It’s been weeks, and I haven’t mentioned, I don’t think, my new car.

After the Fiesta crash, I wasn’t certain if I wanted to carry on driving, but I do think it’s an important lifeskill that I’d be foolish not to practice.

Getting a new car was problematic, but I happened to talk about it with ringing friends who had a car they didn’t want — a large Skoda Favorit GLXie estate — just sitting on their drive rotting. Unfotunately, it wasn’t even drivable, so I’ve had to get a garage to pick it up and get it going again. It needed its immobiliser removed, a new battery, several new tires, brakes fixing and an entire suspension thingy replaced. And hopefully all that will be done by Monday and I can pick it up.

It’s an even bigger car than I’m used to and I’m a bit anxious at the prospect of driving it away from the garage for the first time. And it doesn’t seem terribly environmentally conscious to drive a whacking great estate car to Leicester with just me in it. So I will still be using public transport quite frequently. The cost in petrol for the Fiesta wasn’t all that different from the rail fare, and whilst it’s actually quite tricky to park in central Leicester, one of the offices I work in is just two minutes from the railway station.

Oh… also since the new computer arrived, I took the opportunity to put in a cheapy webcam in the parcel from eBuyer. Results are at www.niles.org.uk/cam It’s a little fragile, and sometimes it doesn’t wake up for a day or two before suddenly being there again. I’m still looking at where I can dot about the various 80p ‘lazer’ case-moding LEDs. The new LCD screen is in place, and I’m not certain whether it’s better than the CRT monitor it replaces. The new printer, however, is great 🙂