Car

Trixie, my 9-year-old Korean SUV, is dead.

One minute she was fine, then there was a bit of a weird noise from underneath her front bit, and now she’s dead. Long story painfully short, it would have cost more to repair Trixie than Trixie was worth (in monetary value at least, for who can put a price upon emotional attachment?). And so Trixie has been sold off to a third party, who will likely put a second hand engine in and sell her for a first class price.

Good luck to him. I have moved on*.

Or rather moved across… the Korea Strait to Japan. Word on the street is that their engines are “bulletproof” (I assume that this was meant to mean indestructible, although the literal meaning could also be quite useful here in SA). Trixie’s replacement was sourced in East London of all places, but is already headed westward towards what passes as civilisation here**, and should be with us by this time next week.

I’m looking forward to the new vehicle, but (surprise surprise) we could have really done without this sort of expense. Cars aren’t cheap, hey?

Also, I will need a new Sheffield United sticker for the back window.

 

* at least, that’s what I’m telling my broken heart.
** Jeez. I’m just joking. Calm down, sweetpea. 

Away

Tethered (not in a 50 Shades… way) to my tablet’s tenuous internet connection, I thought I should fire off a quick missive from the cottage. For the record, let it be known that I am quite, quite drunk and I am listening to T’Pau’s first (only?) album.
We drove down in the new car; and what fun. So much of power.

It’s been a day dominated by the wind – a gale force north westerly hangover from last night’s cold front, but I’ve still been up a ladder in the lee of the cottage, removing dead birds and living plants from the gutter. My life is so glamorous.

image

A quick visit to the beach, a couple of beers, a braai and a rather decent Cabernet Sauvignon from 2007 and I’m now sitting in front of a cosy log fire.

Life could be worse…

My Sunday

A day dominated by buying a car (a really awesome car that cost way too much money) and saying goodbye to my runabout of the last 8 years. I shall miss him. That said, the new car is bigger, better and has (amongst other features) a camera on the back to assist with reversing. The image from the camera pops up on the rear view mirror which is a little bit unnecessary, but is also ridiculously cool and the kids want to see it all the time. Sadly, they don’t realise that I have to put the car into reverse for it to activate and that this is not an option at 100kph (forwards) on the M3.

A day also dominated by football. I only managed to catch one match (well, so far anyway, he said, eagerly eyeing the La Liga fixtures of the evening ahead), but what a match: Man City 3-2 Southampton. Oh, how I missed the beautiful game over the winter. And oh, how my wife’s TV watching is going to be sharply curtailed during the upcoming months.

Finally, as promised yesterday, getting the photos from our trip up Table Mountain up onto Flickr.

Yes, lots of touristy photos, but I seem to have some unwritten duty to promote Cape Town. Not that it needs my help on days like yesterday. It was absolutely stunning up on top of the big flat rock…