Travelling On

beanielou

Good news on the fuel payment. 

LadyWithAPlan

Congrats on the £300 pb win. Most I have ever managed is £100 - won in both july and Aug but nothing since.
Its great a fellow MSE getting a decent win

My 2 fav cheeses are manchego and pecorino - also a sheeps/goats mix. When I am ever in Florence i have been known to try and buy 10 diff varieties of it

How was the parallel parking lesson? Its definitely practise makes perfect as you have to get used to the car you are driving including its turn circle..

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

I meant to ask if you'd been looking at the Parkers website. They have decent, comprehensive reviews, including things like fuel economy, what's annoying, and other cars that might do similar things. 

Here's the one for the most recent Toyota Yaris: 

https://www.parkers.co.uk/toyota/yaris/review/

You can go back to earlier models too. We always use these whenever we're buying a car (which we haven't done for a while which is why I forgot about it 😂)

Anyway, ignore if it's not useful of course!

Cheery, thank you!  I'd not even heard of them  so this is great to read.  I'm almost certainly buying an earlier model, but as you say, it can go back to earlier.  Love it.

themadvix

Another vote for Parkers from me - I know my mum has found them invaluable in the past. Exciting times Karma - you're getting closer and closer to having those wheels!

Karmacat

beanielou said:

Good news on the fuel payment. 

Thanks beanie!

LadyWithAPlan said:

Congrats on the £300 pb win. Most I have ever managed is £100 - won in both july and Aug but nothing since.
Its great a fellow MSE getting a decent win
Thank you!  There have been fallow months too, of course, but this amount is really nice, no denying it.

My 2 fav cheeses are manchego and pecorino - also a sheeps/goats mix. When I am ever in Florence i have been known to try and buy 10 diff varieties of it
I *do* like the manchego **sobs** and I'm fine for big capital expenditures like the car (!!!) from savings, but £28.50 per kilo, that was too far for me - income is low enough to not be taxable, I just couldn't go there.  

How was the parallel parking lesson? Its definitely practise makes perfect as you have to get used to the car you are driving including its turn circle..

Oh!  It was really good, thank you!  I was very surprised.  The instructor understands on a really good level that I need to know *why* to do stuff, as well as how - so we got into if there's a bump, check where the back wheels are, if they're straight, it was the front wheels bumping, so you adjust them accordingly.  I did it once under his instruction, and twice on my own (more or less **coughs heavily**) and we rode off.  And on the B road into town, I was naturally keeping up with the traffic, at just over 35mph, I was so thrilled I can't tell you 😂 though when the farm equipment trundles by, all bets are off **blue shrieky smiley**.

themadvix

I know I wouldn't have passed my test if they'd asked me to parallel park. I have, fortunately, got better at it over the years though. I'm definitely a 'whybird' too - if someone wants me to do something it won't get done if I don't know why I'm doing it the way I've been told to!

It sounds like you're nearly there - it is just practice and confidence in so many cases - and your confidence is definitely growing!

Karmacat

So, today - there are things to do, and as I might be buying the car quite soon, I want to get the house stuff done, and maybe the weeding and cutting grass in the garden too, that would be great.

1. rubbish out.  Ordinary landfill rubbish, there's a bit.  Non-secure recycling - there's tons, mostly cardboard and paper.  Tins (of beans etc) are cleaned and go out as I use them, but the paper's stacking up.  Got to get it out today.  

2. garden.  The border I share with the Awful Neighbour is suffering from their unfinished work - they put a retaining concrete layer, like a post on its side, for the fence they erected, but the remaining part, although there's a concrete post right there, they haven't done it.  And there are two trees there, and the soil that they live in is slumping to where the Awful Neighbour has hacked everything else away.  The trees need protecting, and *I* need protecting.  I'll be in and out with the green bin work this weekend, so hopefully it I can tell him (the younger son, aggressive but not yet threatening) naturally.  We'll see.

3. Shopping needs to be cleaned and put away.

4. If possible, a bit of cleaning.  And certainly the washing machine on, the afternoon is meant to be clear.  

Very, very domestic day, which drives me crazy, but is necessary, and some of it is one-offs that will improve my living standard.  Oh, except I was working on the family tree of my sister's late husband last night, it was lovely - there's a WWI soldier in there, who was gassed, and who subsequently lived a life that was unimpeachable but entirely outside of wedlock, at a time when such a normal thing today was an utter disgrace.  I have such a soft spot for him, he seems like a lovely man.

Karmacat

themadvix said:

Another vote for Parkers from me - I know my mum has found them invaluable in the past. Exciting times Karma - you're getting closer and closer to having those wheels!

Good to know - neither bro nor sister use them, and others don't really talk about websites etc, so this is great.

themadvix said:

I know I wouldn't have passed my test if they'd asked me to parallel park. I have, fortunately, got better at it over the years though. I'm definitely a 'whybird' too - if someone wants me to do something it won't get done if I don't know why I'm doing it the way I've been told to!

It sounds like you're nearly there - it is just practice and confidence in so many cases - and your confidence is definitely growing!

My test had the thing of "reverse around a corner then park", and I know my line was very wiggly, but it was all under control, so I still passed, amazingly....   and oh my word, "whybird" is a great word, I love that 🤣  

My confidence is definitely getting there - apart from the parking, there wasn't really anything he needed to teach me.  And there are "little" things like looking at the satnav, pulling the sun visor down, thanking others, that are integral to driving but just need practice - and paying £42 per hour for that is a bit much.  Better to get the car myself.  I'll be looking at 0% cc and insurance groups today.

themadvix

That sounds really good then!

'Whybird' was a character (a puppet bird) on Playsdays on CBBC in the 1990s... obviously she was always asking why and the human presenter with her would explain things... very educational!

beanielou

When I had my Yaris’s they were in a low insurance group.