Car repaired..

Finally picked up our car after 9 days!! Was told that the repair would be 3 days but it was stretched to 9 days.... Somehow the courtesy car company seem to realise this long ago and gave us a rental agreement for 9 days (stated in the agreement sent to us the next day after we collect the courtesy car)!! Coincidence, I don't think so. Anyway, all these should be paid for by the bus company insurer as it wasn't our fault, see previous post.

Let's see the paint works and the new bumper,

Before repair and before washing the car!


After repair and the car washed by them

The paint works seem brillant!!

Miss driving our car, cos the courtesy car is too big for us, Too van-like and always feel that it might topple over when you turn left/right. The only good thing about the courtesy car, it's new (only 6 months old).

Today...

My last twenty-something birthday!!!

Going shopping now! Yeah!

Update... didn't buy anything.

So what did Sam gave me???

A swatch watch!!

Dinner??

Yes, homemade sushi, eat as much as you like!!

Dessert??

No cake, the one I want was sold out in M&S. So we bought the creme brulee from M&S instead. Finally the blow torch bought previously comes into use. Although you tend to pay a bit more for M&S food, the food quality is extremely good. Very creamy and tasty for this creme brulee, will buy it next time.

Replacement car


Vauhall Zafira 1.6



This is our replacement car for 3 days while the car is being repair for the damage caused by the bus previously.

The car big hor!!!! Too big, me scare to drive!!!

Hotel for Prague trip

Which one???

Sofia Hotel
- 3 star hotel
- 48 pounds per nite per room, quoted from expedia.co.uk
- Approx 1km from Wenceslas Square, think still can walk there
- No lift (but only 4 floors)
- Nearest metro is Namesti Miru (Line A), two stop to Mustek (Centre)
- review from virtual tourist seems ok.
- I think this is the best out of the lot, cheap and can walk to city centre.

Hotel Melantrich
- 3 star hotel
- 60 pounds per nite per room, quoted from expedia.co.uk
- Approx 200m from Wenceslas Square, right in city centre
- No lift
- review from virtual tourist seems ok, maybe abit noisy.


Grand Hotel
- 3 star hotel
- 44 pounds per nite per room, quoted from expedia.co.uk
- Approx 3km from Wenceslas Square
- Nearest metro station is Lipanska (Blue line), about 4 stops from city centre
- review from trip advisor seems ok.

St Patrick's Day

This year, we make sure we are early in case the hat run out. 4 pints of Guinness and the hat is yours. Got mine now!!!

hmmmm..... Last year need 5 pints to get the hat..... Guess the less the better for me.

心痛.....

Heart pain....

Sam tried to fix the problem with the car and bought a new distributer cap (about 25 pounds) to replace the old one. However the car still wouldn't start.......

Sam found out that it might be the distributor itself causing the problem and to replace it would cost 440 pounds!!!!!!

No choice lor, got to send the car to Nissan to confirm our findings and fix the problem.

Got the quote this afternoon and it's confirmed that it was the distributor and would cost 560 pounds (diagnose + parts + labour).

Faint.........

买车容易, 养车难

What a day

My typical day at work in Cambourne is 8am to 4.15pm so that I can avoid the traffic in Cambridge. Driving to work in the morning was ok, arrive at 8am as predicted.

But when it's time to go home at 4.30pm, my car wouldn't start!!!! I thought I was doing something wrong. Called Sam for advise and tried numerous times to start it but in vain.... Asked my manager to have a look and it seems that I was doing everything ok so it's just the car......mmmmmm

Called our Roadside Assistance to come and help. Waited for more than an hour before he arrived, luckily I was able to sit in office to wait cos it was freezing cold outside...

The garage guy came at about 5.45pm and he couldn't start the car too. Not even with jump lead (no idea what other methods he tried). So he decided to drive me home in his tow car with our car towed behind.


Me in the tow car and the garage guy pushing our car to be towed.

Any idea what happened to the car??? It could be the cold weather or it might be the car deciding to play dead on me or it's just me!!!

Arrived home safely at 7pm and will need to call the roadside assistance again to tow the car to garage when we fixed an appointment with our garage.

Maybe the car will be ok in the morning??? Not likely cos the battery is already drained after the headlights were switched on throughout the way home on tow.

Well, this will be a hole in our pockets.......

To buy or not to buy??????

Canon CP330

Ebuyer is selling this at less than 70 pounds.

- Got battery (can print anytime anywhere)
- Can print normal picture, postcard, photo stickers and credit card size photo

Just one question, do I really need this.........

Eeeeeeerrrr, Ebuyer had revised the price to nearly 80 pounds (inc VAT)......

Still crazy over Harry Potter

Since my last post re Harry Potter, I had finished the 3 PS2 games, 6 books and 1 movie.

Game review

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (PS2)
Pro : Loading time quite fast.
Con : Not that exciting as you can collect all the card easily and might even double/ triple your collection. You also have to go through some of the tasks again in order to collect all the challenge shields to increase your grade. I bit boring if you ask me.


Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret (PS2)
Pro : Out of these 3 game, I think this is the one worth playing cos the tasks are more exciting and the cards are not as easy to collect as Philosopher's stone. A bit more challenging.
Con : A long time to load between scenes.


Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PS2)
Pro : You travel in group of 3 and can switch among Harry/ Ron and Hermione, each of the character have their own speciality.
Con : When you finished your task and wanted to go exploring, the other characters will remind you that they are tired and want to rest. Very annoying as they kept repeating this.

If you want to play just one, I suggest Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret.

Books review

1st to 4th books in Deluxe set


5th book - Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix

6th book - Harry Potter and the Half blood Prince

All very interesting and easy for reading. Took me less than 2 months to finish all the 6 books. The 5th book is the funniest of all and the 6th book is very serious. Now I can't wait for the 7th and last book to be out (which will be 7 July 2007).

The above image are the actual games/ books I possess.

Car was hit by......

a BUS!!!

Sam picked me up at train station and after going to Homerton College, we were driving along East Road heading back home. As usual, East Road is packed with cars at this rush hour (about 6pm). We passed the traffic light but came to a stop shortly after (we were the last car). A bus (red double decker bus) travelling on the opposite direction was trying to turn right but our car was blocking his way. He stopped and then started to moved forward (thinking he can pass it) but BANG!!, he hit our car.

It was quite a shock, we did realise that he was very close but didn't think that he would still moved on. Sam got off the car and took down his details, I meanwhile saw a man who had witness the incident and requested to take down his details (as a witness).

We tried to see the damage done to the car when we were home and noted that the paint on the rear side of the car (driver side) had come off. It was too dark, we look at it again tomorrow morning and take some pictures. Hopefully, the bus company insurer will cover this.