Tim Foster's Weblog

(Well, actually Cars, Bikes & Buggies - but that's not a very catchy title)

I'm thinking a lot about transport at the moment. The missus and I have pretty much come to the conclusion that a 3-door BMW coupe probably isn't the best form of transport for a newborn baby - reaching into the back seat trying to unbuckle a car-seat amidst the graps of a wriggling youngster could be a bit tricky. So, we've been looking around at other forms of transport, and more particularly, cars with at least 4 doors, preferably 5.

To an extent, coming to this conclusion has been making me a bit uneasy - I really like our current car, and having had it's engine management computer and catalytic converter wheeze, cough and die a few months ago, replacing them with with brand new ones at an extortionate cost, I'm even more attached to it. (my bank manager is at any rate) Since it's been fixed, it's been running better than ever, and we're still quite attached to the lovely burbling the engine makes when you accelerate.

With only 30,000 miles on it, I'm sure it will run and run for many more years - just that we probably won't be the people running it. When we bought the car first, we were planning on driving it into the ground, visions of Tim & the missus as pensioners, still tootling about in a 316i seemed rather quaint - but then Bananas (bump, proto-baby, small-foster, call it what you will) arrived, (well, will be arriving I guess) so we've had to start thinking along more practical lines.

So far, we've been eyeing up and test-driving several used Audi A2s, and having nearly found the one we wanted last week, it was sold out from under us (picture a car-dealer grabbing the rug we were standing on, giving it a hard tug, and throwing the keys at another customer, and you've got the idea). Apart from that, we've half-started looking at Ford Foci, if that's the plural form, and while they're very practical, they just don't have the same class as our lovely bmer. For the last few months, the major topic of conversation whenever we've been out driving is an ongoing critique of everything on the road, their pros & cons and whether we could really see ourselves driving them, at times verging on the Clarkson-esque . Sad, I know.

They're just cars, I should get over it. What I really want to spend most of my time travelling on, is one of these (or something like it, wish they were available in Dublin!) but at not far off the cost difference between trading in our current car against another 2nd hand car, now's just not the right time. A recumbent bike would only hold me, and not the missus, Bananas, and all his/her gear (which is already starting to amount to a fair amount of space - for someone so tiny at the moment, they're taking up more than their fair share of storage!). Come on SUNW :-)

In related news, along with imminent baby-induced car purchasing, there's some serious nesting going on in the Foster family homestead at the moment. Apart from moving my study into one of the smaller rooms, to make way for a nursery, we're also tearing down walls, adding stud walls left, right & centre, replacing all the windows in the house (mmm, double-glazing) and generally painting anything that isn't nailed down, I'm just thankful I've still got the energy for my daily cycle into work on the Rockhopper (photo taken a while back - currently the bike badly needs a clean). I'd post photos of the devastation in the house at the moment, but you really don't want to see them.

Roll on September!