Car Decisions, Birthday Buying & Work!

The new Skoda Fabia 1.2 TSI 90PS SE in 'race blue'.

My weekend has been dominated by everything but birding. The weather was dull and uninspiring on Saturday which made the day more bearable when I wasn't able to go birding. But today was a gloriously sunny, almost Spring like, whilst I was at work all day!

I spent four hours in the Skoda Garage on Saturday, trying to work out what to do and when to buy a new car. I can't believe I have had my current car, for what will be three years this March! I will more than probably buy the Skoda Fabia 1.2 TSI 90PS SE – which has loads of improvements since my current Fabia was built. I just can't decide on the colour though. Skoda has a new 'colour concept' feature, which means you can choose a different roof colour of either black, silver or white – the Rallye Green looks an incredibly exciting colour, especially with black roof and wheels to make it look more girl racer'ish!!! My mid-life crisis means I don't want a boring car. I might just go for plain black or red or maybe red with black roof, who knows!!! The 'Race Blue' which is featured on the front page of the brochure and I really liked, is NOT the same blue as it truly is at all when I saw this car at the garage! I wanted to add the panoramic sunroof and 17" Savio metallic black alloy wheels, but this is a non-starter, when I was told what the monthly payments would be! I know that a bright, funky colour etc will make the car at greater risk of being pinched, but being a Skoda, will this really make the chances of that happening more?!

Rallye green

Next on the agenda was birthday present buying for my Mother who will be 75 years old on Monday and Lucy's birthday on Tuesday. After wrapping presents and writing in cards at home, I then nipped over to Holme to deliver everything. Both my sisters were at Holme, so we all had a good catch-up. As soon as I walked in the front door, I declared my exhaustion from the day and Lucy very sweetly said 'would you like a hug?' – I most taken back and touched by her reaction, made my day. Even better, I managed to get Father to sign a card for Mother's birthday – considering his very poor eyesight and his trust in my instructions as to where he should place the pen, he managed to write incredibly clearly, almost to looking like his normal signature! He seemed really chuffed that one of his daughters had got a card for him to sign. So that was Saturday done with and I worked all day on Sunday!

One week left of my current job. Next weekend I am completely free to go birding, before I commence my new post on Monday 16th February. Part of the reason for taking this new job is that I will finish at 4pm instead of my current finish time of 4.45pm. 45 minutes makes a huge difference when a mega has turned up, especially in the Autumn, as we start to lose light. This will be far less late nights and posting on the blog in the 'wee' hours, as I will be starting earlier in the mornings!