Welcome To the Cedar Grove

...and to just be grateful for the work, but... just the other day, talking to the sub agency I work for, I reminded the guy there that someone ran into my car and that I'm relying on public transportation to get to my assignment. Now, that's not so bad, except when you consider that a lot of the time I won't get the phone call in the morning until between 7am and 7:30am. In a car that's not an issue, you just grab the A-Z street guide (or the satnav) and off you go, comfortably there for 8:30 or earlier.

On a bus that's slightly more complicated... first, you have to know which bus to take... (which is a puzzle in itself sometimes. More on that later...) second of all, to get anywhere that's not Oadby before 8:30am, I /have/ to leave the house /before/ 7:30am. You see the problem...? So it's best for /me/ if they send me on prebooked assignments that I know about at least the day before.

So.. having reminded them of the transportation issue... what do they do, but send me /clear across the other side of the frikkin city!/ Wouldn't have been too bad, I /did/ know about it the day before, but I wasn't sure where I should get /off/ the bus to reach the place I needed to be. I asked the driver. The driver told me which stop to get off at. Only problem was, it was the wrong place - so I ended up with a 20 minute walk /after/ I got off the bus.

I don't mind walking. Actually I /like/ walking (even if it was pissing with rain this morning), but when you have given yourself time based on the bus journey, well, it becomes a problem. So... I decided, after school, that I would /walk/ back into town so that I could find the right place to get off the bus. (I'm at this particular school for 3 more days)... it was a 45 minute walk back to the centre of the city, so, even if, in theory, I were to walk from the city to the school, I'd lave to leave well before 7am to get there on time.

Solution - find a new bus route... issue - bus not as frequent, and means, yeah, you guessed it - I have to leave well before 7am.

So this is my official letter of thanks to the 70 year old gentleman that decided to plough into my car back in June. Thank you sir, for making my life so much easier - NOT!

Had to take my Brewi.i in for his MOT (inspection) today. I was absolutely convinced that he was going to fail (I have no idea why that should be, I just was). I'd had a new exhaust, and had him checked over before hand, just to get him ready, but I just didn't think he would pass. Well... he did! I'll have to have new brakes very soon as they're starting to wear down but he's a happy little car.

Cedargrove would like to give a very warm welcome to their newest addition. He's not someone we're likely to be waving a keychain at - though he has a keychain all of his own.

Yes folks, Brewi.i came home today. Eiri and her mom went to fetch him... Lynn dropping Eiri off so that she wouldn't feel intimidated by being followed home. With just one refuelling stop along the way, they made it home quite happily in one piece, where Brewi.i was given all his newborn checks by Grandpa Bob, who tightened a couple of screws and things to make him even happier. Grandpa then took a little ride around the block - and Eiri didn't lose the plot on that - and then Grandpa took Brewi.i for a spin... putting him through his paces a bit rather than the gentle handling that Eiri had given to him so far.

He was declared to be a good little boy, with all his lights and things shining brightly just when they should be, and a nice clean and tidy engine. Next task is to find the best route to drive to work in the morning.

(Brewi.i is a Peugeot 106 XR, black in colour with a 1.1L engine.)