Wish Me Luck - Updated

Those of you who have been popping by for a while might remember that last March (2009) a delivery chap backed his lorry into my parked car and wrote it off.

For a variety of reasons his insurance company is refusing to pay the costs, even though the lorry driver admitted liability. I have been writing letters and filling in forms to no avail for the last 14 months.

So tomorrow I have to attend a hearing at the County Court, where hopefully the person in charge will make the other party cough up at last! We'll see! Wish me luck! ...................................................................................................

Well, I'm very pleased, and somewhat relieved, to report that I won on all counts at the hearing.

My insurance company had told me that I just had to show my face and wouldn't have to do/say anything. They were fibbing! I was questioned by the other party's barrister and the Judge. I was a bit alarmed by it at first. I'm none too happy that I had to be in Court, feeling like I was on trial for something, just because a gormless lorry driver drove into my car after he had watched me park it up.

The other party's barrister was disputing just about all aspects of my insurance claim - why was my car written off, why was I paid the relevant amount for it, why did I need a hire car whilst I attempted to get a replacement???

I had a strong belief that I would win but you just don't know. The Judge wasn't too impressed with the case and referred to it as a 'shambles'. He was even less impressed with the useless photo's of my car which were put forward - they were a fax of a photocopy and you could barely tell that the photo was of a car!

In his summing up he commented that it doesn't take much work to be needed on an old car before it becomes unviable, hence the write off. I had managed to prove to my insurance company that my car was worth more than they initially offered as I'd downloaded info from the web on half a dozen other cars like mine for sale. Based on my paperwork he made them cough up more for my car than even my own barrister was going to ask for. And since I had 2 children to ferry around and was 6 months pregnant, of course I needed a hire car! So it's going to now cost them considerably more than if they had just settled straight after the incident. And I'm glad. I don't like to gloat but if the other party's insurance rep had been there I'd have been giving him the 'loser' sign as he was such a git to me over the course of the claim.

I was very pleased with the Judges attitude to the case so all in all it was worth a stressy couple of hours in Court. And I'll be getting my policy excess back too. I'm less than impressed with my insurance company's handling of things though. If I'm ever involved in another accident I'll be much more savvy about everything. Let's hope it never happens!

Wish Me Luck - Updated

Go-ing, Go-ing, Go-Go-Gone!

The salvage man came to collect the Go-Go on Monday. He arrived driving a huge 6 car transporter which Nipper would have loved but sadly he was at nursery and missed it.

I asked whether they recycle the car parts or sell them on etc and he went into a lengthy explanation about it all. I thought the Go-Go might live on if only in some very small way but it soon became clear that she just isn't worth the trouble and she's off to the crusher. I was so sad to see her go.

And here is her replacement:

Affectionately known as 'Nissy' she is another Nissan Micra, has done roughly the same mileage but is half the age of the Go-Go. I love the colour (a terribly girlie thing to say, I know!) and she has shiney new hubcaps. She also has a new MOT and a full Nissan service history - just so you know I didn't get her just for her looks! I think I'm going to love her as much as I loved the Go-Go.

Go-ing, Go-ing, Go-Go-Gone!

RIP Gorgeous Go-Go!

Well, here I am again writing another 'RIP' post. This time it's for my lovely little car - the Go-Go - so called because of her number plate.


She may not look gorgeous to the untrained eye but I love her. We got her off Mr Earplug's grannie a couple of years ago. She was nearly 18 years old then and had only done 38,000 miles. She's never any trouble, costs very little to run, and usually sails through her MOT.

Unfortunately she now has to go to the great carpark in the sky as a stupid truck driver backed into her and crumped the back end. She is still driveable but our mechanic said that the safety of the rear end has been somewhat compromised and so it wouldn't be a good idea driving around with the kids in the back. So, she's a write off and I'm not best pleased. I now have to fork out unnecessarily for another car, the insurance payout will be rubbish because she's so old, I've got the hassle of finding another car, and in the meantime I'm driving a hire car which I hate - it was supposed to be a small car but it feels enormous to me! Ho hum!

However, I had a lovely surprise on the same day which really helped to brighten me up. I ordered this fab piece of fabric from Sara:


And look what else she sent - lots of lovely extras:



I was thrilled to bits! The brown fabric goes perfectly with our pair of 1970's cordurouy swivel chairs so I feel a cushion making session coming on. Thank you Sara for your generosity - you made my day!

Quick request for help - my anti-virus software (Kaspersky) has suddenly decided that certain blogs pose a phishing risk and is denying me access to them! I've read the help pages and they're not much help so I've had to disable the anti-phishing component, which isn't ideal. If anyone has any ideas on how to sort this out they would be gratefully received!

RIP Gorgeous Go-Go!