Well, the last couple of months have been quite eventful for us here (Linda, kids and I)
But about two weeks ago my car died (technical problems and suspension issues) which wasn't worth getting it repaired.
As we was due to go to wales two days later to see relatives (and take a short four day break) you can see timing couldn't of been worse.
So i thought, hay we'll get a cheap car to get us to Wales (you may recall the post).
So that night we was planning on going to look at some cheap cars....
On the same day Linda's car on the way home from work produced a gear box problem, which means, no way to view a car.
Plus the other big thing, this year we decided to go to Spain for a holiday, a driving holiday (yes in my car) and we had just paid the deposit on this (which is about 6 weeks away)
Just to top everything off, the following week we was due to drive Giraffe to the airport (for E3), so again, we really needed this car.
I rang a friend to see if he could take me around the next day to look at cars as he works 4 days on and off, only to find he just started his 4 days on.
He then kindly offered to loan us his car for the weekend, while we was sorting this out, he got a phone call from his x-wife, his daughter had ran off after an argument with her, So he had to shoot off and we couldn't get hold of him again.
Earlier that day, Luke had spilt his drink on his desk, all over the desk... down the back, all over the electrics, so his PC was out of action.
So i let him use mine, whilst playing on it, he accidentally kicked my PC while swinging his legs, which shut off my PC... from there it wouldn't boot up.
So, while were trying to come up with a way to gain a car and were thinking, at least nothing else can go wrong at this stage...
30 seconds later Linda walks in to the front room with the washing machine door... "is this supposed to happen she says.."
The door had snapped clean off, never seen anything like it, but as you could image, we was having fun at this stage.
We found a cheap car (i do mean.. cheap) fairly local and got someone to take us to it to pick it up.
As its was only a saloon it meant we couldn't get the electric wheelchair in the boot, but we have a manual so we popped that in.
We got to Wales, had a nice four day break (well i caught up on emails ready for E3) and Linda got to see her gran who's been quite ill for the last 18 months.
Everything seem to be going good for us at this point.
So it came to four days later, we drove home, no problems at all.
Till we got home...
When we got in the house, there was a slight...smell..looked around...
Only to find, over the four days we had been away, our fridge/freezer had died (which was currently full of food)
(it was the really warm weekend we had a couple of weeks back, enough said i think)
What really pissed us off is that we had only just replaced the fridge/freezer about 3 months ago, but couldn't afford a new one at the time so got a 2nd hand one, so no warranty
So Linda popped out and bought a brand new fridge/freezer that night (not that we had any food left to put it in)
So the rest of this night was taken up by us unpacking the car and taking photos of the rotten food for insurance purposes.
Next day Linda ordered a new washing machine (kids was starting to smell a bit by this stage)
We order an installation service as well as i wouldn't be able to move the washing machine.
So couple of days later, they come, fit the new washing machine.. leave.
Only for us to find later that night, it didn't work (an error message came up saying not enough pressure in the water going in to the machine)
So we rang Argos, they put the fault on the installation and told us we needed to call them back out (installation was bought through Argos)
We rang the company who installed it, "ohh no that's a machine fault so you need to speak to Argos about getting it replaced"
This went on for a couple of days, in the end they agreed (after a lot of pissing around ringing them) that they would either
replace the machine (5 days ish to do so)
or send someone around to repair it (around 12 days)
So we ran up and said, were have our money back please
Went to Comet and had one delivered the next day
When they came to fit the washing machine, they had to pull out the other new (non working) machine, to find, they had put the water pipe on the wrong way around and then pushed the washing machined too close to the wall, which trapped the pipe (not allowing water to get in the machine)
(now just image that phone call to Argos while we was arranging to send back a fully working machine...)
So things looking better at this stage,
We now decided that it was time to sort out the car.
We thought we would go for a car this time, rather than a people carrier, we picked 3 different type of estate cars to go look at.
The 1st one we looked at, FAB, it was an Omega estate, really good condition, loved it, we thought, hay, better check the electric wheelchair fits in the back...
to our horror, it didn't, so we thought before we go any further, we need to check the other two cars we had in mind would fit the wheelchair.
Next one was a Merc C Class estate, it was too small
So our last selection was a Volvo V70 estates, massive boot (think you may know where this one is going...) it didn't fit.
So cutting an even longer story short, we had to go back to a people carrier again, as its the only car that fits the wheelchair.
On top of all this, because we wanted a smaller car, we even thought about still buying an estate (or even a large saloon car) and buying a new type of electric wheelchair, In Short, its a
manual wheelchair with electric wheels (which assist you when you push)
When we found out the price, this got knocked on the head
£3500 (just for the wheels)
We did look at buying a 2nd hand one, but we found the batteries for it are priced at £420 for two (one in each wheel)
Really nice idea, but bloody expensive
So, things are looking up.. we hope.
Keep in mind, though all this we have also had the following going on.
E3 coverage, to work with (around 18 hours a day due to working UK and US times) the guys in the US at E3.
Jess had some major bulling issues at school we had to deal with
And i am currently in a sleep study (to try and find the issue behind my fatigue)
ohh and to just top it all off, Linda's work keep sending her to France (with about 24 hours notice) each week
Now, maybe you will see why we haven't had time to sort out a LAN
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APart from the broken washing machne part obv.
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