Thursday 27 October 2011

It was all going so well...

The news is bad. My Buy Nothing New Month challenge took a turn (nose dive) for the worse over the weekend. It was nothing frivolous or nice or exciting or even interesting...


Some late night revellers, en route to the city railway station, decided to break as many wing mirrors as possible. Our passenger side wing mirror fell victim & was snapped from it's folding knuckle. It was bouncing around rather pathetically by 2 springs when I drove the car. (I am trying hard not to think bad thoughts & I'm trying hard not to send hexes).

I had 3 choices, live without the wing mirror until November, drive to a breakers yard 30 miles away to get a second hand one or buy a new one a mile away.

Living in a city full of cyclists, wing mirrors are essential.

Very grudgingly, I bought a new one & had it fitted first thing the following morning. (At least I saved about half a day & some petrol money, potentially £20 according to the petrol calculation at the bottom of google map directions...)

I do not feel good about it, I would have preferred to get a second-hand one but I constantly worry about potential cyclist related accidents & I needed to use the car that same afternoon.

I'm still trying to decide which I find the most annoying;

having bought something new,
or
someone breaking the wing mirror.


P.S. a bit of good news...there's the Making Winter Project to look forward to...

10 comments:

Elisha said...

Hi, thanks for visiting my blog... so sorry to hear about your mirror :-(

The bikinis and one-pieces I make are my own design and I sell them in my etsy store www.monetpaisley.etsy.com

I want to make patterns so that people can make them for themselves but am finding it a little tricky to use the computer programs and also how to instruct someone else in how to get them just right....

Thanks for asking though :-)

Lucille said...

What prats, but thank you for buying the mirror. My cycling son was hit by an opening car door once in Cambridge.

Annie Cholewa said...

An essential and unavoidable purchase. You'd never have forgiven yourself if you'd had even the tiniest of accidents because it was missing. Thankfully I don't generally have to worry about revellers taking off wing mirrors here, we have tractor drivers who are oblivious to the actual width of their tractors to do it for us instead!

Alison said...

Ohh, so sad. :( You are right, though: you needed a fix, and you needed it fast.

Angela said...

Do NOT beat yourself up about this one. Rules - especially 'self-imposed' ones must be taken in context. Jesus said we should honour the Sabbath and avoid 'work', but if your donkey falls into a ditch, then the Right Thing is to pull it out immediately, not leave the poor creature there overnight. I think your broken wing mirror is just such an 'ass in a pit situation' - if you wait a month to replace the mirror, you are endangering cyclists etc. So REJOICE! you have Done The Right Thing. Be encouraged, sister!!!
blessings x
[but I am truly sorry it has cost you money!]

Anonymous said...

Poor you, but it doesn't count, trust me.

...Nina Nixon... said...

That is such awful news - we had our's snapped off a couple of years ago by some thoughtless so and so's and it was rather expensive to replace I seem to remember.

On a different note - we lived in Cambridge for a couple of years and found anyone on a bike a law unto themselves, so wing mirror or no wing mirror it never seems to make a difference - they are all reckless and blame everyone for their cycling mistakes.

Nina x

Calico Kate said...

Don't blame yourself, this wasn't 'your choice' to purchase it was a necessity and no-one will hold it against you. Think of it as medicine for the car! I like Angela's take on it too.
CKx

litlove said...

What a bummer! I'll bet you were hopping mad - I know I would have been. I hope the Gods of thriftiness take out suitable revenge on the culprits....

Anonymous said...

I do wish people wouldn't do such things! Still, you made the right choice, especially considering the fuel costs you checked out!

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