AJ's Weekly News: 11 August 2023
Getting back into writing. Well, thinking about it anyway!
Contents
1. Personal Notes
2. This Week’s Medium Stories
1. Personal Notes
How did Stephanie’s new car get an MOT certificate?
In last week’s newsletter, I went into quite a lot of detail about Stephanie’s car problems. In addition to the low oil level and low tyre pressure (which turned out to be a puncture), we found several other minor things.
It’s not that they were expensive to fix, but it makes us wonder how the car passed its MOT just before she bought it from them.
The petrol cap was missing, the screen wash was completely empty, and there were problems with no less than four bulbs!
One of the brake lights did not work; the side indicator repeater did not work; and both rear indicators were clear rather than amber. The bulbs were so old that the amber coating had flaked off!
A year earlier, we were suspicious about the MOT station used by the same garage for her previous car. They put an advisory of ‘underbody rust’ when the car should have failed with ‘severe corrosion’.
This time, they used a different MOT station. Unfortunately, they seem just as bad as the other place. It’s as though they issued an MOT certificate without checking anything at all!
To pass an MOT, all bulbs must be correct and working, a fuel filler cap is needed, and the screen wash tank must not be empty. Although tyre pressures are not part of the MOT check, the one in question was so low that it was an obvious safety concern.
Phoning and visiting my 100-year-old aunt
I phoned my aunt to see how she was doing and arrange to visit. I was glad to hear she was well.
While I was on the phone, I mentioned our July holiday to Filey near Scarborough. My aunt told me how she and my late uncle visited some of the places I mentioned, and how they stopped going because of the poor weather they experienced in that part of the country.
She went on to talk about how they liked visiting Wales, and that the best fish and chips they ever had was in Aberaeron.
On the day of our visit, as I was getting dressed in the morning, I thought, “I must select a handful of favourite photos and take my iPad to show her.”
Later, I got distracted with other things, and only remembered once we arrived at her house. Trying to find the best photos on my phone was difficult.
My son came with us, as did Stephanie and her daughter. Stephanie had baked some cupcakes for my aunt.
Garden chairs
There were not enough chairs in the living room, so she told us to get two folding garden chairs from her conservatory. They were very old, and when we unfolded them, we found the plastic had cracked.
Just now, I took them to the recycling centre. It feels a little sad to think about how long she would have had those chairs, and how my uncle would have used them. As you can see at the start of this piece, I could not resist taking a photo of them.
Cleaner
My aunt still does all her own cleaning, but recently decided it was time to get a little help. One of her relatives needed some work and arranged to become my aunt’s cleaner. However, she only did it once and has not been in touch since.
She has a history of being unreliable and erratic in her communication. We think she is embarrassed to have let my aunt down, so we encouraged my aunt to get back in touch and break the ice.
Babysitting
Stephanie’s daughter, who is now 16, has started doing some babysitting. Stephanie used to do that when she was younger, and she told me how the people she worked for took advantage of her, by having her babysit overnight for a minuscule amount of money.
Ironically, Stephanie assisted by giving her daughter and the children a lift to a play area. She did not get paid for fuel and ended up buying food and drink. I can’t help but wonder if history is repeating itself. The parent certainly got a very good deal by avoiding transport costs etc.
Waiting for exam results
It is hard to motivate my children during the summer holidays. My eldest, who is 18, gets his A-level results next Thursday. He does not plan to go to university, and I’m hoping he will start looking for work once he gets his results.
Every week, his grandad says, “You should take a year out!”
It seems in stark contrast to what I was doing at his age. Just before I turned 18, I started a full-time job working 40 hours per week and gave my parents money towards household bills.
Now that my son has turned 18, I no longer receive child benefit for him, and the council tax I pay has increased because they class him as an adult who is no longer dependent on me.
This transition period will not last forever, and I don’t want to put too much pressure on him. But the household finances will start to feel strained before long, now that he is no longer classed as a student.
A small clearout
I did manage to get my son to sort through two bags of old and broken toys earlier in the week. In the past, we have donated many items to charity shops, but they were in reasonable condition.
I ended up taking this latest batch of old toys to the recycling centre today, along with my aunt’s broken garden chairs.
Sticking to the exercise
I have continued to exercise more and avoid eating between meals. It seems to be working because my scales told me on Monday I’ve lost 3 1/4 pounds in a week.
On some nights, I have felt very tired. However, instead of eating more, I had a drink and rested for a while.
A few days ago, I read Lisa Beth Wright’s article on Medium, When You Want Change Bad Enough, You Will Make It Happen. I saw it just at the right time, and it helped keep me motivated.
Feast or famine
The communication problems continue between me and Stephanie. She still prefers text messages rather than phone calls.
Some days, when she is busy, I do not hear anything from her for about nine or ten hours. On other days, such as when she was helping her daughter with the babysitting, she sent several messages every few minutes.
Unfortunately, that was on a day when I was busy trying to catch up on Medium.
The phrase ‘feast or famine’ came to mind. One of my old work colleagues used to say that when talking about his workload. One week he had little to do. The next week, he could not keep up because it was so busy.
2. This Week’s Medium Stories
This week, most of my time on Medium has been spent catching up with reading and notifications. Like last week, most of my stories were about July’s holiday photos, and I completed my four-part series.
Even More Photos from My 2023 Holiday
Part 3: Filey and Bridlington
We stayed closer to the caravan site for one of the days by going to Filey. Then we went slightly farther the next day by going to Bridlington because my son wanted to try the Escape Rooms there.
The Remaining Photos from My 2023 Holiday to Filey, North Yorkshire
Part 4: Skirlington Market; two pubs we did not use; air hockey at the arcade; and York with a puncture
It rained on our last full day, but that did not matter too much because we visited a market that was quite some distance from the caravan site.
It was Sunday, and we’d not booked anywhere for lunch, so no wonder we struggled to find a suitable place to eat. At least it resulted in some nice photos when we visited a couple of pubs that felt like they were in the middle of nowhere.
On the final morning, as we were about to leave the caravan site, we discovered my car had a puncture. As you might expect, that had an impact on our plans. Despite that, the day wasn’t completely ruined, and we still spent some time in York on the way home.
Deep Dive Prompt: What Do You Prefer 2?
Ten questions and answers that require a choice to be made
Having written four ‘photo stories’ recently, I felt like I was out of practice when it came to writing anything else.
I happened to see a writing prompt by Subhi Najar and it felt like something I could do, and a good way back into writing.