Cars!

This is me in my new car, which I bought yesterday. Nah, it's not really. My car isn't in such good condition. When I said new, I really meant "new to me". It's 9 years old actually, which is an eternity in car years, unless you have an extensive garage, chauffeur and mechanic at your personal disposal. I don't have those, or I am all those even, apart from the garage, that would be ridiculous.

I just needed a runaround really, so got myself a cheap second-hand car with a year's M.O.T and somehow managed to find one within my budget and with a pretty low mileage. The wife and kids don't particularly like it. They prefer the old one, but as the saying goes "Beggars can't be choosers!" I wouldn't beg, but I would accept charity, which is the next best thing really when it comes down to it, not that any charity would be forthcoming anyway!

The benefits of my new car, are as follows; the ABS isn't a pain in the arse, the steering pump functions continuously, it holds the road very well, it's very economical, and it has a CD player in it. From that, you should be able to deduce the deficiencies that were to be found in my old car. I still haven't decided what to do with the old car yet. My father thinks it's worth repairing, but I'm sceptical. I don't like mechanicking, it sucks. The notion of spending time and money trying to fix up a car which gave me so much grief, is frankly, a non-starter. In addition, I have no time to spare whatsoever, in which to carry out said repair job. Don't know about you, but that's me convinced!

Bring Out Your Books!

Today I managed to acquire some books that I've wanted for a while. I would have had them yesterday had the parcel fitted through the letter-box, but it didn't and so it winded up back at the delivery office. There was a good reason why it didn't fit in the letter-box, and that was because it was a box-set. The "Alexander" trilogy by Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Translated from the original Italian into English of course. Supposedly second-hand, but clearly they've never been read. You can tell that sort of thing!

I hadn't intended to buy them yet, but having purchased a CD from Amazon recently, I realised that by adding a couple more cheap items, that I could save paying postage (they have some sort of deal on). I read "The Tower" by Manfredi, last Summer when we were in Italy, and it was a decent read. I have decided, from the reviews that I've read, that these "Alexander" books will be even better. I also notice that Matthew Reilly has a new book out too, "The Six Sacred Stones", the first part of a double header, continuing the adventures of Jack West. Now, that's a man who knows how to write action adventure stories.

You might be wondering what the photo above is of? Well, this is where all good books go to die, an abandoned book depositry. Perhaps not, they go to live in cardboard boxes in attics, cellars and garages. There must be billions of books rotting away unwanted and unloved. Why don't you go and look through your old books... do you still recognise them? Perhaps some of them are worth reading again. Otherwise take them to a second-hand bookshop, so that someone else might get the benefit of them.