New Car

We picked up our new (second-hand) car on Thursday night, woo hoo!! It almost didn't happen, because despite two e-mails and a phone call to our bank warning them that there would be a large transaction on our current account, there was still a problem during the money transfer.

Aarrrggghhh!! Luckily the cashier at the car dealer persisted and finally (after one hour of calling the bank and holding and being transferred from one person to another) the transaction was processed. Most dealers do not take personal cheques or credit cards, so unless you want to carry thousands of pounds with you in cash; the only way to transfer the money is by direct debit. Oh well, I suppose it means that the money in my current account is secure.

This weekend we drove down to Southampton to see my favourite nephew :) who is really cute. Mr KE loves the new car....after driving our little "lawnmower" for 5 years, oh, the thrill of having power steering and 5th gear!!

Hooray!

Clever Mr KE has fixed the car! He had to go to Halfords on the bus with the old car battery in a rucksack and bought a new one. Then he fitted the new battery and voila!

So there's no big rush to get our new car now. At least that's one less thing to worry about :)

Cuts

I'm sitting at the kitchen window watching Mr KE downstairs fiddling with the innards of our little car. He's so cute when he gets out all his spanners, pliers etc. He doesn't really know what he's doing, but with the help of the internet, anything is possible, right?

I'm still very busy at work although there is a overall feeling of pessimism as the country seems to be heading towards a long recession. On Monday, all the staff were all called to a meeting (actually it was more of an announcement) and told that the outlook was bad for the next 18 months. Yeah, no shit Sherlock.

The dreaded R word (redundancies) was not mentioned but it was highlighted that 80% of our costs are staff costs. The London and other SE offices are doing OK but the Northern offices are in dire straits. Unfortunately, the company can't just shut down the Glasgow office (for example) because of long leases on company premises and also because it wants to maintain a presence throughout the UK.

So the pain has to be spread throughout all the offices. Realistically, this means that every office will have redundancies, even London. I have heard off-the-record that a list has already been drawn up although staff will be told that everyone is at risk. The word is that the cuts will be at all levels - from top to bottom. The redundancies will also be made at the same time; so not 2 or 3 one month and then 2 or 3 next month etc which generally leads to widespread breakdown of morale. Short and swift is the aim. Let's wait and see.

Arse!

We have a little car that's about 15 years old. Even though it's tiny, has a lawn-mower sized engine and is worth around £2.50 ; it has been a faithful friend over the last 6 years. Since Mr K-E and I only use the car once every few weeks, we just couldn't justify running a more expensive car.

However, as things are changing around here, we have been planning to buy a new car by the end of the year. In fact, we have just about decided on the car and model etc, and all that's left to do is go to a car lot and pick one out.

Then, this afternoon, we had loaded up our little car with all our recycling, when ....arrrghhhh... it wouldn't start!! We don't have AA Homestart, so tomorrow morning Mr KE is going to walk over to the garage and ask them to have look at it. What bad timing! Hopefully it's just a flat battery because there would be no point spending ££££s on a car that's worth £200...

It's so annoying because now we might have to decide..is it cheaper to repair the car or just rent one for a few weeks until we get our new one?? Fingers crossed, it will just be a small thing, like a loose wire or something equally easy.

On a better note, while I'm typing this, Mr KE is cooking dinner. On the menu - rump steak, oven chips, salad and a homemade tomato salsa. Can't wait.