Friday, December 24, 2004

HISTORY: People cant drive on xmas eve!

damnit!!! I'd just been out to drop some movies back to Blockbuster Video in the centre of town at around 9pm on xmas eve. Dropped the DVD's in the drop-box as blockbuster wasn't open (who would be at 9pm on xmas eve!). Jumped in the car, and started heading home. It was only a 5 min drive, so shouldn't of been any problems.

Just to set the scene, this is the layout!..The blockbuster in town is just off a duel carriageway, and to get home from where i had parked, you have to drive along a 2-lane sliproad which joins onto the duel carriageway (it's a bit of a blind area when the 4 lanes merge). Around 50 metre's after the 2 roads join, it becomes a 4 lane junction onto a main roundabout controlled by traffic lights...

Anyway, i was driving along the slip road just coming upto the roundabout, and some pillock comes up along the duel carriage way and swings straight into my lane. In order to avoid an accident, i had to swerve, and in doing so, i hit the kerb at around 30mph, and the kerbs around this area aren't very forgiving. This other driver didnt stop and just drove on!

The result?... driving up another duel carriageway to get home, the front side tyre goes flat. So i pull into a sideroad to have a look!... Completly flat tyre, and the steel rim had an inch or two dent in it!... D'oh!

So swung the car into a hotel car park so i had a bit of light so i could change the wheel! The next problem being the spare was flat aswell!... arrrgh!.. So managed to limp home at around 10mph!

The spare wheel had a slow puncture, so xmas morning, my girlfriends dad turned up with a tyre pump and we pumped the wheel up so i could go visit my family for christmas!

The damage caused, as said before, was a knackered steel rim, and a torn tyre. So i popped into a local tyre place, and bought a new steel rim for £15, and a used tyre for £15 and a new valve put on the spare to fix the slow puncture!.. Dont wanna fork out £200 for a new set of 4 tyres if im going to get a new set of alloys and need another set of tyres! Waste of money if i do that!...

So because of some twat's driving skills, it's cost me £35! Not that bad if you think about it, but when monies tight, you dont need extra expendatures like this!!!

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

HISTORY: damnit!

oh dear oh dear... on my travels to work this morning, i happened to bump my car into someone else... Stuck in traffic coming upto a mini-roundabout, everyone was stood still! After a couple of minutes, the traffic started circulating around the round-about, and i carried on with my journey!

I drove round the round-about, looked in my rear-view mirror to see what was behind me, and then looked in front to carry on driving, but the car in front had stopped to turn right. I jumped on the brakes to try and stop, but as the roads were wet, i just slid into the back of him!

Luckily, just before the impact, he had started moving of, so it was a very low-speed bump!

We both pulled into a side road, and he jumped out of his car to look for damage. He was driving a new VW Golf GTi... nice-ish car! But luckily, he was ok, and there was no damage to his car. he kept saying "you barely touched me, dont worry about it"... So i didnt (hehe). No insurance details were exchanged, as there was no damage.

So we both went on our merry way and when i got to work, i decided to open my bonnet to see if anything had happened in the engine bay!..

His car was untouched, but my car had some damage... D'oh!.. But it was only slight. The front drivers side light had taken the brunt of the impact, and it had broke some of the pins that held it into place. So now i need to find out if i only need to buy a new set of pins to hold the headlight in place, or whether i need to buy a whole new headlight!... We shall see how that pans out!

Other than that, there was no damage, except to my ego. I've been driving for 3 and a half years, and never had a bump (except that one time i reversed "the BEAST!" into a lampost, but that's another story!).... oh well, onwards and upwards i guess!

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

HISTORY: hmm.. new mirrors?

I work on a business estate comprising of around 50-60 units for offices and such like along with associated parking... Each unit had roughly 1-2 car parking spaces. Now in my office, there are 5 people working, all of which drive, so we usually have 4/5 car's parked outside the office, but as you can guess, there's not always room, so if that is the case, we park alongside the fence on the otherside of the drive..

Yesterday was one of these days, and i had to park alongside the fence. Not a problem, as i have done this many times before. Anyway, i came out of work last night and i spotted a peice of paper lodged underneath my windscreen wiper. I simply thought it was a note saying "please dont park here again", as i have had those a few times before.

As i got closer to the car, i noticed there was something else sitting on my windscreen!... Turns out to be my drivers side mirror!... Arse!... However, the peice of paper did say "Sorry, i broke your mirror, please call me on xxx to arrange repair" and was signed.

Sooo, today, i had a look at the damage. There is one broken Mirror Glass and the Actual black plastic mirror had a crack in it! So next port of call was Peugeot, to see how much it would cost. £66!. EEEESH!... Oh well. I phoned up the woman who had hit my car and told her the damage, and she will post a cheque for £66 to me to cover the damage... Scooooore =)