Pay per view

I'm afraid that I have had to debit your account with £6.99 to pay for viewing this most expensive car. I need to pay for the new shockingly-expensive absorbers somehow.

Yesterday I had the day off to take mum in for her operation. A plan which changed half way through the morning when the hospital rang to say that they had had to postpone it. For the third time! So, instead, we went for a consolation lunch at the Wavendon Arms. Full of yummy-mummies in their up-market four-by-fours and designer baby buggies. Food was good though. And the postponement did free me up to play in the evening's Powerleague game about which I have no wish to talk. Except to say that I can't believe that we managed to lose the game.

The complicated logistics meant that I had to cycle to work this morning (second fastest time ever, since you ask, but I've no idea how I managed to go nearly a minute faster a year ago. I suspect a state-supported culture of performance-enhancing drugs) and then rode over to pick up the mini at lunchtime. They are very polite there. And they had cleaned the car. But the bill was humongous. And the car wasn't as clean as the Rumanian car wash gets it.

And...

If you recall my previous rant, the reason I caved in and paid their extorniate rates was because of a lack of time. Well, when I got back to work, I checked the expiry on the MOT. It was exactly a year away. 'Sfunny, I thought, it should last until the anniversary of the current MOT. I did a little research and it turns out I got in too early. The current MOT doesn't expire until 9/9/16 and you can only go a month early if you want to keep the original date. The garage had emailed me saying that my MOT and service were due and I had dutifully rung up and booked it in without checking the dates. So I did have more time. And I cleverly fixed it so the MOT is early next year...

And...

The only reason I use the main dealer is because the mini has a pre-paid service package. Only, when I turned up, the only bit of servicing needed was the brake fluid. They only change the oil once in a blue moon. And, it turned out that you only get two free brake fluid changes on the plan and this was number three.

And...

They managed to either break the rear wiper or not notice when they MOTd it that it was broken. Feckers.

Still, that's only £9 from eBay. Small change.

And there's always the paywall.

On the bright side, mum's postponement means that I am now free to take in Indietracks - the steam trains and indie bands festival in Derbyshire - tomorrow. And you know me and steam trains! The bands include St Etienne, Emma Pollock and the crowd's favourites - Bearsuit! I didn't manage to persuade C to accompany me but it's just a nip up the motorway and back again afterwards.