It has been too long (yet again) since my previous post. I won’t bore you with long-winded explanations but suffice it to say that the past three months have been challenging and very busy owing to bereavements in the family and to health issues affecting both myself and a neighbour. The latter has just returned home after three months in a hospital near Cardiff during which I have visited twice weekly and looked after her house, two dogs and all those other aspects of daily life that she couldn’t manage for herself while in a hospital bed. Meanwhile, the National Health Service is getting revenge on me for my lifetime of good health by treating me to what feels like an avalanche of tests, scans and other appointments for treatment which will become even more frequent in early 2012. I have met more medical “ologists” of one sort and another in the past three months than in the previous 71 years, and all because I decided that it might be a good idea to have a general check-up in preparation for the next 71. It was indeed a good idea and I have been impressed by and grateful for the attention that I have been receiving (as an outpatient) from the University Hospital in Cardiff.
Once again it was Henry, our Tortoise, who prompted me to post on the blog after all this time. Having hibernated somewhat earlier in recent years, Henry has remained active this year and has stayed where he can be seen on our back lawn for several hours each day. Granny-Anne reckons that he has known for some time that the current spell of unusually warm weather was coming and has therefore made a daily appearance on the lawn (rather than remaining hidden under his bush or somewhere else under dense shrubs) so that I wouldn’t be tempted to put him in his winter quarters indoors. Now I will have to watch Henry, the weather and the forecast even more carefully during the days and weeks ahead.
Last year I gave up driving and got rid of my car. This was partly due to a loss of interest in the car following a couple of attacks by vandals and partly because the car was used so little. However, while the Cardiff Bus service from a stop near our house is very good to and from the city centre, it is not so good for travelling to and from local hospitals, the garden centre and other destinations that we might like to include in our wildly exciting lifestyle. So I decided to have a car again provided that it was a lot more interesting that the average eurobox. It is a long time since I found modern cars at all interesting and if I must tolerate the expense and general hassle of car ownership now that driving itself has become such a joyless activity, then the car had better have a bit of character about it to compensate.
Having reluctantly decided to have a car again, and a “classic” car at that, I made up my mind that it would have to be versatile and economical to run, though not necessarily the cheapest available. It also had to fit the garage, be easy to maintain and new spare parts would have to be readily available. I also decided to buy from a highly respected dealer/restorer (a company that I have known for over 30 years) and to return the car to that dealer for annual servicing and maintenance. Fortunately Cardiff is not far from Bristol, and the latter is the home of Charles Ware’s Morris Minor Centre, so I concluded that there was no need to look any further.
Ooooh, it’s lovely!
Hope you’re ok x
Good to hear from you again! I hope your own health is good and continues to be. Sorry you’ve had such a trying time the last few months.
How nice that Henry is still up and about. I love your new car, what is it? I’ve never seen one like that.
Thanks Jo and Digital Dame. Yes, I’m fine. There’s nothing wrong that can’t be fixed.
The car is a Morris Minor 1000 Traveller. It is the estate version of one of the most popular British cars of the 1950s and 1960s The Morris Minor was produced between 1948 and 1971 and for much of this time it was available as a two or four-door saloon, an open tourer, an estate. a van and a pick-up truck. It was the first British car whose sales exceeded one million. Mine is a 1971 model which has since been restored to a very good standard and upgraded both electrically and mechanically. No doubt I will have more to say about the car in future posts.