Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I'm afraid this will be a pictureless post as progress is happening but I haven't taken any photos.

Last week we discovered that my car had a broken front spring so it had to go for new springs. That happened last Friday and then we also had to book in DHs car to get a wheel bearing replaced. Mine didn't cost as much as I thought it might and DHs came in under warranty so no charge, woo hoo, sigh of relief the bank balance is still healthy.

Of course this has driven me to more seriously consider the lifespan of my car. It will be 8 years old come August and I have had to spend some money on it over the years. I don't do big mileage as now I'm retired I'm at home most of the week but my journeys tend to be longer and I need a car that can deliver performance. I have been hmming and haing about whether to change my car for the past year and more and I still can't decide. As a result I decided to do a bit of ground work and spent a lot of hours yesterday doing the rounds of some car dealers. I came home with brochures and prices and still I can't decide. I think my problem is that none of the current models in my range speak to me. I still love my little car but it is getting older and it is very sporty, you have to sit down into it and it has a sport suspension and this is what is driving me to even consider changing.

So what to do, my best option is a Seat Ibiza, which is bigger overall than my little Megane coupe but I can purchase with a 3 year 0% finance option (and it comes in bright yellow, big plus). I saw a beautiful Tigra which was on special, the local dealer had a few on special and the prices were extremely attractive but unless I want to go into my capital for the whole purchase amount (which I could but I feel i don't really want to) any finance option would incur interest. Now that doesn't make sense, I really begrudge the extra cost. I started out looking at the little cars, but they all come in only a 1 litre engine, if we lived in town or the outskirts these would be fine as they are all I would need for urban driving, but most of my driving is country and you do need a bigger engine.

The result is I think I'm going to sit on this for a few months and see what I feel then. My thinking had been that in the current economic climate and from all that had been hashed over about how bad the car market was I would be in a position to get a bargain. This doesn't seem to be the case here in Northern Ireland, cars are still expensive and I haven't found any great bargains. So no decision yet, my car is worth more to me on the road than trade in.

The other thing I did yesterday was get to the hairdresser. Due to retiring I hadn't managed to get myself back there since last September. Result - my hair had gotten very long and grown out of its style AND my colour was well faded out and I seem to be getting whiter too. So time for a cut and colour, my colour is now better and I always feel like it gives me my skin colour back too. AND my style is now short, easier to keep, better for days at home when I don't want to fuss about styling and of course as the weather warms it will be cooler. At the moment it is all styled and dried nicely as per the hairdresser, time will tell how well I manage it, my hope is that I can wash and "fluff" it for those days when I'm just at home, and a quick styling will do when I'm going out.

So enough for now, I hope to have some photos for my next post. Time to be off now and get organised to go to town for my weekly shop and then meet my friend. We are going to have a DVD evening with finger food instead of a formal meal. Just 2 of us tonight. it's normally 3 but our third is dealing with the death of a friend from agressive breast cancer and also recovering from another friend losing her partner to cancer last week. She has to go tonight to visit her friends mother so we're thinking of her as she has had a very bad time of it this past while. I hope you all keeping well out there in blog land and if not, keeping as positive as you can.

1 comment:

  1. Oh yes! A yellow car!! I love the Mini Coopers in bright yellow.

    I know your hair looks wonderful. I love a short sytle that is easy to care for.

    I am send an email message to you now to catch up, but I do enjoy your blog posts so I hope you will continue them!

    ReplyDelete