Car Passes MoT

The car had been booked in to be serviced and MoT's last Thursday, but at the last minute it was moved to today, Monday. I took the car early, to MK Diagnostics in Bleak Hall, arriving there at around 8 a.m. I had to walk all the way home through Coffee Hall and back to Eaglestone. At around 10 the garage rang to tell me it would need two rear wheel bearings. So, the total bill for service and Mot together with parts and labour came to £238.50. The usual garage we go to was going to charge £146 for just the MoT and service, so I'm more than pleased that we rang round for a quote. So the car is done for another year, and hopefully the peculiar juddering which we've had to endure for the last month or two has been cured, no doubt due to having an oil-change. The car is a Hynundai Atos, and it might be small but it's really cheap to run, insure and tax. A couple of years ago we went on holiday to Flamborough Head in Yorkshire and we managed to get all the way there on £35-worth of petrol! I have to say that living in Milton Keynes makes driving more expensive, probably due to the number of roundabouts and 'sleeping policemen' or speed bumps, and also the really poor quality of some of the road surfaces around here. Going over pot-holes and speed-bumps seems to put extra strain on the suspension of most vehicles as well as wearing the tyres quicker.

Car Problem Resolved

We have managed to resolve the problem with the car, the fact that the steering-wheel was locked as the ignition key wouldn't turn. It was relieved by a small squirt of WD40. I discovered this when I rang the Hyundai dealer in Stony Stratford. I was told by the mechanic in their workshop that this was a common complain with Hyundai Atos. It usually happens when it is cold and damp, exactly the conditions we've been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. I emailed Carol at work and she bought home a can of WD40 from the Academy.

We decided to go into the Milton Keynes Central Shopping Centre to see the Christmas display in the Middleton Hall.  We parked in the multi-storey carpark near Debenhams and then walked  through the shopping centre. This is an annual event in Milton Keynes, and is usually a major draw for families with children. Very colourful and glittery (see last year's display mention in an earlier post.) I can't say it's the best they've done, because it's not, compared with other years. There's the same little train going round and round (we managed to get a free ride on this last year! See the earlier post.) but it seems a bit 'over the top' not a lot of restrain with the twinkly lights. Some of the fairy and elvish models, the animated ones, might actually scare little children. But it was still worth seeing it.