Rent-a-Banger

One of the advantages of reaching old age is being allowed certain privileges. Smoking and sex being the obvious ones, and of course the right to exercise an immaterial say in who may have some input into running the country.

One of the less obvious advantages of old age is being allowed to hire cars and other general grown up things like buying car insurance for less money than exists in the universe. Being 28 I was under the impression that I was done having to convince the world of my sensibility, and was past most testosterone driven age discrimination barriers.

The UK van rental industry seems to disagree. It appears one needs to be over 30 to be allowed to take a rental van out of the country. I suspect this is a Daily Mail plot against closer European integration, however, the upshot of this is that the only company I could find (and believe me, I tried) which would entrust me with a van with which I could move my stuff to Fontainebleau was .

At first I was excited at the thought of this adventure. The excitement quickly turned to panic upon receiving the keys to the aforementioned banger. It really was a banger. Graced with 15 years of age, and an odometer that is unlikely to have been clocked at 250k miles, the banger was also host to an exhaust which was winner of the 2004 "Fishnet of the year" award. This beast was capable of a solid 55mph assuming the pedal was firmly held to the floor. Top speed was measured at a downhill wind assisted 71mph.

Other features of interest included a battery warning light which was permanently on (I only realised this after I had driven away the van, and there was a moment of sheer panic when I had to wonder whether this really did mean it had a dodgy alternator), and a stereo that didn't work. An immobiliser that would sometimes decide that the security of this 15 year old luxury cruiser was paramount and would therefore refuse to let you switch the engine on until you had gone away and thought about having a cup of tea topped off the list of extras I could have done without. Imagine going on the channel tunnel with 100 cars behind you and this feature, and you soon get an idea of one stressed pre-MBA student.

Thankfully, and amazingly, the trip went off without any major hitches (apart from bringing the age at which I will be totally deaf forward a few years). At 55mph, it took around 9 hours to get to Fontainebleau and 9 hours to come back. I couldn't have done it without the help of my trusty companions, whose map reading and box moving skills were simply legendary. Thanks guys!

Which means that the to do list is almost ticked out of existence, and that the MBA is about to begin. Now all I've got to do is explore China for 3 weeks! Not bad.

Insurance, Car and Money

The urge to start quoting excerps from my to do list is growing daily. It is a hard battle, though I shall remain in the winning position for at least one more entry. Needless to say, I am now in a mad dash to the finish line tidiying up 1001 logistics.

I have managed to secure a quote from a French car insurance company for a British Registered car! I cannot explain how much of an achievement this is - I realise in years gone when archaeologists sift through early 2nd millennia artifacts this will not amaze them significantly, but rest assured, it is an achievement. And to top it all off, it's not actually a bad quote - about 380 quid for third party fire and theft.

Perhaps even more importantly, I've bought a car. It's one of these "buy it with your heart rather than your head" kind of cars that I'm sure I'll look at one day and just think "what was I thinking", but for now the heart is certainly very happy.

Actually, it seems this entry is written back to front. Even more importantly, I was awarded a scholarship following my interview with the amazing people. So financial worries are now completely over for the next 12 months - which is a good result indeed.

the whole anonymity thing is starting to be a bit of pain in the arse - I think I might have to start revealing some more facts by which I can be identified, otherwise a dullness not unlike dish water may set into this blog.

Oh My Word

I never cease to astound myself. My scholarship interview exit (an attempt to discover whether I fit in the cupboard next to the door) seems to have done the trick, and I have been given an eye watering sum of money to help me along on my studies. Such an eye watering sum of money that the whole MBA thing needs to be replanned from scratch just about.

And god dammit, I may well have to change the title of this blog, cause now I'll be very unlikely to blow all my money on an MBA.

Thoughts immediately sprung to mind as to how to spend my new found wealth. A nice camera is on the list - after all I'll want to record this amazing year.

And my highly logical brain has spent a whole weekend convincing me of the inescapeable logic that buying an Italian convertible sports car is the most logical and sound investment one can make. It seems prices for my particular weapon of choice are around 50% higher in France than in the UK. And being a left hand drive car I won't have to faff being on the wrong side of the road, as well as providing me with a much easier route to getting the car registered in France and thus possibly netting me the 50% price differential at the end of my studies. It could be my first stand alone business venture - used car price arbitration. Oh and did I mention it is convertible? Possibly with red leather seats.

Kindly remind me of this posting when come January I'm broken down in the rain on some French country road with water streaming everywhere.....