Ooh boy .. have things
been bloody strange the last few days!
After a very long pause
and a very high premium on things .. I am uber mobile once again and
I am just re-familiarising myself with driving once again.
In case you missed it
.. I purchased a Land Rover Discovery.
Now there is one vry
main reason that I bought this car and that was for its off-road
capabilities but there were a few other reasons. I had always wanted
a Land Rover and think Range Rovers just too big and Freelanders too
small. Also the latter are more problematic. In fact with Land Rovers
it works out a little weird as the smaller they get the more
unreliable they get. At least that is how it used to be.
I used to work for
them, or rather Stratstone of Mayfair to be precise.
Also a very weird thing
happened the other day .. I was heading for Broxbourne Woods to take
some photos and shoot some video. My GPS took me to Bencroft Wood, I
think it was called, and I thought I could walk to Broxbourne Woods
from there but no.
On returning to the car
I heard someone shout “What are you here for?!” and as I turned
to explain what it is that I do a familiar face was smiling at me.
Someone who is an 'old mate' I first knew when he was about 14 or 15
who is now a father of several children and has been a Policeman for
20 years or more.
What were the chances?!
We chatted about
wildlife, history too as we were on the site of an old Roman road and
of cours Land Rovers. He said that he used to have a Freelander years
ago and I said I remembered. He reminded me of the issues with it but
he then stated that many of the issues were with the petrol versions
and the diesels were OK. My time at Stratstones was too long ago for
me to remember any ratio of problems. But I did remember that two
that had been continuously returned to us was a petrol driven
Freelander and Discovery.
Since I bought the
vehicle I have been struck down with a number of things, though this
has not stopped me covering well over 100 or 150 miles in less than a
week and having no less than 7 nature trips in that time. In fact I
had around four in the very same day and only ever managed two in a
single day before now. And if I ever did visit two places in the same
day they were always the same two and the two closest to me, bar one
very local spot.
Only I am still using
older and less suitable equipment when I go out.
Now last weekend I had
planned on acquiring more of my long shopping list but for two
reasons I ended up .. well basically 'bottling it'.
Yeah I seem to have two
issues since our little .. event has now almost come to an end, well
the first part at any rate. First off I was worried about driving and
despite the mileage and places I have visited I have taken things
very, very gently and plan to for at least 6 weeks. I normally always
do this anyway with a new car I have not driven before. But it has
been a very long time so I am spending a lot more time easing back
into things.
The other one is kinda
two fold .. with the first being struck with buyers remorse and the
other suddenly panicking about the amount of money I am spending.
Weird. Very weird.
But it is stupid .. I
do not know why I am feeling like this and I have no choice but to
get the things I intend to. It has all been in the planning for
months and I need to change things. I need to move up several gears
in several ways.
My life could not
continue they way that it has been but now I am in the process of
doing that .. I suddenly get struck with these silly and annoying
psychological issues?! I have realised where it stems from and in all
honesty .. a public service is to blame. Though their could be an
argument for two public services?
Yeah .. I am ..
panicking. Just a little.
The funny thing is it
is largely because I am around £10,000 short of doing everything I
absolutely want to and feeling safe about it.
It is because I want to
use what I now have to cut the restraints from the exact same public
service but I am panicking in case I ever have to approach them
again. Would not be for at least a year so I do not know why I am
panicking about that. Also .. well there are currently four avenues
whereby things for me could finally work out. I could finally become
self-supporting and there is nothing I would like more.
One of these avenues
has been in the pipeline for a couple years but I wanted to only put
it in place once I had worked my arse off for five years without
receiving any money for what I did at all. I just wanted to be able
to say that at a later date, likely in my own defence against big
organisations?
Ugh!
The next set of tools I
will acquire is only the second set in a set of three purchases. This
may include some other little odd ones in-between.
I have not even looked
at things like televisions or blu-ray players. In fact I only had two
things on my entire wish list that was purely for pleasure. Though I
say that but what this is I already have and I used to use it to ..
alleviate certain .. things.
I am not so sure that
this alleviation is any longer necessary? Still it would make for a
cool coupl of un-boxing videos that would attract attention from that
.. field.
Sadly and because of
all the delays .. the acquiring of personal transport has come a
little .. late. I have a real draw to visit sites in the UK and
overseas for nature. Both flora and fauna. I am also something of an
expert in several fields that scan the globe.
So filming and
photographing only locally has been somewhat .. frustrating and one
year a few years back I missed a couple of Bearded Tits, or Bearded
Reedlings. I was within a few feet of them but they suddenly decided
to stay out of site, despite the fact I was in a bird hide. Lol.
Just like the three
Wheatears I see of a couple of years these guys only ever stop of to
feed in my local haunts before continuing on to Suffolk, Norfolk or
even Yorkshire or further. It is worse than trying to photo someone
but only when they are at a bus stop. You have to get to the bus stop
just when they happen to be there. When this might only be twice a
year? Well as you can see it is difficult at best. Lol.
I have also been
working with tools that I could acquire the last few years. They are
far from adequate but they are better than nothing. For instance one
item was £500 new, might have been £550? The item I am looking to
replace it with is £3,000! The well known top of the line models of
these tools range from £4,500 to £6,000. Yeah so I am not even
going over the top here! But these things require other .. things. In
fact they do not even work at all without these other .. things. In
fact there are over a dozen to choose from and two that I want the
most are dearer than the tool itself so you can see? Bloody
expensive!
In fact it is funny as
I was into this many years ago and .. I really do not recall things
being this expensive? In fact I am sure that top of the line with one
manufacturer was around £1,500 to £2,000 around 1994? Today it is
£6,000?! These necessary attachments used to be around £1,000 for
the top of the line stuff. Maybe a little more? But my memory is bad
due to the short term loss I get from Fibromyalgia. The one
attachment to this tool I want more than anything else is £11,000!
The other one is £6,000 .. ish! I did discover that a famous shop in
New York in America seems to sell versions of a different
manufacturer and you can buy BOTH versions for several thousand less
than the most expensive one above?! Madness! It gets worse as for
some reason no one seems to stock them or even have them on special
order in the UK?
Hmm .. starting to
think I made a mistake and these attachments are for another brand
entirely? Or a different version of the exact same brand?
Ah well .. not like I
am jumping on an aircraft to go and get them any time soon? If only?!
There will be two
collections of tools that are kind of grouped together and in fact
one will have actually two versions of the same thing and I am
thinking about doing this too with the other one?
It is like I said to
someone the other day .. if your going to be more professional you
simply have no choice and this is especially true when you cannot
seem to buy one item that does everything you want it to. Oh .. this
is not just me, let me tell you. When I come to doing the un-boxing
videos to show what I purchased it will become clear. Maybe even
blatantly obvious and will cause nodding heads to anyone that sees
what items I have bought?
I also have to make
several other big changes and I have been .. investigating it but am
also somewhat nervous about this too?!
It is really, really
annoying
me.
I
am also really, really confused
by it.
One
brother also wants to buy similar .. kit to that I want and presently
he has shown interest in the two of us going .. up there. But he has
difficulties getting time off and I may be imminently going away for
awhile?
So
what I will do is that I will see if I can get a date out of him by
Thursday and if I cannot I will order the stuff for a next day
delivery. Annoyingly this will be two groups of orders. No one ever
stocks everything you want!
Oh
and all that visiting of sites I have only ever been to with someone
else or not been two before now? Yeah well during all that I managed
to slam the little finger of my left hand in the door!
It
hurt. Like hell. The fingernail has gone mostly black as has done the
opposing side of my finger, which is showing some bruising and it has
even swollen a little. Hoo-boy I had to refrain from pulling away in
the car for about 20 minutes or so because of the distraction of the
pain! I might have driven as much of a couple hundred miles but until
I feel completely confident .. yeah .. no driving with any
distractions whatsoever.
Typical
then that I cannot figure out how to get the Discovery's GPS bloody
working and keeps wanting to direct me bloody home! So using Google
Maps on my Android phone for now.
I
also forgot my prescription pills a few times and right now my legs
are aching really bad and have been all day, just so the painful
little finger does not feel left out!
I
had not originally factored in time re-familiarising myself with a
car and a very big one at that and nor had I factored in any
absolutely stupid psychological issues making me pause for thought. I
still gave a six week period though when I signed a particular form.
At
the time 6 weeks felt like it was too long. But right now it feels
like it is not long enough?! Go figure!
Also
if I go away for a week or two I will be in places I very rarely
frequent that are a considerable distance. This means all new scenery
as well as new species of animals I could not even get close to down
here. Even some of them would likely need an couple hours driving for
the closest ones to me.
The
third round of purchases will likely only take place after another
big change. This is inevitable and does not matter much because what
I want is not for sale just yet! In fact three items I want are not
for sale just yet. One of those is annoying as I will certainly need
this while I am away. Wherever it is I end up going to begin with and
even during the big change planned too! Damn it!
So
in the last few days I have been to ..
- Fishers Green twice
- Cornmill Meadow
- Broxbourne Woods
- Panshanger Park which was disappointing in a way
- South Essex Marshes
- Bower Marsh at Pitsea in Essex
Do
you know what I have realised that I like about this work?
No
effing double yellow lines, parking restrictions or parking
attendants to worry about!
Oh and I am also realising that there are a number of things I need to do and people I need to spak to or deal with and .. it feels like overload!
Now
if I can just get over these darned psychological things?!
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