Life Update 3.0

It has been quite a while since my last 'life update'. Usually I only post one if something major has happened, or if I've been away from blogging for a bit and feel like it's necessary to give an update before getting back into the routine of posting.

In my last life update (which you can read HERE), I was running a pub and had next to no spare time to do anything I wanted to.

Things have changed quite drastically.

I am no longer running a pub. I'm not actually even working in one, or living there anymore. In September, I also put aside my status of being single, and started a relationship with a man who has been my best friend for over a year. A lot happened all at once around about the same time. I wasn't happy working at the pub anymore, as I had no free time whatsoever, and my days were becoming monotonous and trying. Every day was the same, and there wasn't a day 'off' - when you live where you work, you can never quite get a full day to yourself without getting involved in some kind of work-related activity. So I passed on the baton, and started looking for somewhere to live.

My boyfriend and I moved into a rented house in October. It was a quick change, but it has worked out well. From working and living in the pub, to suddenly having a boyfriend and moving out - I think it was quite a lot for the people in my life to get used to! The house itself is fine, but there are three flights of stairs outside before you get to the front door, and it's a nightmare when it's raining, or if we go shopping - trying to get groceries up those stairs is a feat in itself. Heaven forbid if we go shopping when it's raining...!

Which brings us to job changes. I applied for a couple of places locally, all very different positions to what I had done previously. Social media work, and running a pub - those skills don't necessarily lend themselves well to other jobs, nonetheless towards any of the jobs that were available in my local area! It was quite disheartening to begin with, waiting for companies to get back to me before eventually deciding they weren't interested. I got myself hyped up for an interview as a spa manager in a fancy hotel, but clearly I didn't fit the role - no makeup, nails not done, and I was wearing smart trousers rather than a skirt? It seems almost wrong to believe that it was nothing to do with my experience or capabilities that led to the message saying I would not be moving onto the next round of interviews, but having seen some of the other girls working there, it was clear I was never going to fit in, and the woman interviewing me could clearly see that.

An interview that did move forwards into an offer, though, was as an optical assistant in the opticians I went to as a child. The first few days were rocky, as getting used to a new job was something I hadn't had to deal with for years, and even then, I had always worked for myself, or with family. This was an entirely new venture, setting out on my own, and finding my own path in the world. Eventually, I settled in, and now I'm getting on really well. I enjoy my job, which is something not everyone can say, and I'm glad I can. I sort diaries, answer phones, organise the shop, talk to customers, and sell glasses. It is much more in-depth than it sounds, but it's not necessarily the most interesting to read about. Something that hasn't changed though - I now do the social media for the opticians, so my skills are certainly being put to use!

Which brings us up to current day. Almost...

In early January, my boyfriend and I began toying with the possibility of buying a house. Not that we don't like the one we are renting, but it isn't ours, the stairs are an absolute nightmare, and we might as well be putting the money we are spending on rent towards a mortgage instead. So, we put an offer on one, and it was accepted. Within the next couple of months, once all the complexities involved in buying a house are sorted, we will be moving into a house that will be officially 'ours'. I'll be able to walk to work instead of having to drive. We will be only a couple of minutes' walk from the town centre, but still out the way enough to see fields from our house, and not have to deal with town centre traffic. The house is situated perfectly, is gorgeous inside, and neither of us can wait to move (although neither of us are particularly looking forward to moving all of our stuff back down the steps outside our rental!)

And that brings us back up to date. In the last couple of months, things with my life have changed dramatically, but everything is changing for the better. Plus, I have more time now for reading and blogging! Hence, I'm back! So keep an eye out for more regular uploads!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

The Saga of The Wicker Man (AKA my car)

This is, in it's entirety, the story of my car. There is no hidden metaphors anywhere, it is not an actual story or anything. Last year, I bought a car. This year it died a terrible death.

This is the story of this car's life, while under my care.

And no, I was not the cause of it's death. It died of it's own accord.

I will start this off by pointing out that I don't actually know much about mechanics. I only know the names of all these things, and what they do, because it has gone wrong and I've had to fix it (get someone else to fix it, that is).

Getting The Car

I used to have a 2006 BMW X3. I loved that car, but it didn't really love me back. Or at least, if it did, it showed it's affection in mechanic's bills. I spent just over £500 getting it through it's MOT, and then it developed an issue that would have cost several thousand to fix. So it was forced to get me through until I could get another car, and then laid to rest in the scrap yard in the sky.

The car I replaced it with was a 2011 Mitsubishi ASX. It looked pretty much identical to my BMW, which is one of the reasons I went for it. Facebook Marketplace, listed for £950. I took my dad, drove to go and see it, and he managed to get the guy to knock £100 off the price because the exhaust wasn't really actually attached to the car. In fact, it was completely rusted through, and wasn't doing anything other than dangling there.

So I had a new car, at the end of June 2024, for £850 (plus the cost of getting a new exhaust). Fun story, before I fitted the new exhaust, and was driving round for a few weeks with only half of one, if I had the back seats down I would have to have the windows open, because it pumped the exhaust fumes into the car and it would give me a terrible headache. 

The Wicker Man

The first major issues of this car presented themselves in August 2024, when I drove my brother and best friend to Alton Towers, a full 3 hours away. The drive there was fine, other than the engine warning light coming on while on the motorway. I've always kind of run on the basis that an orange engine warning light is telling you to watch out, and a red engine warning light is telling you to stop. At this point, I was about half an hour away from Alton Towers, so there was no point in turning around.

It was on the way back that the problems occurred. Turns out the engine warning light was there for a reason. Check DPF showed up too. Which basically means, your car is broken. I pulled out of Alton Towers' car park in limp mode. Managed to get to a really dodgy pub car park in the middle of nowhere, and finally managed to get the AA out to me. The man who showed up plugged his mechanic's computer into my car, and found more faults. Eventually he managed to 'trick' my car into thinking the DPF had been fixed, told me to take the car to a mechanic when I got home, and to blast out the exhaust on the motorway (lower gear, so high revs).

It drove fine for a further two hours or so. It went back into limp mode as I was overtaking a lorry, which I promptly was no longer overtaking, and slowly fell in behind it. Luckily, I was pretty much at a service station exit, so drifted straight in, and parked up. I left Alton Towers at 6pm. It was already 10:30pm at this point. The AA showed up again at 1am. They were apparently really busy, and couldn't get to us any sooner. I complained profusely. However, because they were so busy, the person they sent was actually a lorry repair person. His lorry computer would not talk to my car. I was told I would need to arrange recovery, and get the car towed the rest of the way home.

Recovery arrived at 4:30/5am. We got home at 6am. A full 12 hours after setting out on the 3 hour journey home.

The car went to the garage, had a new EGR valve solenoid (I don't know what this is, but apparently it was stopping the car from doing a DPF regen) fitted, and then the DPF issue was pretty much sorted.

When we went to Alton Towers, The Wicker Man ride was shut, as it was broken. Hence, my brother nicknamed my car The Wicker Man, and it has been known as such ever since.

Oil

The title is pretty self explanatory.

In October 2024 I had a orange light come up. Check Engine Oil Level. It didn't specifically state that the oil level was low, just that I needed to check it. And I did, and it was fine. But every time I turned my car on, the same warning came up. I eventually grew used to the beeping every time I turned the car on.

Until it was accompanied with a red Low Oil Pressure. This came with the same logic as before – Check Engine Oil Level was orange, and seemed to show no actual issues. Low Oil Pressure was red. Red is bad. I was parked up not long after this light first showed up, and I noticed oil under my car. So I checked it again, and it was dangerously low. So, I bought some oil, put it in, and the Low Oil Pressure light went away.

Until it came back again.

I took the car to my mechanic. We checked the oil level there, and it was pretty much empty. So he put some oil in. And we watched it all immediately drip out of the bottom of the car.

Turned out to be a leaking oil filter. In the grand scheme of things, quite an easy and cheap fix.

The Check Engine Oil Level light turned out to be a faulty sensor. It continued to pop up every time I turned the car on, even though the oil level was fine.

The Calm Before the Storm

After the Alton Towers and the oil incidents, the car was absolutely fine for about 8 months. The brakes were starting to get really quite squeaky, and I was certain they could probably do with replacing.

Turns out, all four wheels needed new pads and discs. The rear wheels also needed handbrake shoes.

So I bought the parts. Me, my Dad, and two of our friends planned on sorting the brakes, as we had all the stuff to do it, and I didn't want to pay to get someone else to do it when we could do it ourselves.

Everything went absolutely fine, other than the handbrake shoes. They were incredibly fiddly, and after doing the rear brakes, the handbrake wasn't necessarily doing much anymore. So back to the mechanic, with the simple request that he tighten the handbrake (and check the front calliper, as it seemed like it was seized).

Everything is NOT Okay

When my mechanic took the car for a quick test drive, to check the calliper, he messaged fairly quickly.

The turbo has gone. How have you been driving this?

Turns out, the turbo went pretty much as he pulled away, so although I dropped the car off absolutely 'fine', when it was driven away it was no longer fine. It made an almighty noise, and had very little power behind it.

As it turns out, replacing the turbo is very expensive.

On top of that, the oil level that had been fairly consistent since the oil leak? The oil level had risen, suggesting that diesel was getting into the oil. In case you were wondering, that is not good.

So the solution was to get a new car. I found a 2008 Mitsubishi Outlander that looked very good, and I do now have that car. But first, I had to get my car back from the mechanic, so I could park it up to let it retire (until the scrap prices rise, and then it can go and join my beloved BMW in the scrap yard in the sky).

Driving it home with a broken turbo was great fun. The journey home had a lot of hills as well. Plus, the smell of burning oil accompanied me the whole way back. To top it all off, halfway home, the Check DPF System warning came back up again, harkening back to the dreaded trip to Alton Towers.

Nevertheless, it made it home, and is now parked up, never to face the road again (unless it is on the back of a lorry on the way to the scrap yard).

RIP Mitsubishi ASX

It lasted just under a year. I bought it on 23rd June 2024. I parked it up for the last time on 13th June 2025.

And cost me probably more than I originally paid for it in repairs in the meantime.

My fingers are crossed that my new car will last me longer!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Life Update 2.0

So...

My last 'life update' was in October 2022. The last post I published was in April 2023. I have been chronically un-online for over a year.

My last life update (read it here and catch up!) was just after I took on a pub. We've been here for over two years now, and things are going wonderfully.

I have many, many (many, many, many) projects, and things I am constantly attempting to organise. For one, the pub itself is still running very smoothly. We have live music every weekend, as well as regular events, including karaoke, a quiz, bingo, open mic night, and on and on. 

When you run a pub, in a village, walking around makes you feel like a celebrity. If I walk down to the shop, there is a guarantee that I will run into someone I know, and there will be a conversation. I play a game now, when I go to the supermarket – how many aisles do I have to go down before I see someone I know? The shortest this game has lasted is getting out the car, and seeing one of my customers across the car park. 

Something I have yet to decide whether it is a good or bad thing about running a pub is that I know all the gossip of the village. Anything that happens, I know it before everyone else. Someone's just announced their pregnancy on Facebook? I've known they were pregnant for over a week. That couple are on the verge of breaking up, and those people are definitely going to get together in the very near future. I know everyone's business, and while sometimes this is great fun, I do also sometimes become aware of relationship drama before the people actively involved in the relationship. This is a very awkward situation to be in, especially if someone comes up to me and asks questions. Picking sides is not something I enjoy doing. I do like being the first to know people's good news though!

I have a horse now, of which I have many stories I can share. He is very big (17.2hh for all you horsey people). But he has a lot of medical problems, even though he is pretty much still a baby. He is only 7 years old, which is still very young for a horse. He is pretty much just a (very, VERY) big dog. I haven't ridden him for nearly a year because of his medical problems, and one of the few times I did ride him initially I ended up in A&E on a spinal board because he got scared of a very small bird and decided to very quickly turn and jump and run in the opposite direction, flinging me to the floor. (I was absolutely fine, just very stiff, and we are now much more cautious around very small birds!) Now we play like he is a dog, and run around in the arena together!

I have been trying to keep up with reading, but it is difficult to do when the only real free time I have is after we close the pub in the evenings. I have maybe an hour or so at midnight/1am depending on what time we end up kicking everyone out, when I can do what I want, before I end up falling asleep. This time is split between my many hobbies, like knitting, reading, watching Netflix series... I've been trying to teach myself crochet as well. Because somehow I think I have time for that! My current project is an attempt to create a crocheted vine to climb up the supporting beam in my bedroom, which is (I think) technically one of the building's roof beams. I have made some purple wisteria flowers, and even though I definitely have loads more to make, as well as loads of green vines and leaves, but I am fairly happy with my flowers at the moment. It won't be long and I will lose interest in the project, and it will take months to get any of it actually done, but I'm fully invested in it at the moment!

And it all comes back around to this blog. I haven't posted on it for over a year. And I really want to start posting again. So my plan is this – I might start posting and then not have time to get posts done, and then have another big break. So I'm going to get a load of posts ready to go. I've got one ready to go at the moment. I'm going to get a few written and get back into the swing of things before committing to posting again. But by the time you're reading this, I will be past this point of planning, and will have enough posts lined up ready to go so I'm comfortable I won't be falling behind.

I haven't gone very in-depth in any of the details of my life currently, but if anyone is interested, I will go further into explaining different parts of my current day-to-day life.

I'm going to go and crochet some more flowers!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!