Car Shennanigans

We've found a replacement Punto, in less than subtle yellow. 22k miles. We've also found an insurer which is nice.
Buying it is turning into a whole lot of unwanted hassle as we have Nat's brothers car at the minute and need to get that back down south and then ours back up but Nat's barely driven since the crash so a days driving isn't on the cards. Add to this its not taxed and they're trying to give us 7 days insurance for free (their insurers won't touch us with a broomstick, well they will but the quote was £3700 with an excess nearing a grand) in order to get a cover note, but obviously that isn't working out so well.

Cafe Guru

It's been a while a since I blogged, Nat and I stopped taking pain killers for long enough to enjoy Valentines evening. She had a free hair up thing at a salon across town and she finally got to wear the dress I bought her for Xmas (as we seem to be social recluses).

Here's a piccie as I'm trying to tell her that the taxi is here and she wants a darn pic:
The meal was fantastic as ever, and it really was the perfect setting. Two bottles of wine were consumed far too quickly and we were both slightly worse for wear later on.

Sunday came and we quested off to Birmingham on the train to have a look at what seemed to be an amazing find, a low mileage black version of our shiny little oil burning beast:

(pics taken by me after owning it a week and using every Autoglym product I own on the car in order to get great pictures for when it was time to sell it...)



The example we found was great inside and out but was producing a bad average consumption and seemed to be down on power, further forum based discussion and texts with Mr.Dobbin suggest that this might of been a minor issue but possibly could of indicated a flogged existence. The latter seems likely to me, I mean what other car offers this kind of power for your money (and insurance group 9!), the VRS is the only one really.

We've just had some really great news RE: the crash, the bloke's blood test has come back, I don't know what the units are (mg/L?) but the limit is 80 and his came back at 120 3 hours after the incident so he is screwed. It was also nice to find out that his kid is now fine after having some pretty serious abdominal surgery. Obviously Nat feels very relieved about both those things.

We both went back to work and Uni on Monday. Nat called me at 15:00, her boss had driven her home as she wasn't ready to be back. Today my back feels screwed, I think the same applied to me.

Congrats to Dobbin who seems to have been crushing recently, commiserations to Dave Mason for his dislocation and to Foley for the shortlisting thing that I don't understand. Bad news about the School as well...

No Vehicluar Progression

Right so the Fiat Garage wasted our time by letting us book a test drive allowing us to walk there and then telling us that car was on a corporate training day so it wasn't there, no apology nothing. Nat still test drove the fiat 500, well designed neat small car, too small we decided and too slow (1.4 ~ 10.5s).

Next up was the Suzuki Swift, lovely little GLX with lots of extras out at the front but an automatic gearbox, the Sport was a lot better but had some major issues with build quality (you can see the airbag holes through the dashboard) so that one is scrubbed to.

We also looked at a fiesta st, yes it compromises mpg severely but it ticks almost every other box, unfortunately though this (as yet unresolved claim) makes insurance a bit too much to be affordable.

Dobbin suggested a VRS, I suggested he went and sat in one, cream seats as standard: not a good idea for bouldering.

So all we seem to be doing is crossing things off our list, thats why I think my original idea of a large (padded) hamster ball is the way to go:

Nothing Much

I haven't really been up to much since my last post, Nat and I are now back in Sheffield and her bruising is subsiding, I'm taking significantly less pain relief which is good. Mon night I popped in to watch the foundry bouldering comp, the rest of the time has been taken up trying to find a decent car to replace Nat's Punto HGT Diesel:
0-60 8.7-9.2 (Never found a figure that seemed to agree with another)
Combined Mpg Quoted at 50 we got 62 over its lifetime average (this peaked at about 78 on a trip to font then Amsterdam)
and now obviously the NCAP rating is a bit of an issue as well.
Current Contenders are the fiat 500 sport, Grande Punto 1.9d Sporting, Pug 207 1.6 HDI Gt 110 and the new Corsa 1.7 cdti




all of which seem to have some manner of compromise compared to her/our last car. Whilst at the Vauxhall garage (after oogling a VXR8) I had a sit in a Corsa VXR (the word understated couldn't apply less!) I bet these are fun if maybe a bit lairy with such a big turbo.

UKB has been a bit slow but I laughed pretty hard when a tongue in cheek post of mine prompted this:

Is my name Earl?

Since Nat had worked late last week doing a massive favour for her boss she was entitled to leave circa 3.00pm on fri, I caught a train up to Wakefield where we set off to visit my family, glad of the extra time that would make the weekend less rushed and all together more pleasant.
About 5mins from where I live, we left the 30's in Aycliffe village on the A167 back up to 60 and the lorry in front finally turned into the industrial estate as we approached the dual carriageway. Nat moved out to overtake a slow moving vehicle as we passed the traffic lighted junction it was at this point at which we were hit from the right at high speed. It sent the car into a massive spin which was stopped short by a concrete bollard.

(Green us, Red Him, Arrow head at collision, the rest of the line shows where we ended up)

All the airbags went off, front, side curtain, the lot. When the smoke cleared from the bags it was evident that the crash had been a bad one, the car was majorly wrecked, Nat was very distressed and it took me a good few minutes to be able to see. I promptly got out of the car, forcing the door open with my feet and went round to the drivers side to check she was ok getting my phone out on the way. Obviously at this point the adrenalin wore off, my back started hurting a lot as did my chest, i managed to limp back round to my seat narrowly avoiding passing out on the way. Nat managed to jam something behind my lower back to offer support and at this point i caught sight og my right hand, it loojed very wrong, large and broken.
My folks turned up on the scene not long after the police and the first set of ambulances. The other car was dealt with first as two young ish kids had some bad injuries, one child was taken into icu over at newcastle, the other had a bad head injury (= no seatbelt).
After lots of prodding, x-rays etc I was told I'd broken my sternum and the 4th and 5th metacarpel in my right hand, they were worried (because of the speeds involved) that this could of potentially hit my heart or lungs and placed me on monitored telematry for 48 hours.Nat was fine, she just looks like she starred in Million Dollar Baby.
Not long after this we were informed the Alfa driver blew over the limit, however it took a further 3 hours for the police surgeon to be allowed to draw blood.
I've now been released but i'm back tomorrow as they may still want to operate on my hand.
Everytime i mention climbing to the people i've seen they just laugh. Virgin Active still want to charge me for this months membership. Tw@ts.

Recently we've been told that it was believed that the other vehicle wasn't even in the correct lane, this explains why he thought he was on green when in fact he wasn't!

Some pics taken off the cars at the garage Punto did damn well: