low key saturday with car stuff

Despite the fact that this morning was the first time in four days that I've woken up without a headache, I'm currently feeling decidedly not right... it's not a headache, and it's not really general nausea... well it kinda is... but it's also a little bit like a headspin... which I'm going to guess is from my Saturday morning Iced Coffee, added to the fact that I really haven't eaten very much all day due to the aforementioned "not quite nausea" feeling.

So if I start trailing off or making much less sense than usual, you know why.

For the most part today was a very low key day. It started out somewhat differently though because my car was booked in for a service at the Ultra Tune store near the supermarket... so Ma and I drove down in separate cars, dropped mine off with the very nice mechanic man and then went off to do our shopping.

Partly because I've been working the low-level nausea thing all day, I didn't end up getting that much stuff at the supermarket... actually it was more or less a bare minimum of items, and on a day that it might have been better for us to spend a large amount of time in and around the "shopping precinct", we were finished fairly quickly (not that it really mattered, because I didn't get the car back until noon).

Once we'd come back here for Ritual Unpacking, we headed down to the frame store to pick up the two Chinese outfits we had framed for La Cousina's Christmas present. On the way though, the nice mechanic man called to let me know a few of the things that needed fixing above and beyond the regular service... which, considering that I actually haven't had it done for far, far, far too long (actually I'm not sure if the last time I'm thinking of really was the last time, but it's up there), was a reasonably short list... couple of wires/cables, new front tyres and some windscreen wipers. Granted it all came out to a ridiculously excessive fee... but still... so I told him to make with the fixing and we carried on down to the frame place.

When we got there the nice lady from last time served us again and brought out the two frames facing each other and with much pomp and circumstance (as well as telling us that everybody who'd seem them thought they were fantastic) revealed the finished articles...

And the were lovely... really... framed beautifully...

But all I could see was that the white washing care labels with "Made in Vietnam" emblazoned on them were so incredibly OBVIOUS! And the girl's outfit also had the size tag sticking over the top of the care label. Arrrgggghhh...

I did wonder if maybe it was just me with my detail orientated and picky eye... because Ma didn't say anything... so I didn't say anything... I mean what are you going to say when they're all finished and sealed and ready to go. But the nice lady went out the back to ask somebody something about another matt that Ma wanted cut, so I mentioned it... which made Ma realise that the woman had said that they would cut the tags off (I'd wanted to do it in the store myself, and really should have), so she mentioned it when the woman came back... and they're going to fix them up, remove the tags and make them all pretty again. So very glad I said something, because really, other than that, they were beautifully done. I'll have to snap some photos of them when we finally get them back.

Once that was all done, with the promise that we could pick them up next weekend, we went down to Arndale for a general wander to fill up some time before heading back to Ultra Tune.

Turns out there was only one thing he couldn't do, which was a cable for the vents in the air-con system, but he's ordering that in, along with a new aerial (because the old one has only been broken for a year and a half, so it might just be about time it was fixed) and I've booked the car back in for next weekend for him to fix those. I asked him if it was possible to get an electric aerial that hides itself away when you turn the car off, and he said it could be, even though it's about two and a half times as expensive... and the normal ones aren't really that cheap (actually I'm sure that I've seen aerials in motoring stores for like $18... so hello and welcome to the world of mechanical markup).

But woohoo... the car has finally been serviced... and I think I'll be going back there again, even with the price tag... he seems like a good guy, and it's always good to take your car to the same place over and over.

Oh, and he also gave me a free "new car smell" car smell tree thing (even though I hate that you're supposed to leave them in the little plastic baggy... what design retard came up with that?), and a couple of Ultra Tune branded reusable shopping bags (one for me, one for Ma), which I'm sure comes under the general heading of "the least he could do"... but it always feels good to get something for "free", even if you've just paid an excessive amount of money for something else at the same place.

So basically it was just past noon and Ma and I were pretty much ready to call it a day. But we decided to drive down Prospect Road to find a shop that had had a stall at the Body Mind & Psychic Expo... I've kept looking for it whenever I've been down the road, but for whatever reason I had a totally wrong street number in my head, so of course that never helps. Turns out that instead of being in the 110's, it was actually in the 320's... whoops.

I'm not actually sure it was really worth the trip in the end. I didn't end up buying anything (and given that I only worked two days last week, I think a bit of frugal action isn't uncalled for), but Ma got something for a woman who's leaving her work, so it wasn't a total waste. And since we were already out, we headed over to the other side of the city to Flourish which is where we spent a fair amount of time (and I spent far too much money on Ma) last Christmas. We were very well behaved though... and didn't buy anything. Then after wandering around the Made in Japan store next door (which always looks more interesting than I think it really is) we went across the road to buy French pastries from real live actual French people.

We followed that up with a brief trip to Haighs, mostly so Ma could get the final thing she wanted for her workmate, but we can never just leave it at one thing... bad really (although not as bad as it could have been).

And then we called it a day... and I'm still feeling decidedly wobbly around the edges, even though I've eaten my very tasty French éclair...

Have I mentioned that I HATE being sick?

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