Just About Sorted
Posted: Tue 18 October, 2022 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised Leave a comment »The new house is, I’m please to say, now pretty much sorted. It feels like it’s taken a long time to do – and a lot of stuff has needed to be sorted – so I also have to keep reminding myself that I actually only moved in a month ago.
In that time I’ve had to buy and build two bookcases as well as a new bed, wardrobe, desk, and office chair – oh, and a new hoover, as the previous one packed up. There’s a new sofa and chairs coming tomorrow, as well as a third bookcase – and getting that delivered and build will then allow me to unpack two of the last three boxes remaining.
Along the way there’s also been other stuff – car MOT etc., tip runs, and doing a bundle of other stuff as well. It’s been… busy, to say the least.
I’m feeling fairly settled now, although I’m still looking forward to getting rid of the final boxes. I know there’s another tip run in the offing (another load of Ikea Cardboard!) and a “bulky waste” collection has been organised for the old sofa and chairs once the new ones are sorted out. Once those things are done, it should be all but sorted.
Because of all this, my motivation levels have plummeted at the moment – I think/hope that it’s just the amount of energy that’s been being expended on sorting stuff out, not just of my domestic stuff but also work, and dealing with the ineptitude of organisations galore along the way.
It’s been busy, and I’m hoping that the next few weeks will be quieter/easier, allowing me to get on with things again.
But all told, it’s pretty positive, and I’m definitely happier with the new place than I was with the previous one.
Yet another MoT
Posted: Wed 5 October, 2022 Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, MK Kia, Thoughts Leave a comment »This week the car’s been in for its MoT test – it’s October, so it’s been time to renew Insurance, pay Road Tax, and sort the MoT. For the first time with this car, I didn’t bother using the proper dealership (the car’s on 200,000 miles, and I no longer give a sod about service histories and so on) alongside which, the dealership I was using were… less than professional on a number of occasions, so I wanted to try something else and see what they had to say.
I chose (on the basis of other positive experiences) to use KwikFit , albeit a branch/location I hadn’t used before. I booked a service at the same time, just to get everything done in one go.
As it turned out, it did fail the first MoT, and needed a couple of things doing. Which was fine, KwikFit sorted everything on the same day – although obviously it made it a long day all told – along with recommendations of what I need to do (in their words) “sometime in the next year”, which I’ll get sorted at some point soon.
But all told, that little Kia has done pretty well – I’ve put about 130,000 miles on it since I got it in 2016 (just under 22,000 miles a year on average!) and it’s still really running fine. (Mind you, I’ve been very clear to it on what will happen when it becomes unreliable, so no-one’s under any illusions) That was definitely a good buy.
Online
Posted: Mon 3 October, 2022 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »Happily, I’m now back to being connected to t’internet at the new house. It’s taken far longer than I’d have liked, and been expensive on mobile data – turns out, I use a lot more than I thought I did.
Even so, I’ve mitigated the mobile data use as much as possible, and I’m also making changes for the future, but yeah, not been cheap. Although the reality-check it provided has also proved useful, and will not be wasted.
It’s still going to be interesting though. I’ve stepped back from the “as much bandwidth as possible” option that was costing me a lot and was almost certainly not being used as much as it could/should have been. I’m looking forward to seeing whether I do notice the difference in the “downgrade” (honestly, I doubt I will) and of course I can always boost it up a level if I decide I need to.
But yes, anyway, back to a level of civilisation and connectivity. I’ve been OK with the mobile data, but it’s nice to be back to normality…