2015 — 28 July: Tuesday
Seeing an ambulance1 parked a little way down my road is never a pleasing sight. Meanwhile, Mr Toyota says it's time for a service and MOT — events which (I note) continue to slip steadily forward through the year since my initial registration of the Yaris in October 2007. I suppose I should get this out of the way before handing it over to Junior. One wag has already suggested when I hand it over, it should be well-filled with his Uni sports junk that I've had to displace from the garage.
Not a terrible idea, I admit. Not before breakfast, though.
Listening...
... to the slightly rattly sound of my "new" CH boiler while making my cuppa, I was struck by the alarming thought that it's actually now over five years old. That means the 25 storage cartons still littering my house are of similar vintage. I haven't needed to access anything in any of these — and I have no clue what's in2 any of them, having thrown stuff in more or less randomly ahead of Brian's relentless plumbing progress from room to room. But I don't suppose they'll ever unpack themselves. <Sigh>
The world...
... is clearly going insane. Smartphones have their uses, but, erm, really? This? It was, perhaps, simpler in earlier times!
Now, about that breakfast...
John Buttifant Sewel's departure...
... from the rank ranks of our unelected House of noble Lords has not been in a state of much grace. "The Times" (though their paywall stopped me reading any further) managed to get in a side-swipe in their opening salvo:
Twelve days ago Lord Sewel wrote a blog outlining the new mechanisms for suspending or expelling members of the House of Lords. Now, having adorned front pages in a bejewelled bra and leather jacket, he may well be the first test of whether the measures he supported are robust enough. Nothing short of his expulsion from the legislature will suffice...
Now see how I signed off my final letter of 1998 to dear Mama:
But with the Tories ripping into New Labour about financial sleaze there's still plenty to entertain us. I just wonder why anyone's ever surprised. I think I shall have to give up reading the newspapers and watching TV at this rate. Bring back Red Ken, I say. And his newts.
As Dad used never to tire of reminding us: there's so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it ill behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us!
Not that she ever bothered to reply.
I've now finished reading...
... the depressing litany of things that can go wrong (and often kill or injure me) with the new Mazda2. Perhaps I'll just keep it up on blocks in the garage. Nor does the news about an obscure vulnerability buried in an Android module ("Stagefright") encourage me to fire up Google's "Hangouts", on my phone or Tablet PC. I have disabled it. Further evidence that placing (for example) any part of your financial or personal life on these devices is not terribly smart.
Does it never end?
Yesterday's new bush hat (another XL, alas) may yet be hand-delivered! Big Bro will probably return to the UK, with Lis this time, as her brother is now suddenly in a hospice. Another blow against Intelligent Design, if you ask me. Not that anybody does. <Sigh> But I've also heard one of my chum's chums is now officially "in remission" after his chemo.
While arranging...
... the next "big" service and MOT for my little Yaris I was glancing back through its "Full Service History":
| Date | Mileage | Miles/year | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 10,580 | 10,580 | ||
| 2009 | 16,271 | 5,691 | ||
| 2010 | 22,851 | 6,580 | ||
| 2011 | 29,000 | 6,149 | ||
| 2012 | 34,679 | 5,679 | ||
| 2013 | 39,231 | 4,552 | ||
| 2014 | 44,161 | 4,930 | ||
| 2015 | 47,200 | 3,039 |
My first year of driving (with my first 2,500 miles clocked up in the two months before I even took the practical test) was clearly the "heaviest".