September 04, 2008 @ 1:45 PM 1 Comment

Filed under: Personal

You know what can really ruin your day? Getting into your old car, wanting to get some horse food, only to find out that someone drove into your car and knocked the left-side mirror off!! I have to say though that even though it ruined my day I was happy it wasn’t my new car…

WRONG! When I went to check the new car, parked behind my old, I noticed the driver side mirror was flipped the wrong way. With my hard pounding in my throat and praying that it wasn’t damaged, I turned the mirror around, only to find the mirror glass missing!

It means that someone, either a normal car or a truck, has driven too close to the parking spots and knocked off both mirrors. I checked the neighbours cars but they are all fine, it’s just my cars. The only lucky thing about it is that nothing else was hit, just the mirrors, and on both cars it’s just the mirror-glass missing. Not the outer casing, which makes it a lot cheaper to fix.

Unfortunately this meant going to the polic office to get it registered. Because they third party is unknown, it’s hard to get any money for fixing it. There is a way though; a special foundation will cover (part of) the costs if you have witnesses etc. stating that the car was fine when it was parked there. Getting the mirror of my new car fixed was ‘only’ €17 and I can now drive around safely again.

I just wish that people would leave a little message with a name and a number when they hit someone’s car! It’s only a minute work and that’s why one’s INSURED. And even though a truck might not have noticed hitting both cars (although if it was a truck it’s amazing they didn’t hit anything else!) but a normal car would surely have noticed bumping into 2 cars like that!

Don’t worry about my horses; even though I didn’t manage to get the horse food, they didn’t starve that night as there was still plenty of food in our storage and my dad picked up the extra food after work

September 01, 2008 @ 2:55 PM 3 Comments

Filed under: Personal

Last Friday was the day for me; I had an appointment with Marcel from Dragon Tattoo. Some of my friends had been telling me horror stories the night before, about how they felt when they got theirs done (somewhere else). According to them the pain was so bad that they either nearly fainted or got sick, and the blood was enormous. Thanks my friends, I really appreciated that! So all in all they got me kind of worried, especially because I had to go alone! No one was available to come with me and hold my hand.

But, brave a I am (or because I already paid and figured that I could handle a little pain for that) I went to the shop by myself, explained what my friends had told me, and how it made me nervous. Fortunately Marcel made me feel comfortable (thank you so much!!) and started with a small line to let me experience what it would feel like.

And, without bragging too much, I can seriously say it didn’t hurt one bit. Surely it was a little sensitive at times, but I never experienced pain, it felt more annoying than anything else.
Now, nearly 72 hours later, the tattoo is starting to heal and it itches like crazy. But as the little card said that they gave me afterwards; Don’t scratch it, damnit!

It looks awesome, and I’m completely in love with it, I can’t stop staring at it. The butterfly came out a bit bigger than I thought, but due to the lines in the middle (of the celtic knot) it had to be bigger, otherwise it wouldn’t be clear enough.

This is a photo of the tattoo , 48 hours after getting it done.

It looks a bit “off” as it’s trying to heal; it did bleed a little so now it has to heal up and that’s what makes some lines look a little thicker than others. But they have gone back to normal already.

The tattoo is located on my inner left leg, about 4 fingers above the ankle. As you can see here;

So all in all not a bad start of my weekend, and to make it even better, I picked up my new car on Saturday!

August 27, 2008 @ 7:23 PM 4 Comments

Filed under: Personal

After my Hyundai Atos fiasco a few weeks ago, I knew I had a decision to make. Will I keep my current car and risk that it won’t go through the annual check-up or buy a new (and probably safer) car before winter.

Even though it hurts to part with my first car; a 1995 red Fiat Panda I have decided to go for a new(er) car. Since the internet is a great place to find occasion cars I started my search there. But of course, what car did I want? Is it a Hyundai Atos, or something the same size but completely different? Needles to say that the budget I had in mind played  part in the decision too, and not long after my search started my eye fell on the cute appearance of the Daewoo / Chevrolet Matiz.

There are enough of those for sale, so sifting through them all there were some more decisions; will I buy it at a registered dealer, or one that’s not registered, or from a private seller. Weighing off the options, advantages and disadvantages of them all I opted for buying it at a registered dealer. Which will give me confirmation on the actual amount of KM that has driven ( so it hasn’t been tampered with) as well as a 6 month guarantee.

On Monday I went to check a car in a nearby town; a blue Daewoo Matiz from 1999. It is not much younger than my current one but has done only 66.000 KM. There are a few scratches here and there (and it looks like someone slightly hit a pole but it’s not dented nor has major damages). And today I took it for a test drive. Some might think I’m crazy for even testing a car that has scratches but let’s face it; it’s nearly 10 years old so you can only expect scratches of use etc.

I have to admit it steered a lot easier than my Panda (which isn’t difficult to steer at all) due to power steering. It has electric windows in the front, as well as air bags (safety..) and power door locks (aka central locking). And even though it’s not scratch-less I decided to go for it; I BOUGHT THE CAR!

It will (or should) be ready for pick up on Saturday and while I write this I have mixed feelings. I’m really really happy and excited about the new car, but I also feel sad to part with the Panda as it’s still drivable (although unsellable), but it’s starting to rust. Safety on the road means a lot to me as I have to drive quite a bit every day and with winter coming I just have to have a safe and good car. So even though it hurts a little, it’s time to part ways with “Panda”. It has given me 4 great years (more than expected) and as it was my first car; it will always be special for me. But (as much as I hate to say it) it will have to move over for the (still nameless) Daewoo Matiz..