\nThe car hasn’t had much use since I got it. It’s been in to the centre of Rugby for wheel-balancing and tracking alignment. And that’s about the sum of its journeys.<\/p>\n
Yesterday I took it in to Kwikfit to have the brakes checked. They said the pads were fine but the disks needed replacing. And then they quoted me \u00a3500 for doing the job. FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS?\u00a0I told them not to bother.<\/p>\n
A little investigation reveals that I can get four new disks and four new sets of pads for \u00a3100, so what the hell is the hourly rate Kwikfit charge? And their mechanics must all be as rich as fuck. Except they’re not, obv.<\/p>\n
I’d like to do the job myself – fitting new disks and pads – but I’ve never done it before. And mucking about with the braking system of a car doesn’t seem to be the smartest place to start learning car mechanics.<\/p>\n
So I’m going to call a couple of local garages, to see how much they’d charge for the job, if I supplied the parts.<\/p>\n
Bike:<\/strong> I am keeping the bike scrupulously clean. I tend to wash the VFR down every evening when I get home. At weekends I take the seat off and give the frame a very thorough clean, and then lube the chain.<\/p>\n I took a gentle trip down to Daventry today to buy a pair of winter gloves. Ended up travelling 150 miles, familiarising myself with the environment.<\/p>\n I have a hankering for a Triumph Daytona 955i. In bright yellow. I’d keep the VFR, as the every-day form of transport, have the 955i as the scary-but-fun weekend bike, and the car would be my bad weather transport.<\/p>\n Don’t look at me like that, it’s perfectly logical!<\/p>\n House:<\/strong> I have received an estimated electricity bill from nPower. \u00a380. I can’t help wondering what the former occupants of this house did with their electricity, if their typical monthly bill was eighty-fucking-quid!<\/p>\n Oh yes, and I’ve been broadband-upgraded. But the speeds are mediocre at best, and unimpressive at worse.<\/p>\n TV:<\/strong> To compensate for this I’m watching The West Wing on DVD, broken up by occasional episodes of Breaking Bad on DVD. The jury is still out on Breaking Bad, but I’m only on episode five of the first series.<\/p>\n I might open up the boxed set of Buffy The Vampire Slayer sometime.<\/p>\n I may also go out and buy a Freesat box, as we’ve discussed here before.<\/p>\n
\nThe VFR continues to be my daily commuter, as well as my weekend runabout. It is, obviously, much cheaper per mile than the car, but whereas the car drips comfort and luxury, the bike drips fun, smiles, and racy excitement.<\/p>\n
\nI’m almost unpacked. Erm. Almost. Except for the bits that aren’t unpacked. Ahem.<\/p>\n
\nI am still struggling on with The World’s Dodgiest Freeview Signal. And when I say ‘struggling on’, I mean ‘largely not watching’. The bad quality comes and goes. Some days every channel is unwatchable. Some days only the majority of channels are unwatchable.<\/p>\n
![\"Brain\"](\"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/wp-content\/\/Brain.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"