Stopped by the Police!

Gemma had a bit of an exciting day on Monday. Having been out in the morning with Ellie they were on their way home when they were stopped by the police.

The police were out in force doing their usual vehicle checks. Gemma was spotted by the lead police car, who radioed his mate to stop her to check the tinted windows in the car.

Gemma stopped as requested and the nice policeman (he was genuinely nice according to Gemma!) He checked the windows to see how much light was being let in, and it was found that the windows were letting in a lot less than they should be.

The policeman was quite surprised that we’d not been stopped about it before. We’ve had the car for 3 years now and its never been an issue before.

The limit for the front side windows is min 70% light, but they were actually only letting in 40% light. He also checked the windscreen which has a limit of 75%, and it scraped in at 77%.

Because of that he had to issue Gemma with a ticket. Luckily it was only a non-endorsable fixed penalty, which meant no points for Gemma, but a £30 fine. We’ve got 28 days to cough up.

There was a little bit of humour from Ellie as the policeman gave Gemma the ticket:

“Look Mum, a ticket” said Ellie.

“Yes darling it is a ticket,” replied Gemma. “But not one that we want!”

So when I got home I had the job of taking the film off the inside of the windows. This was not an easy job. Getting the film to start peeling off was the hardest part, but once it got started it pretty much came off in one go. Once the film was off, the next job was to get all of the adhesive off.

A lot of elbow grease and white spirit was required, but eventually most of it has come off.

So all we’ve got to do now is to send off a cheque

Sad day for Gemma…..

As of this afternoon, Gemma’s first car is going off to the scrap yard

Her little Corsa has served her well, getting her through her test, and nearly 2 years of motoring.

It just wasn’t worth paying out to get it fixed after it failed its MOT a while ago. Thankfully, the firm that is collecting it will take it away for free and will even give us £50 for it. Better than nothing I suppose. And it takes all the hassle away from trying to get rid of it ourselves.

Plus, we’ll be getting a new car on Saturday. We’re buying my sister’s Clio from her. So it’s not all bad.

Dario Does It Again!

After last weeks spectacular crash, Dario Franchitti somersaults his car again in another dramatic accident. And, he walks away uninjured again!

This time it occurred after the chequered flag, which does seem to be a little foolish from a pro racing driver. Although he has admitted that the incident was his fault. Apparently he didn’t realise that it was the chequered flag lap until it was too late. He said after the race, “I didn’t realise it was the chequered. I got the ‘Hey, it’s a chequered’ just as I was hitting him.”

Click here to see video.

He’s a lucky, lucky bloke. Certainly pushing his luck at the moment.

Dario Franchitti’s A Lucky Bloke

I came across this story about Dario Franchitti surviving a crash during a race at the Michigan Speedway on the BBC website.

So I headed over to the IRL website to see if there was a video or pics to see what had happened. This is the video that I found.

These pics don’t do justice to the video:

The events start with Franchitti touching wheels with fellow Brit, Dan Wheldon.

This then flips Franchitti and he gets airborne.

Not So Good News

Our little red Corsa failed its MOT test today.

Not at all pleased, and on the way home from the garage it seems that the gearbox wants to give up!

A couple of the things wrong with it are easy to solve, but the others are a bit more work – and therefore more cost.

• Stop light bulb needed
• Registration Plate bulb needed
• Welding needed on ‘B’-pillars as there are a couple of fractures
• Rear Brake is binding

Plus there is a couple of little things that will need doing at some point, and then there is the small matter of the gearbox. But now we’ve got a decision to make – Do we keep the car and spend a few hundred quid on the repairs, or do we get a new car. I’ll have to gets a couple of quotes tomorrow to see in which direction we go in. But I somehow don’t think the repairs are going to be that cheap, so it’ll probably be an new car in the offing!

A nice cheap run around would be perfect, with nothing wrong with it. Not too much to ask is it?

One more thing to fix on the car………

While we were in Preston getting Shaun’s car, the exhaust started blowing on my Vectra. This is the latest thing that I’ve had to pay for.

Thankfully this time it was not too expensive. It was only the middle section that needed replacing, so there goes £90 from the bank account!

Buying a car

Gemma’s brother Shaun came to visit this weekend, arriving on the train, but going home in a new (used) car.

Gemma had found the car for him on the Auto-Trader website, and from the pictures looked in really good nick. It was an ‘M’-reg Fiat Punto. We contacted the garage on the Friday evening to see if it was still available, because at the price that it was on for I don’t think it would have been there much longer! We travelled up to Preston to take a look at the car.