Summer in Scotland
Summer in Scotland consists of:
- rain (just drizzle if you’re lucky)
- wind (as in: really windy!)
Tomorrow is July, which worries me slightly, as it means ’summer’ is now in full swing. I never look forward to the cold, dark months – but as of tomorrow, we’re in the second half of year and thus past the point of no return. For this year at least!
Holiday plans FYI: Probably going to Italy towards the end of September, hopefully for a full 2 weeks! At least staying in Italy always guarantees some degree of sun and thus, an experience of ’summer’.
We Lost
it’s fine, I don’t mind. We were shit!
/me goes off to play Zelda The Twilight Princess
My new car from Gretna Green
Image via Wikipedia
I’ve now got my Honda Civic which I picked up from Gretna Green. I didn’t mind getting the train to Carlisle and then Gretna – I want to learn as much as possible about Scotland’s different areas. The train journey made me feel quite emotional – the views for the first part of the journey, through the Scottish Borders, were amazing.
Scotland’s landscape never fails to tug at my heartstrings – whether it be Shetland, the road to South Lanarkshire from Balerno, or indeed a simple cycle around Holyrood Park.
Once we crossed into Dumfries & Galloway (Scotland), or maybe Cumbria (England), the landscape flattened out and was less appealing. Gretna Green itself is sweet – mainly due to its unique location (test-driving my car I drove to England and back a couple of times – it’s literally 3 miles or so down the road), and its tradition as a wedding escape spot for the English (on which tourism etc. still thrives today).
The car itself is sweet – though alarmingly, I’ve already noticed some water coming out from underneath the front (not much). I tried checking the water level but couldn’t figure out how to open the bonnet! There’s a lever on the floor next to the driver’s seat which I pulled, and it did open, but there was still resistance so there must be some kind of lever underneath the bonnet too which I’ll have to move. I really want to figure it out myself as it’s embarrassing asking anyone else that kind of thing!
Finally, it currently doesn’t have a stereo. Luckily I saved my stereo from the Renault 5 – now I just need a male mate (i.e. A.) to put it in properly.
/me arranges innocent date to visit A. and S. before they go away on holidays, getting A. to put the stereo in while chatting in the garden with S.
TV is Broken
Image via Wikipedia
All sorts of things break down here @ lenina’s at the moment: car, washing machine, and now my big 42″ TV. The TV hasn’t been working well for a while – basically it just won’t switch on properly (you have to try 100 times before it works).
This entire week, for instance, I haven’t watched *any* TV, due to it not working at all. As a consequence, I’ve felt more relaxed (I think) and happier overall (less noise/rubbish poisoning my brain). I might just not have it fixed / buy a new one. I might just try installing 4od again (4od never worked when I downloaded it ages ago), and use that and iPlayer henceforth.
That should cover my ‘moving image’ needs. Plus, if I have to sit in front of the TV, I’d rather play games which is more stimulating and probably better for your brain too 
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Honda Civic 1.5 is mine
The Honda Civic 1.5, which I had failed to bid on last Sunday, is mine! The auction only had one bid at £745, and I wanted to sneak in a last-second bid at the time but messed up. Afterwards, I contacted the seller and let him know that I was really interested in the car – and asked him to contact me should the first one fall through.
It did fall through – the winner pulled out with some rubbish excuse. The seller told me and offered it to me at the same price, which was of course brilliant! He sounded really nice on the phone, had an English accent but when I asked him if he was English, he said he wasn’t. He lives in Gretna Green (where people marry) which is pretty close to the border.
Anyhow, I’m picking the car up on Saturday. I’m really happy. Even the registration plate is cool
Germany in the Final
As people will know by now (if they’re bothered about football..), Germany are in the final. Just a wee comment about the BBC reporting about the Germany-Turkey match – there’s an anti-German bias there, which annoys me:
Philipp Lahm’s last-minute winner sent Germany into the Euro 2008 final and sank a desperately unlucky Turkey.
Lahm stole in on Thomas Hitzlsperger’s pass to beat Rustu Recber and give the Germans victory after a thriller in which Turkey were the better side.
Ugur Boral scrambled Turkey ahead after 22 minutes, but Bastian Schweinsteiger equalised quickly from close range.
Miroslav Klose headed Germany in front after 79 minutes, but Semih Senturk levelled before Lahm’s late strike.
Germany barely deserved the victory, but once again they have reached a major final despite being unconvincing, where they will face either Russia or Spain in Vienna on Sunday.
Let me tell you, Phil McNumpty: Turkey weren’t that good! I would say that both teams were equal in terms of quality, but Germany just had stronger shots. Most shots on goal by Turkey were weak, and especially the first goal was luck rather than quality gameplay.
I wasn’t at any point scared really, and Germany absolutely deserved to win. It’s quite annoying that your employer (the BBC) condones your obvious anti-German bias, which is commonly found in the potrayal of German football.
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lenina on the Radio tomorrow
I will be radio interviewed tomorrow. w00t. It’s quite cool. I can’t tell you more about it I’m afraid. What I’m going to do though is stream it live and record it to my harddrive via mp3mymp3 (daft name). If I make a fool of myself (it’s live radio), I’m just gonna delete the file and pretend at work that it hasn’t worked 
Also, I learned a new slang word yesterday: ’sparky’ (= electrician).
Finally, here’s how to sound Scottish really easily: just end every sentence with ‘like, eh?’
e.g. ‘I had to phone the council again, and they never booked me in for the plumber like, eh?’
Kitchen Flooding (Again)
What was probably avoidable has happened again. Due to the absence of a tap for the fucking red hose (= exciting news reported two days ago), my kitchen flooded again today. Bad.
I get this call at work at around 4pm from the council, saying that my downstairs neighbour has gushes of water/waterfall-type coming into her flat from mine! I’m in a state of shock, in my head going through the whole fucking process – hot water gushing out of red hose spilling all over the place, my entire flat under water, sinking through to the flat below. I stagger around, cover my face with my hands, and only half notice a colleague passing me a piece of paper with her mobile number on – in case I need some help removing wet stuff. She keeps saying it but I hardly register, nearly forgetting the piece of paper on my computer keyboard as I leave.
I manage to call a cab and get home within 10 minutes. Cannae open the door. Fuck. Water must be pushing against from the inside. Must be quite high by now. Pushing the door. Realise it’s fucking locked. Unlock. Go inside.
Potentially bidding on Honda Civic (ends in 2 hours)
I’ve found a Honday Civic on ebay that I’m tempted to bid on. It’s quite cheap but looks in good nick, apart from a dent on one side and a hole in the bumper (but that kind of thing doesn’t put me off! I love my cars to be rough around the edges 
).
Anyway, there is currently one bid on the car and the auction ends in 2h 39 minutes. I’ve already emailed the buyer as the car is outside Edinburgh so I would have to get a train to get there (which I’m quite happy to do if I get a decent bargain!).
So, as a preparation, and so as not to be ripped off like, I’ve been consulting WiseBuyer’s Guides to see how much the exact car I’m potentially bidding on is in fact worth. The evaluations for the precise model I’m potentially bidding on are as follows:
- Retail: £1,750
- Private Good: £1,280
- Private Average: £880
- Private Poor: £490
- Part Exchange: £1,010
- Trade: £897
Seeing that the bid currently sits at £745, I think I will put in a bid in the last few seconds of the auction. All I have to do is in my mind decide what the maximum is I’ll pay, considering the fact that
- it’s got no tax and
- it would be quite inconvenient to get to to pick it up (= additional costs)
As I didn’t want to spend more than £1000 in total, I’ll probably go in with £801 or £802, or maybe (the most!) £851/£852. I’ll do some more research first to see how much tax/insurance it would cost me.
EDIT: LOL LOL LOL. I had totally psyched myself up to bidding on this vehicle, and there were 10seconds left, and then I didn’t submit my bid in time!! LMFAO.
New Washing Machine has Only Got One Hose
My new washing machine, which was delivered today, only has one hose (blue) when the old one had two (blue and red). Apparently that’s because the modern ones only have one.
This however leaves me with a red hose that is disconnected from the washing machine, but not connected to anything else. I dare not disconnect it from my water feeder tap under the sink, because there doesn’t appear to be a separate tap/lever to turn just the red one off! I have one for the cold water, but can’t find one for hot.
Thus, I currently have the hot water turned off at the main tap. Whenever I need hot water, I need to put the red hose into my kitchen sink, turn the main tap on, and quickly take a shower or whatever it is while hot water is gushing out from the red hose into my kitchen sink!
I’m going to phone the council on Monday with an ‘emergency repair’ request. Hopefully they’ll send out a plumber very soon – I don’t want my kitchen to flood (again).
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