2024 Got Off To A Smashing Start in Scottish Meanderings

And not in a good way! And that keeping going with the one entry a month is going well so far isn't it??

Most of January was spent mainly trying to catch up with basic stuff - I did get to another of Lily's gym competitions where she did well again - got a medal herself and her team got one too. She's always just wore gym stuff at the others but she was wearing a proper leotard this time and looked the part!


Then at the end of the month I was driving down one of our main roads - thankfully crawling because there were roadworks so temporary traffic lights - when someone shunted into the back of me causing me to shunt into the back of the car in front! Their cars were hardly touched but because I was sandwiched in the middle mine came off worst. A cracked bumper, small dents and scratches to front and back and the boot wouldn't lock but thankfully closed. The guy who caused it was a new driver and took full responsibility straight away so we exchanged details and off I went.

Spent a stressful week spending hours on hold and talking to the Insurance Company and when we were finally arranging to get the car repairs, they said they would arrange a date to get it picked up. I was surprised - I thought I would just be driving it to a garage but assumed this was policy in case the car was unsafe. Turned out it was going to a garage 145 miles away! When the guy came to pick it up he said "I notice you haven't organised a hire car - how are you going to manage?" I replied airily - "oh I'll be ok for a couple of weeks" and he gave me a look. "More like 3-4 weeks - maybe months if they need parts".

What??

"And then if it's not worth it to repair they might write it off altogether".

WHAT????

I'd never even considered that! But I'm glad he mentioned it because it made me research what happens in that scenario and discover there are certain categories where you can get the car back and others where they will have to scrap the car then and there.

And that's exactly what happened.

The cost of the repairs was more than the value of the car (it was a 2010 Micra and only worth around £2000) so they wrote it off right enough and although that caused me a VERY stressful 3 weeks in February, I probably came off better financially in the end because I got back the value of the car which was £1942 and there's no way I would have even got £1000 for it BEFORE the accident so certainly not afterwards!

But obviously that put me in a really difficult position because that car was a lifeline - apart from the convenience, no matter how bad I was feeling I could always get into it and drive and at least change the scenery if a walk was all I could manage that day. And as you know I've been looking for a new car for absolute yonks now and just couldn't see anything that jumped out although I'd almost decided on a new Toyota Corolla but the problem with that was there was nowhere in Aberdeen I could see any new ones - Toyota dealers only had second-hand ones - and I realised when I saw them that colours, interiors, etc. could look quite different in real life to what was on a screen so I just wasn't prepared to pay that amount of money for something I couldn't see first.

So I was in a pressurised situation - but how could I look at cars with a car??

Well as you also know, Nikki is not the sort of kid who would jump in and help out in situations like that but she was desperate for me to babysit on the 24th Feb so she offered to take me to a car dealers that Saturday (the 17th) and have a look but I got the impression I was leaving with a car or else!

We were getting nowhere and I was seriously considering hiring a car for a couple of weeks just to give me time to go and look myself without so much pressure when we tried one last place to look at a second hand Corolla and we spied this one sitting beside it.


A 2019 SEAT Leon Xcellence sport tourer. I have to confess I think we were both drawn to the colour (it's not easy to see here but it's purple) more than anything else initially but Nikki has a SEAT Alhambra and when she bought it I really liked the interior and driving it so I did know a bit about the make itself. Took it for a test drive but because it was dark by that time, we went back to see it in daylight next day and I took it for another test drive - I always feel with them that the first one can sometimes be spent just getting used to an unfamiliar car so you don't really get a chance to relax and feel how it is to just drive.

Anyway after another stressful week I decided to get it so picked it up on the Friday night and drove out to Pitmedden to do my babysitting the following night! Actually it's probably better it worked out that way because I would have likely spent another week footering around driving round the block or something trying to get used to it so having to drive out there the next night was probably a good thing!

It's an automatic so I'm getting used to that and of course all the bells and whistles my poor wee Micra didn't have. I'm constantly amazed by what it does - for instance the automatic full beam dipping (though I can't trust it completely so keep checking it's done it in time😂), the windscreen wipers automatically adjusting according to the speed I'm doing, the ability to connect to my phone and play music on Spotify - I'm like a kid in a candy shop! And I'm supremely glad I didn't splash out on a new car - I saved myself £15,000 by buying this one - so that worked out well.

It's an estate though so bigger than I'm used to


and I'm finding parking a bit tricky. My wheelie bins (which sit at the front of my house in front of where the cars are parked) have almost been knocked over several times now when I've misjudged the front of it when parking - I get the feeling when they see me coming they go "Oh God here she comes - brace yourselves boys!"😂 But yeah it's a nice car to drive and I'm getting used to it.

My poor wee Micra though! Feel so sorry that it's going to get scrapped now - I did get it back so have contacted a scrapyard to come and pick it up - we just need to arrange a date. I did think I could have sold it privately (for scrap/parts) but I can't be bothered with the stress - the scrap place is going to give me £120 for it so that'll do me.


And the paving is finally finished! This is it wet.


And dry with a bit of sun.


It's nice to have something complete although now I'll have to find furniture to go into the summer house so that I can actually sit in it and get someone to hook up electricity for light and heat eventually as well as figure out how I'm going to do the garden this year as I'm not sure I have the strength any more to lift the lawn mower through the house from the summer house to the front garden. Can you get castors fitted onto a lawn mower?


Nikki had been telling me about this independent bookshop in the village next to hers where there was a very unusual mirror - it's like a loft door so like a trapdoor in the ceiling but the owner has fashioned it to look like a framed mirror and when you put the light on, it looks like there are several levels of little books going up to infinity.


It's quite difficult to see properly in a pic because of the reflection.

On Monday I was feeling rotten so decided to go for a drive and took off to the bookshop to have a browse because the village itself is a nice place to walk and it was a nice day.

It was one of those shops you could have spent hours in - there were books I wanted to read, books I had read and forgotten about, books that reminded me of childhood, books that stirred all sorts of memories and then once I'd picked out two books, I chatted to the owner about the mirror and he told me the story behind it then we chatted some more about book stuff and I couldn't help thinking that although I'd ended up paying much more for the books than I would have online, it was a much more satisfying experience all round! I feel sorry for these little bookshops that have been in situ for years and are now struggling because of online shopping.

And in case you want to know the story behind the mirror, the shop used to be a pet shop apparently and one of the ladies there rescued monkeys and made the loft area into a place they could go and play so she created the trapdoor in the ceiling for them to climb up into the loft and there was another trapdoor a few feet away which they could use to come back down.

When the owner of the bookshop took it over they wondered what to do with the doors. The owner's son makes miniature books as a hobby so he set up the first level of books behind one of them then devised mirrors and light to create the illusion of more books further up and then they put the kids' books section underneath it so it's a great curiosity when kids are looking at the books!

See? I would never have seen/known all that if I'd bought my two books from World Books or somewhere!