Home Diary 2015

November

Tuesday 17 was a Black Tuesday. As a result of an accident our Skoda Octavia was written off: it happened on Fish Hill, near Broadway, a notably dangerous location, but, most importantly, no one was hurt: the crumple zones did their job. The other vehicle involved drove off without stopping and without exchanging details: there were no witnesses, and hence we were unable to apportion culpability. The insurance company, Liverpool Victoria Exchange, did not cover themselves in glory. When we reported the accident they were unfriendly, not to say hostile; and we were kept waiting for two days before the ‘guaranteed’ courtesy car arrived.

We had been very pleased with our Skoda Octavia – an SE Plus with many useful extras – but it soon became apparent it would be difficult to find a like-for-like replacement as very few used ones were on the market. So we took the decision to upgrade rather earlier than we had been planning. When Teresa rang our local dealer, she found that they were selling last year’s demonstrator at a useful discount: we drove right over to have a look: it had all the extras we had come to appreciate, so we went ahead and collected it two days later.

On Friday 20 Teresa and Helen flew to Lisbon for a long-promised short break together. They stayed in a very central apartment block and were lucky with the weather for the time of year. They very much enjoyed looking round the city, but also visited the local beach one day. Teresa was able to put the Portuguese she has been learning to good use. They found the public transport cheap and efficient and the restaurants friendly and reasonable. They are already making plans for a return visit.

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