow as my return flight takes me there).
Which brings me to today’s idle thought. How come, as you amble along the Piccadilly Line, you pass Barons Court (no apostrophe), Earl’s Court (Earl who?) and Knightsbridge (all one word)? Any ideas why these names should be constructed differently? And is there a link between the noble places?
Anyway, more nonsense after the weekend, assuming my journey goes ok and there are no riots. In the meantime, check out the cricket and then go along to the food festival at Glynde Place this weekend.
I’m planning to travel to Budapest on Thursday. I think I need to keep an eye on the news in the meantime.
UPDATE: latest news suggests that, whilst there is a large peaceful protest near the government buildings, the violence is quite small scale and can be likened to the "poll tax riots" of the Thatcher years – in other words, mainly confined to one square. I’ve been checking carefully and my hotel is at least two kilometers away from the trouble, so I still intend to travel unless there are significant developments overnight. However, I was planning to take an evening stroll to explore the centre of Budapest, which I may now forego and put off for another occasion.