Sally's Journal

So, I came out of the College Arms tonight and found some bastard had smashed the window in my car and stolen my SatNav from the glove compartment.

I would be zen about this, but it's the second time in two weeks.

Am feeling a bit 'meh' now.

It appears that the inevitable has finally happened.

Since pierot and I moved to Goblintown, we have been parking in the car park of the drive through McDonalds, which is just across the road from us. This has saved us the £80 and hassle required to park on the road (bless you, Southwark County Council).

This morning I arrived at my car, to find a terribly nice note from McDonalds pinned to the windscreen. It appears a lot of locals have been using their car park quite a bit. As a result, they suspect they may be losing custom during busy hours. Therefore, from March 14th, they will be instituting a maximum parking time of 1 hour, and using a clamping company to enforce this. They were very sweet about this, and it's quite nice of them to give everyone two weeks notice.

However, it appears I either need to find another parking place, or £80 in the next two weeks.

*looks mournful*

In other news, my museology presentation seemed to go well, though I suspect I may have overran my allotted fifteen minutes. I can, however, still use sentences like 'the process can therefore be seen as an intrinsic part of the mortuary ritual, and this the core identity of the object' in all sincerity. And sound clever while doing it.

Go me!

I have a new car!

( Pics underneath )

It appears that Pridwen is missing!

Mini Emergency Services (who took her away) say that she's been delivered to the mini body shop in Park Lane, Battersea. They say they've not received her.

So. Missing! One mini - black & silver with a dragon on the roof. If found, please return to Sally.

I'm beginning to get mildly anxious about this.

Update:

Pridwen has now been found. It appears she was just in another part of the garage.

I'm having a bit of a panic attack. It seems that the current estimate for repair work is £2000. I don't know what this is for, as apparently the breakdown of this sum was sent out to me in the post on Saturday. Nothing can happen until I've received this, and either paid the garage the money, or made my claim to Mini Insurance and got things approved, which the garage think will also require me posting off the estimate to Mini Insurance.

I'm actually getting anxious about this.

Another update:

The breakdown of the costs apparently is:

£563 labour
£178 painting
£1715 parts
£420 specialists - wire and repair, new bonnet stripes, specialist wheel alignment, environmental protection

This is for new front bonnet pannel as the old one is dented, a new plastic bumper, paint work, the steering also needs checked and the electrics where bits at the front got ripped off need checked.

Yet another update:

The insurance should cover most of the costs - I've got an excess of £150, but the rest should be paid for. My no claims bonus is very very dead now, but at least I'm going to get my car back. The insurance people are sending one of their engineers out to take a look at my car at the end of the week. On the downside, I am going to be carless for a little while until all this is sorted out, so I guess I'll be a bit less mobile than usual.

Panic subsiding.

Panic subsiding.

I'm in a slightly odd mood.

As regular and long term readers of this journal may remember, my renault clio (the car I passed my test in, the car that used to be my Mum's, the first car I ever owned) was stolen in April. I reported it missing, claimed on the insurance, cried a lot, and finally got Pridwen, my Mini which I have grown to love and adore.

Well, yesterday I got a phone call from the police. My clio had been found. It was found burnt out on a Southwark housing estate and towed away by the council. I got given the number of the car pound, but by the time I'd phoned them, my car had been scrapped. I was told that it was in a pretty bad state and there wasn't much else that could be done with it.

I'm feeling fairly mopey about this, but I guess at least I now know and it's over. My clio is gone.

Rest in peace.

First of all, many happy returns of the day to tooth_fairy. Enjoy a day of Being Given Stuff.

Second of all, damnit and tarnation. It appears that Social Tuesday is falling apart. castorlion - you still planning on coming into town or should we just re-arrange for another day totally? Would be lovely to see you.

Third of all, Northumbria rocks. There are reasons for this, but they may only make sense to me. Oh, and did you know that Cumbria may have had its own language once? It would have been a gaelic tongue, pretty closely related to Welsh.

Fourth of all, I have bought a car. I decided to embrace my inner spoilt heiress for once, and was not sensible. I did not purchase a nice cheap reliable car. I looked at Toyotas, and then the brat within me cried out and I decided to do something I'd wanted to do for many years.

I bought a mini.

Not just any mini as well...

( This mini... )

It's a Mini One (I was just about sensible enough to not buy a Mini Cooper) and it was new in June 2004. It has a welsh dragon on the roof, which pierot thinks it kinda cute and vilenspotens thinks is kinda tacky. I personally think I shall go with jez's opinion, mostly because I like dragons.

It has a name as well. And possibly a gender. She shall be called 'Pridwen', which is a welsh name (in honour of the dragon) and in welsh myth is the name of King Arthur's ship. It all makes sense if you're me.

The only sad thing in this happy story is that I haven't actually managed to get Pridwen home yet, due to insurance and tax taking time. This meant that yesterday was largely spent trying to get insurance organised. Hopefully twil all be good by Wednesday.

I know it isn't sensible. I know it isn't the most economical thing ever, but it makes me happy. I've wanted a mini for years and now I have one.

And finally - I hope christabelle9 has a safe journey home and I hope to see her again soon. It was lovely to have you over, even if I wasn't able to spend much time with you and I wish you and rweishaar all the luck in the world.

And those are all my livejournal meanderings for the day.

Wow.

I may be inordinately happy.

I have an update in the saga of my poor clio. ( There is an ending, and it is a happy one. )