Travelling On

badmemory

Isn't the long term expense a replacement battery, but hopefully by the time that is needed the prices will be coming down.

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

Really useful to see the cost, well done for working it out. I confess I initially thought you were going to have 1000 refresher lessons!! 😮😮😂 you probably won't need 1000! (And I suppose you may well not need £1000 worth but difficult to know without starting!)
Probably not 1000 lessons 😄 but bear in mind that I passed my test .... um, 40 years ago, and have never driven regularly since.  I only drove intermittently in the first year, and that was it.

Your insurance would probably come down a lot after the first year. When we first got a second car, I'd only been a named driver, never had a policy in my name before, and the cheapest I could get was £700 for the year. The next year it was about £350, and it's been about £220-250 ever since. 
That's good to know, thanks for that!

You might also find you don't need £500 a year for repairs either, although wise to include that. Some years I don't spend that on my old banger cars, but then it builds up nicely for the many years that I do!
Yep, I was just looking at places like autotrader, whatcar, that sort of thing, and putting in the figures they recommended.

Do some places still do free charging points, or is that a thing of the past now?!
I came across 2 free hours at Sains - there's a big one in my town - and there's probably a few others.  I'll do more research on that if I *do* get the car, as it's not a deal breaker, but its only sensible to use the free energy if you have the time to sit there (and I *would* have the time, as a retired person 😊).

Definitely good to know the figures 😊

It is good to know - it's all been very gut-instinct and blurry, and it's just not useful.

badmemory said:

I think re the car (talking as someone a bit older) it may be a good idea sooner rather than later even if you only use it for a limited number of things in your week.  Taxis can get expensive & certainly won't be getting any cheaper, but that aside, driving is like riding a bike you don't forget how normally, but the sooner you get back into it the better.

Well, as I say, it's 40 years, so things like muscle memory have utterly disappeared - and an electric automatic is quite different from a manual petrol car, I assume.  But you're spot on, sooner rather than later is the issue.  At least I learned to drive in London, so I'm used to traffic  

themadvix said:

Some places still have free charging Cheery, but not sure for how much longer. KC, are the electricity figures based on a cheap overnight rate like Octopus Go (currently 7p/kWh between 12 and 4.30 am.).
I'm assuming they *were* about cheap rate leccy, but to be honest, I don't know - there was a quote of how much per mile home charging cost, and I multiplied it by whatever it was to get the figure I got.  I'm surprised it was so low.  

Re repairs, EVs need new brakes, tyres, new wipers and that’s about it… they have far fewer moving parts and cost a lot less in maintenance generally, so hopefully you wouldn’t need that. Mr MV reckons (from his work-related  comparisons) that maintenance should be about 50% of the cost of an ICE vehicle.

That's great to hear!

Karmacat

badmemory said:

Isn't the long term expense a replacement battery, but hopefully by the time that is needed the prices will be coming down.

Another good point, badmemory - there was one website I read, though, that said a battery is expected to last something like 80,000 miles?  Seemed a lot to me - and of course, I'd be buying a pre-owned car, so the battery would already have had use.  

No guarantees in this business!

Karmacat

Today has been spent on *more* holiday admin:
- sent my sister the money I owe her for the cruise holiday; not yet AirBNB, only deposits taken, and that's minimal compared to the cruise.  Good to keep it separate, anyway.
- ordered currency.  We usually do it from John Lewis, because of family attachments, but to return unused cash we'd have to go to London, and that's not happening.  So we've each ordered from the Post Office, who will deliver, and I can take back unused cash to my local main post office.
- first stop is in Belfast - can't buy tickets yet for Titanic Belfast, as they're timed, and I need a conversation with my sister.  
- but I did buy the tickets for the hop on, hop off bus, only £15 each (the tickets via the ship are horrendously expensive, of course, but we'd rather do it on our own anyway).  My sister has *promised* not to refer out loud to the time her late husband spent over there with the British Army 😲 
- must send her the biog I wrote of our great x 3 uncle, who died on the Titanic.   Actually, he's a direct Irish connection - his parents were both refugees who came over as children during the Famine.

Karmacat

And there's more ...
- currency has been delivered, not yet opened it up.
- sorted AA batteries for gadget (and AAA batteries for my tv remote  )
- just sorted timings on the last day in Greenland, means we can go on a boat trip to the base of a glacier that falls into the sea!
- got my new kindle working, intermittently at first (it wouldn't keep connected to wifi) but at the moment it seems its resolved - downloading a few simple games for it, plus some books.  Happy Days  

So, there are 30 tasks in my list:
12 done completely
4 done in part
1 not to be done till after
13 not yet done.

Very pleased.

Plus there was a biiiig spider living in my electricity meter, and I ... persuaded .... it to move on.

themadvix

Great progress there, especially booking the boat trip - sounds fascinating. And those tickets for the hop on hop off bus tour sounds like a bargain - they wanted $47 each for the LA version (Yes, it’s bigger, but I bet there’s more sitting in traffic!)

Karmacat

Yep, I'm so pleased with the boat trip!  Each trip is quite short, though quite expensive - but how often will I be there?  Even counting everything, we'll probably only be off the ship for 4 - 5 hours that day.  Jolly chuffed  

The Belfast hop on hop off is a goodie - and on the viator website, it's really easy to see the exact route.  Sister's going to book the Titanic tickets, though, as I was getting a little frazzled - I'm quite tired, I must say.  Woke up at 1.45 last night, only dozed since then  

Today ... hmmm, nothing on the phone, I don't think, not by choice.  Airing the big coat I intend to take would be good.  The sky looks ominous, but Met Office gives only 5% chance of rain all day.  Wearing my shoes around the house to check them would also be a good idea.  

Must, must, must, use the portion of the garden I've cleared to grow some plants!  Since it's been dug over in the last few weeks, it shouldn't be too heavy.

Sewing machine is also an issue - I'd really like to sew a straight seam to make the body of a nightie from a sarong.  I found a copy of the correct instruction manual to download - but Elna themselves have nothing, in spite of having a website section called "support previous models".  It's just too old, though it still has the ability to do fancy computerised stitches.  It must have been very high-end when my mum bought it.  I see the UK firm is in Stockport (Elna is Swiss) so I think I'll send them a message.  It would be interesting!

Karmacat

Update: Elna/Janome have replied already!  Sent me an up to date official manual, plus a linkie to the accessories that are right for the machine, as well as letting me know the "shorthand" for this kind of machine.  Ultra top marks  

themadvix

Karmacat said:

 My sister has *promised* not to refer out loud to the time her late husband spent over there with the British Army 😲 

Yes, let's hope she keeps schtum! 😮

You're right about the boat trips - you've got to do these things while you're there - that was the approach we took to America, as we're unlikely to revisit some of those places.

Brilliant about Elna/Janome - companies who provide that sort of support are fantastic.

greent

Fab service!