AJ's Weekly News: 2 June 2023
My son's first car. Plus health concerns, money worries, and a pleasant bike ride
Contents
1. Personal Notes
2. This Week’s Medium Stories
1. Personal Notes
Son’s first car
A week ago, my youngest son and I viewed a car for sale around the corner from us. I asked why the address was across town, and the seller said it was his business address. The test drive went okay and we returned the following day and bought it.
I was a little concerned we’d never been in the man’s house — we first met at the roadside next to the car. I hoped we would do the deal indoors, just to confirm that he lived there. But he returned from work in the car at 11:30 am and said he’d forgotten his house keys!
It sounded like a classic scam, but I did HPI checks on it and I don’t think it’s stolen. The paperwork for the car included an invoice for repairs done 12 months ago at the seller’s garage across town — the same address as the V5 registration document. And he had owned it for a couple of years.
The following day, when I was feeling more comfortable about it, a different car appeared for sale in the same spot. Perhaps he’s just getting rid of his old cars, or perhaps he’s a motor trader in disguise.
Either way, the car seems okay for now, especially for an 18-year-old car that was only £1200.
Cleaning and driving
We spent many hours cleaning the interior — it was very dirty. Finally, in the evening, I drove us to a quiet area, we put the L plates on, and my son drove it for half an hour.
He did well and I was surprised by how much he has already learnt after about four driving lessons.
Time to change driving instructors?
I was shocked by something my son’s instructor taught him to do.
Like most people here in the UK, our cars have manual gearboxes. When pulling away, he was told not to press the accelerator pedal until the car is doing 6 mph!
In other words, he brings the clutch up and sets off with the engine ticking over at idle speed!
To me, that is dangerous because the engine could stall, risking a collision with approaching cars.
I don’t imagine my son changing instructors, no matter how many people tell him it’s not the right way to drive.
Blood pressure
Last year, I found my blood pressure was high when I checked it at home. I did the right thing by having it checked again at my local pharmacy. They agreed it was high and said they’d tell my GP.
I never heard anything more about it.
A few days ago, I wrote about it on Medium — see the next section — and the comments persuaded me to make an appointment. Ten months later is better than never!
Transition to Universal Credit
In last week’s newsletter, I wrote about how I’d effectively shot myself in the foot by opting to transition from Child Tax Credits to Universal Credit sooner rather than later.
On Wednesday, I went to a meeting to talk about it. I was so nervous that my mouth was bone dry. I told them I could barely speak because of that, but they didn’t even offer me a drink of water.
To qualify for Universal Credit, you have to have very little in the way of savings. I already told them I have well over the threshold, and listed what I had in every account. But they wanted to see evidence of it.
Having to provide proof of something that (after the transition period is over) disqualifies me seems ridiculous when I’ve already told them about it! Why would I lie about it?
Anyway, I took some bank statements. But they want me to return with them all.
Overthinking and worrying
I keep going over all my options, and I don’t like any of them.
I could:
Give them all my bank statements and start looking for work, even though I don’t feel physically or mentally up to it. Besides, I still have to take my youngest son to college, work, and his diabetes and coeliac appointments until he passes his driving test, and few employers would give me flexible hours and time off for those things.
Give them all my bank statements and ask my doctor for a fit note saying I am not well enough to work at the moment. I would hate to do that. Even though my anxiety is very real, I would feel judged; like I’m faking it. Having to keep going back would make me squirm and cringe.
Tell them to close my claim, and get no money from them.
What to do
I’m leaning towards number 3 at the moment. But that leads to further choices:
Live off my savings for a while and then look for a job when I feel ready.
Resume work on the app development projects I abandoned a couple of years ago, start my own company, and try to sell them.
Double down on Medium writing and hope to earn enough to get by. It’s so close, but so far — I need an increase of eight times in my Medium earnings.
No wonder I’m not sleeping well and feel so anxious!
I still don’t know what I’m going to do.
Another bike ride
In the middle of writing this newsletter, my hands felt like they were suffering from RSI and I could not continue typing.
It’s a lovely day and I asked my eldest son if he wanted to go for a bike ride.
He’s not generally very keen on riding bikes, unlike his younger brother, so I was surprised and delighted when he said yes!
We went out for one hour and twenty minutes. We only travelled 7.14 miles, but the ground was rough and it was quite a trek.
It was the same route I took the other week when I got the puncture. Thankfully, we made it back without any problems, and I felt able to resume writing again after we returned.
2. This Week’s Medium Stories
I tried hard to keep up with daily publishing all the way to the end of May — and I think I made it!
Perhaps I’ll write about my recent earnings in the near future.
Is It Possible to Identify My Fiancee’s Quirkiest Habit?
I might be in big trouble if she reads this!
I had to exercise some restraint when writing this story! Having said that, I did ask Stephanie, my fiancée, for some ideas!
I spent too long searching for suitable images — if only I’d finished organising my photos.
I Should Have Chased Up My GP When They Failed to Contact Me About My Blood Pressure
Maybe I’d now be on more than multivitamins and hay fever tablets
When I came clean about the way I’ve not followed up on last year’s high blood pressure readings, my Medium friends came to the rescue in the comments. They ‘forced’ me to make an appointment with my doctor; I’m going on Monday afternoon.
(I also mentioned blood pressure earlier, in part 1 of this newsletter.)
I Sold the Car I Loved and Got a Rusty Old One for Five Years After a Crash Scared My Wife
If I was trying to punish myself, then I was successful
I’m not proud of what I did almost 30 years ago. But it’s a true story and I felt the need to share it.
(I can still picture the way the car ended up perched on top of the fence post I knocked down!)
I Never Want to Return to Any of the Holiday Destinations I’ve Been To
But there are some exceptions
I get very emotional when looking at old photos, especially the first holiday I went on with my late wife.
When writing this article, I described why I would not want to revisit places I loved, places I did not like, and the ‘in-between’ ones.
Some of My Road Rage Experiences
Two incidents, 25 years apart
I am lucky in that I have only been a victim of road rage infrequently.
I try not to dwell on such incidents, but there must be over a dozen if I think about it. In this article, I shared two of them.
Am I Superstitious?
I thought I had kicked the habit until I wrote this piece!
I refuse to use AI to write stories. But I don’t mind using it as an alternative to search engines such as Google, especially for something non-critical.
I got ChatGPT to give me a list of ten superstitions, and I wrote my thoughts about each of them. I also talked about my parents and their attitudes towards superstitions.
It Is Nearly Time for Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference 2023
Are you planning to rush out and buy the anticipated MR headset?
Last year, I left it quite late to mention Apple’s WWDC. This year, I thought about it a little sooner and shared my thoughts about some of the rumours. I’m especially hoping for a 15-inch MacBook Air.
I also had a mini-rant about Apple’s terrible approach to payments in the Family Sharing feature. You’d think after all these years of improvements to iOS, they would have more flexibility and not force the ‘Family Organiser’ to pay for everything!
Oops! I nearly started ranting about it again!
Brave and Brutal Questions and Answers About Medium
What is this? Twenty questions?
I spotted an article with a very long title by Penny Grubb and decided to attempt to answer the same twenty questions.
Tony Stubblebine even highlighted one word, which I think is the first time that’s happened to me!
Isn’t it typical to get noticed for an article that was thrown together in half an hour, rather than one I’ve spent hours writing?
I’m not sure whether my answers are brave and brutal. But I hope they are helpful.
