A Very Stressful Week!!!

That's an understatement really!!! Sad News and Exciting News!

I hate making big descisions, but was forced to with the bad news that my beloved Hyundai Coupe was going to cost a bomb to fix it for the MOT. I just simply couldn't invest any more money in this car, even though it broke my heart to give it up. Every night this week I sat working out figures, looking at cars on offer around local garages, looking at new car deals etc etc. I decided that I was totally fed up with car bills full stop and decided to buy a new car on finance. Could I afford it? Well no, not really, but I could if I worked a single shift every Sunday, extra to my full time job - which I have being doing for years anyway. Also delaying delivery of a new car until 1st March will help me financially, with no car insurance and no petrol for 3 months! Birding by bus will be the new trend - well for a few months anyway! I suppose its probably the best time of year not to have a car for 'rares' - I will just have to hope that no first for Norfolk's turn up before March!!!

I took Friday afternoon off as holiday to look for cars and to trade in my car. I went to Marshalls Ford Garage in King's Lynn and was very unimpressed with their service. A sales lady dealt with me and basically she didn't know the finance side of things at all or anything much really and every time as I asked something different, she left me sitting at the desk whilst she trotted off to the other end of the showroom to ask a salesman in an office behind closed doors - very personal service indeed - not! In any case I couldn't afford any of the new Ford Cars, apart from a KA but the boot was much too small for all my gear! I went to the shop where I bought my recent new car radio and they kindly took it out for me, so if anyone wants to buy a virtually new JVC KD-R311 CD/Radio for £70 ono then please email me!

With time disappearing fast I ended up making the hopefully sensible decision of going back to Walkers of King's Lynn and trading my car in for £500 and buying a Skoda. The salesman who I have seen each time here was very good at his job and made you feel that you had all the time in the world to make a decision, ask questions etc - an excellent service. I was so exhausted I was too tired to make my mind up properly in the end. I couldn't decide between a petrol or diesel basically. Left my car there as MOT ran out at midnight and went home. I decided to wait until Saturday before making my final decision and signing paperwork.

SATURDAY
I had to wait in to receive my new oven - yep that's been dying for ages too, along with the car, so ordered a new one (my first new oven - wahoooo!) from Curry's. I requested as early as a delivery as possible and guess what, they turned up at 2pm! The bad news was that the electrician refused to disconnect my oven as my electricity is not earthed!!!!! I knew my electric was dodgy, but didn't realise how bad - my heart sank, here I was with a lovely new oven, now sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. I rang an electrician who is a relative of a colleague at work and thankfully he can come out Tuesday to 'put a spike in' - connect new oven and then on another day, put in a new fuseboard (mine is so old, you wouldn't believe it), hopefully before christmas - more expense! Then of course I will have an old cooker sitting outside which Curry's would have taken away for nothing had they been able to disconnect it!

Got the bike out of the shed - not looked at it for a year - to find both tyres flat which was to be expected really. Pumped tyres up, but the front one stayed flat - bother! It was now 4pm and the Skoda garage shuts at 5.30pm. Walked to Surf55 bike shop, which is not far from me and they put a new inner tube in for me straight away which was good of them. Flew up to Hardwick to the garage and made it there by 5.10pm.

Bought a Skoda Fabia SE 1.6 TDI CR 75PS in Petrol Blue with Telephone preparation GSM II Bluetooth (means I can phone someone/answer phone, play music via my iphone through car speakers, handsfree - how cool is that! The car will be delivered in early March, so I will be ready for spring migration. I can't believe I have signed on the dotted line for a brand new car with 42 months finance - oh well, too late now!!! No MOT for 3 years, no services costs (included), no car breakdown costs (top RAC package inc.) and 3 years full guarantee. Can't go wrong really!

Huge thanks to all those people that emailed me/posted on my blog to advise me.

So, no birding exploits today, but hope to be out soon either on the bus or with Eddie over the Christmas period! Working all next week - finish end of Friday 23rd December.

Update: Eddie said he and several others saw a Black Guillemot this morning at Coastguards, Cley along with bonxies and several other good birds (can't remember them all now). He also found 5 Waxwings at the bottom of Old Woman's Lane.