Tuesday, April 24, 2018

I can haz wheels

We bought a car for me this weekend. It's the first car I've had in nearly 8 years. We didn't need one in London (and didn't want one!) but now that we're just outside London -- beyond the M25, yo -- I need one. It's mostly because of the little dude. Cricket practice and school supply shops in different towns, away games, etc. etc. I've managed without one since July when we moved but it's not been easy. Well, no, it's just been inconvenient and I've had to rely on new friends to cart the little man around for playdates and parties. But now...car!

Found it at Car Giant, which was a horrific experience overall. Hadn't wanted to buy one at a place like that because the hubby has no patience for pushy salespeople OR crowds and it has both. I was very proud of him. He didn't kill anyone. And if they were annoying me, I KNOW they were annoying him. It took six hours. Six. HOURS.

But it was a good price on a four seater hardtop BMW convertible and I cannot complain at all. It's a really nice car. 2014 and 40K miles but man, it's nice. Nearly as fun to drive as my old SLK, but that car was pre-little dude and in Florida and on roads that aren't too small...unlike pretty much every road here. The things little dude wanted to make sure it had? Heated seats. Not even kidding.

I managed to make it home with it (first time on the motorway in this country). And have driven him to school now with his golf clubs instead of having to take an Uber. And today I managed to get to Bourne End to buy some of the cricket equipment that he needs this Friday. And on Friday...his first away cricket game somewhere in Maidenhead (gulp).

I know that, at some point, it won't stress me out to drive on the opposite side of the road or tackle roundabouts or dodge the cars parked randomly anywhere, but that day is NOT YET. Every time I drive I feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack. Oy.  It's so bad. I feel very useless.

Anyway. First world problems.

In other news, my new Windows laptop arrived. I used the money I earned from the last school visit + the money I made doing a freelance writing gig to get it (and was lucky that I left the webpage open for days while I was deciding because HP gave me a pop up of Hey, Buy Now! thing for a £100 off so it was only £299 (8 GB memory and a 1TB drive). I've installed Steam and all the games, though I haven't played anything in particular yet. So exciting. Though it's been so long since I really used a Windows machine that I don't know how to find anything on it anymore. Now I know how the hubby feels when he tries to use my Mac.

No word yet from my agent. I figure I'll give it until Friday and then ping him.

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