Radio discovery

Recently the light bulb on the front of my car's headlight blew. On my car it is very difficult to change the front headlight because there is hardware in the way of the light socket, you have to take the bumper off and several metal flanges to get to the socket. I have breakdown cover so I called the breakdown mechanic and asked him to change it for me. He did it. Then I asked if he could test the battery, the battery test indicated my car starter battery was at 5% capacity. It was unlikely to last through winter months so he changed my car battery as well. 

When you change the battery on most cars, the radio is reset. This means all the saved preset stations are wiped from the memory. So I had to reprogram my car radio. This time I made sure the numbering made sense. Preset 1 is for BBC radio 1, 2 For BBC radio 2, 3 for BBC 3CR, 4 for BBC radio 4 news then 5 for Wycombe sound. 6 would have been for LBC but i'm sick of their nonstop Brexit debates so I left it blank. 

I accidentally pressed the FM button again and it opened a menu called FM2 it is FM but with expansion for the presets. So I actually have 12 preset radio stations. I never knew that. There is FM1 and FM2. I can have 12 presets stored on my radio. I use FM1 for London Stations and FM2 for my county. 

I recall falling asleep listening to BBC radio 4 news once, the room was completely dark and I had an eye band on to help me sleep. It was nice because my consciousness was dipped slightly asif I was a bit drunk, I wasn't thinking much, just listening in the darkness to a story  that had nothing to do with me. It is sad that we have to alter our minds slightly to fill the void created by our restless thoughts. The human imagination is cruel, it takes away peace from ourselves. 

EV super deal thought

As far as I know, we are going through the highest cost inflation in my lifetime. This means the price of everything is increasing and the cost of living is more. The Pandemic affected the speed of supplies and that brought up the cost. Speed is everything in capitalism, the faster you can supply a product the lower the cost and everything is connected. If a microchip factory can't produce micro processors very quickly then the cost will go up for all the things that use the chip, that is just one example. 

My small car has a 30 liter tank so it costs me £45 to fill my car with fuel. I fill my tank every week so this means I am paying £180 every month to fuel my car. My breakdown cover is £40 and crash insurance is £40.

 I am paying £260 per month for my car! 

Electric cars have 50 kilowatt-hour batteries on average so I could charge it up and have change left over from £10. I look for an EV deal where you get insurance and the car together for £150 per month. There are no such deals at the moment but I wait patiently. People will say why are you paying £150 for a car, I would say it is less than the price of fuel. The fuel cost of my car was £180 per month.  £150 per month for 5 years. No such deal exists because 50 kilowatt-hour batteries cost nearly £10,000. I wait for someone to invent a low cost high capacity battery, that will change the world. Electric cars wouldn't cost more than £25,000 if the battery only costs £500.

Super Tailback

I will remember 22nd of November 2019 as an encounter with the worst tailback in my life. I was driving to work and reached the A40 section that passes Hillingdon train station when I encountered a traffic jam. The traffic was so slow that it took over an hour to reach the next slip road.

To cut a long story short, I was 1 hour and 10 minutes late for my job yet I was due to arrive 5 minutes early.

The traffic was caused by a car crash and the car managed to jackknife itself sideways and took out about 50 meters of fencing to the northolt military base and I could see the runway from the road through the fence. The car looked like a BMW or Mercedes, they look alike to me. It was beige coloured and was upside down. That car must have been going extremely fast... 

If the driver survived I am sure he or she had life changing injuries. People need to calm down.

Car college

When I drive my car, I play a CD that teaches you Spanish so my car has become a learning center or classroom. Most of the Spanish I have learned is from my car. When I get into a traffic jam I don't mind because I am learning Spanish so the time isn't wasted. In fact I learn more when I am in traffic because I'm not distracted by road hazards.

My car is not just a Vehicle, a machine that takes me to places, it is a place of learning. I try to turn all my possessions into assets when I can. My Car is an asset because public transport is more expensive than my fuel and I am learning Spanish which is hard to value.

Google Car, excuse the pun

Today I am grateful for birds, spring is nearly here so we will see many of them in the coming weeks.

Yesterday I learned that there is one thing that is more stressful than waiting for a vehicle safety test, thinking your google account has been hacked. My google account has thousands of products attached to it including this blog, my 3 other blogs, YouTube videos and all the book pages that I have written and e mails. So many things are being guarded by that one little password. I changed the password but it turned out to be a false alarm, it's a long story so I won't divulge.

Well, when my car passed the vehicle safety test (with a few fault fixes) I was relieved twice because my google account is intact and so is my car. Isn't it ironic that a google self drive car crashed into a bus earlier this month.

Until next time, I am thankful for all the good things I will have in the near future.

M.O.T. test

Today I am grateful that I can drive and I have a car because I need it to run the vending business and to get about properly.

I have submitted my car for an M.O.T test today and a full service. I hope my car is in good enough condition to pass the test without any extra cost.