Toeing The Line

 After querying the car valuation (all done via the app of course) I rang them to see I could have an interim payment of their initial valuation - it seems they only do that after the 2nd valuation.  I can't think why they would do that and the boy I was speaking to didn't know either.  Very frustrating, but he did at least tell me that the 'engineers' would look at my query.  I'm still waiting for my original towbar invoice to back up my claim, I'm assuming they will need that.  The supplier tells me he should get it to me 'by the end of this week'.  Hmm, we'll see.

Running In.

Received my car valuation last week, about £800 less than I wanted so I've turned their kind offer down and asked them to try harder - and sent the cost of the towbar, accurate mileage and that Autotrader thought it was worth 20k.  The app had the cheek to say they would consider it and would 5 working days, maybe longer.   Good job I'm not holding my breath.

Went for a 5mile run this morning, first one for 2 weeks and only the 3rd of January, so not very productive so far in 2025.  I had to really push myself to get out of bed but was very satisfied that I did.  Hopefully I will feel more like it for the rest of the week.

It's a Steal.

Good news, bad news - The good news was that we had a great 2 days in London, watched Moulin Rouge at the theatre, stayed in an overpriced but quite nice hotel, travelled 1st class from Newark.  Could we ask for anything else?  Then the bad news - returned to Newark station and the car had been stolen.  What a bummer, just so inconvenient.  It's now been 10 days, and after jumping through a few hoops, the insurance company appear as thought they will pay out.  How much they will pay out is as yet unknown, but should get an 'offer' by Wednesday.

We've been looking for a replacement but with little success.  The only local ones at the right price have very high mileage and very tatty compared with our old one.  We've been spoilt with that - low mileage, and the proverbial 'one careful owner'.  Might have to look at a different type of car to make it more affordable, but we will see.  I figure my other half is very keen on staying with the RRS.    

Artificial Leg.

2 blogs in a row, that's something. ..as opposed to headline news on most websites - which are usually nothing.  In the case of AI generated news on an Apple device, it's total b&ll&cks where they have recently stated that Nadal is gay, the darts player chappie (can't remember his name) won the final before it had started and numerous other inaccuracies (lies) it had picked up from somewhere.  I've always thought that AI has been hyped up far too much above it's capabilities and it looks like I don't need to change my opinion yet.

My severe man-flu is gradually going away albeit too slowly.  I had an intention to do quite a bit of running in January, but that will have to overlap into February and I need to dust my bike down for this spring's European adventure - Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain.

That's put a Dampener on it.

Christmas is over, so is new year, I've had man-flu lets hope its all clear.

We are well into January now, but only just starting to feel 'right' after about 3 weeks of assorted illnesses including cough, sore throat, sickness etc.  Suffice to say it has not been my best Christmas break.  However, it comes, it goes and hopefully it's on the way out.  A very wet day today, coupled with having to transport grandchildren 3 and 5 to the school bus was not the best start to the day but not feeling too bad.  Received a flood alert earlier on this morning as the River Ancholme fills up (currently  2.25m and rising). I'm fairly sure it won't reach us, our fields are wet enough as it is.  The forecast is telling me no rain now for 2 weeks, let s hope it's accurate for a change.