The car has definitely allowed for new adventures!
Over the Easter break, we made our first road trip to Birmingham. I registered to run a half marathon in Sutton Coldfield. I am so glad we had the car, since the AirBnb was about a 15 minute driver from the course, which turned out to be 4 laps of the same course through Sutton park. I was a bit nervous about that, but it was an absolutely perfect day and it meant that I got to see my family four different times throughout the race. I ran in 1:50, which I am happy about.
Then, on the last day of the break, Easter Monday, we drove to West Wittering beach, which was fab! It was an hour and a half each way; I think we lucked out with the timing, but we had a great time!!!
Lauren and I also drove to theWaitrose for the first time and I did my weekly shop and purchased a cart full of groceries for the first time in 4.5 years. It was a good outing for us; they have a scanner where you can scan and bag as you go, so it's pretty quick. And you can get a free Sunday Times if you spend over £10. I can't say that I am ready to do that every week, but it is nice to have the option.
I have learned that I am absolutely rubbish at parallel parking, which is not a good thing when that all parking is on the street. One night after I got home from collecting Alison at gymnastics, we drove around and there was literally no parking, not even a space that I could attempt the parallel park. Thankfully, the parking at the train station is free from 6:30 PM-8:30 AM. And there is parking available in the mornings. I nearly parked in the driveway of the house next door that is up for sale.
I am happy to say that I haven't gotten into any more altercations!
I am getting more confident, although I really haven't driven many places other than to Mitcham and locally.
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Last weekend, we got
A CAR!!!!!
It is a BMW X3, 2 years old with only 14,000 miles on it.
Now that Alison is doing gymnastics at a gym that is about 2 miles from our house (and a 40 minute bus ride one way), we decided it was time to get a car.
I am amazed that we have been non-car owners for nearly 4.5 years. It will definitely open up opportunities to go places that we have not been because they are hard to get to via public transport. But by no means are we going to start driving places that are close by and easy to get to. The kids would have it that way (one in particular....Lauren), but parking is a nightmare in a lot of places and I am not super confident about parking an SUV in the narrow places I have seen around.
I have already had my first incident (not surprising to anyone!). I was driving back from taking Alison to gymnastics and I hit the bus with the side view mirror. Oops. There is a bit of paint on the mirror and the mirror came off but it's ok now thankfully. Suffice to say, Brad was not very happy with me....
The process was quite easy. We went to cargiant, which is a big place for pre-owned cars about a 45 minute journey away. We found a few cars that we wanted to look at and then we got the keys and we were able to look at the cars without a salesman hassling us. They do not negotiate on price: we know because Brad tried!
Brad had to go back and collect it on Sunday because we got too close to closing time after we did the viewing and financing, etc. It was quite a journey home I think, but it's so weird to walk out of the house and see the car outside and know that it's ours!
It is a BMW X3, 2 years old with only 14,000 miles on it.
Now that Alison is doing gymnastics at a gym that is about 2 miles from our house (and a 40 minute bus ride one way), we decided it was time to get a car.
I am amazed that we have been non-car owners for nearly 4.5 years. It will definitely open up opportunities to go places that we have not been because they are hard to get to via public transport. But by no means are we going to start driving places that are close by and easy to get to. The kids would have it that way (one in particular....Lauren), but parking is a nightmare in a lot of places and I am not super confident about parking an SUV in the narrow places I have seen around.
I have already had my first incident (not surprising to anyone!). I was driving back from taking Alison to gymnastics and I hit the bus with the side view mirror. Oops. There is a bit of paint on the mirror and the mirror came off but it's ok now thankfully. Suffice to say, Brad was not very happy with me....
The process was quite easy. We went to cargiant, which is a big place for pre-owned cars about a 45 minute journey away. We found a few cars that we wanted to look at and then we got the keys and we were able to look at the cars without a salesman hassling us. They do not negotiate on price: we know because Brad tried!
Brad had to go back and collect it on Sunday because we got too close to closing time after we did the viewing and financing, etc. It was quite a journey home I think, but it's so weird to walk out of the house and see the car outside and know that it's ours!
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