Thinking About Cars,

I can't remember if I've written before that I was thinking about getting a new (to me) car which I think would suit me better with all of the climbing and camping I like to do, and am hoping to do more of, as well as the paddle boarding that I've been doing, because it would better accommodate my board and the rest of the stuff I bring with me. 

Sadly I made the decision not to change my car, because I looked at the cost of insuring the car that I want to get instead of my current car, and honestly, the price was astronomical. The cost of insuring it for one year was something like a quarter of the sale price of the car and more than double the cost of the insurance of my current car. When I first decided not to have the new(er) car I was really disappointed and thought about it in terms of being 'stuck' with my current car, but for one thing I know that is really ungrateful because I'm lucky to have a good, steady and reliable car that doesn't cost me much in tax and fuel, even if the insurance is ridiculous.

I've been told by other people before that you will always miss your first car, and I think that's definitely going to be true of mine when she has to go, because as much as I want a bigger one and the car I have isn't what I would have chosen had I really sat and thought about it, it was only when I was speaking to someone else about learning to drive and about first cars that I realised the one I have is actually pretty great.

For a first car, it was a bit expensive, but not really especially not given the fact there was only thirty odd thousand miles on it, it had a full service history and it was little, which was what I wanted. It also was only up the road, which was a good thing, though it wasn't me that drove it home the first time. I did have to take it back for a couple of little issues and the fact it was so close was a blessing at those times. It's sturdy, which is good since someone intentionally reversed into me in a car park, and thankfully it did no damage, and I've scrapped it into a bush more than once, because country lanes are not my friend, but the damage to it has always been pretty minimal. I love the body of the car, because closing the door doesn't sound like slamming a lunch box shut, but at the same time, I always knew it was likely to get a little bit banged up, because it was my first car and I was sure I was going to prang it off of something. I'm actually quite proud of myself because I've been a lot better with it than I thought.

As much as my car being a Kia means it's solidly built and it's pretty ace, there are things I want in a new car, such as heated seats and cruise control, which I think having driven for a few years without you are likely to start to want to get, but there is something almost like a rite of passage of driving a slightly crap car for the first couple of years you spend driving. I guess it's partly because of the risk of bumping into things and also whilst you live up to the saying of, you've passed your test, so now you can learn to drive. I'm likely to keep hold of this car for another couple of years whilst I save more towards buying a newer car and also whilst I wait for my insurance price to go down a bit, but honestly, I'm dreading that the car will develop some sort of fatal fault before I am actually ready to replace it.

I guess this is the reason I wish I had learnt to drive before I moved to London though, instead of waiting until I moved back. As much as I'm at the age where people enjoy cheaper car insurance (given I could have been driving for about thirteen years by now) I've only actually been driving for two years, and in that time had a no fault accident because someone chose to hit my car. (And it was a choice.) I realise you can't go back and change these things, and there is no sense regretting things you can't change, but man, I kick myself daily about this one. 

What To Do Now,

If you're one of the people that follows this blog, you'll know that a question I have been almost obsessed by recently is what to do now. It's something that I have barely been able to get off of my head recently and I find it really difficult to deal with sometimes, because it's a very frustrating question. 

I can't remember if I have previously made mention of the fact that I have gone back to having driving lessons after a four year hiatus. It's something that I wish I had done earlier because of all the times it would have come in useful, but I'm doing it now. What's more, I even have my theory test booked this time. Granted I did something potentially stupid and booked it in the middle of NaNoWriMo. Do I really want to be attempting practices tests at the same time as writing a novel? Well, no, probably not, but I do want to be able to get this stuff done with as soon as possible, which means getting the theory test done as soon as possible. 

I've been thinking quite a lot about NaNo, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to write. Every project that I want to write at the moment I'm already a good way into and I'm a bit sick of starting things and not finishing them. Also, even if I could think of a project that I wanted to continue for NaNo, I would then have to leave it alone until next Sunday. I would be sat here with a serious itch and my mind going mad trying not to touch it. I can't even distract myself with something else because to then be able to put that down for the whole of NaNo, which I would have to do if I was going to entertain any hopes of finishing, that would be almost impossible, too. 

As if finding a project wasn't bad enough, I also get the joys of debating the pros and cons of typing and writing, and using my quills or one or more of my typewriters. Writing, I can carry everything with me, which is something I have grown a lot more used to, however, aiming for the 15k day as I want to, I can't do that without typing. 

Maybe it's a little ambitious - It's been almost two years since my last competition. I mean, yes, I wrote my dissertation last year, and by the results I got, I kinda smashed it, but that's 9,000 words of fact and research and argument, not 50,000 words of imagination. I also didn't write that whole thing in one day - but I know that some people do. It's been a while since I sat down and really hammered through a novel and to be honest, the prospect of doing it again is pretty terrifying, but not doing it, that seems worse. Worst of all is the idea of making an attempt at it, and then falling on my ass. I like my record of only one loss. 

Right now, I'm trying to think of what I need to do between now and Sunday. Most important of which would be buying a toaster. And doing a Lidl run for excessive amounts of junk food, because one of the key features of writing a novel is gaining weight in the process. For some reason though, I'm more crisps and cream cheese than tons of chocolate. Tons of chocolate makes me ill, and that's not productive. 


I know that I'm over thinking it, as I do with a lot of things, and novels are something that happen when I don't over think, but Christ almighty, I have missed this so much. Except the pre-NaNo illness that always happens. That sucks ass. For now, it's just a waiting game. Roll on next weekend.