Posts Tagged new car
Sunday Column (152)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on January 29, 2012
I started writing this column whilst having a Saturday night off. Glass of wine, German music, kids in bed and the wife visiting a friend. These evenings are rare. Time to reflect, time to / for myself.
What am I thinking these days? I am thinking a lot to be honest. There are a few things that I anticipate this year. All and foremost our move to a better life. I am getting quite excited thinking that I finally settle down. A bigger house. A better quality of life. All other factors probably stay the same but that is how it is. You never completely change just because you move or change one bit of your life. There are the same illusions you have that every year at New Year’s Eve you give up smoking. Most people never last. Change is within us and not (necessarily) location dependent.
Then we get our new (used) car on Tuesday. A Seat Alhambra. As you know my wife and I insist on rear facing car seats. The Alhambra was the only choice for a comfortable drive and space in the car, whilst keeping the car seats’ third leg on a solid ground. Most other cars (Sharan, S-Max, Galaxy, 2011+ Alhambra) have under floor storage boxes that don’t support the weight of the leg. Anyway, my wife will write an extensive report as a guest post. So any comments should be waiting until the full review is published. However, I think once the kids are out of rear facing car seats we get an XC90 Volvo again. We just loved that car too much.
This week I have been to Milan. I only went for the day. Despite no sleep the night before (thanks kids!) I had a good day. I really look forward travelling more regularly to Spain, Italy and potentially more countries in the future. This will be my job moving forward. Besides Colin loves ham at the moment, so both of those cities offer me the best “take away” for him 
The perks.
Other than that work is busy. I have found some time to catch up with half the industry about the acquisition. January was a lot busier than anticipated and I look forward to March. Why March? February looks like it will be even busier than January already, so March can only be better, right? Then again there are a few longer trips planned too. Lots of progress to be seen. I like that.
We had a fantastic weekend. We didn’t do much, but given the fact we weren’t house hunting and didn’t have any viewings for our place, we were busy but relaxed. We took some pictures, shopped for some wine and just chilled. Good bonding with Colin and Rohan. Wine: not having a constant stack of wine at home, buying them cheap when on offer, allows me to go and shop different wines. I got some excellent bargains on some French Fitou and Shiraz. So what am I complaining about?!
Guess that is all for this week folks.
Have a good one,
Volker
Sunday Column (50)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on February 7, 2010
Ok folks, first things first. The big question this week was whether, and if so, which car to get. And the winner is:
I feel like I am getting all family. Married, house, child, now a VOLVO 
Neither my dad nor me, and he is the biggest Volvo fan in the world, would have ever thought I ever drove one. But here we go, family does change you….for the better of course.
What else happened this week (as if the above wasn’t enough)?
Monday I went back to the gym. I continued to do that every day, but Wednesday I was too knackered from the day before, and Friday my knee hurt too much. I overdid it on the cycling machine ;-( I know, laugh at me, but any circular movement to my knee seems to hurt the ligaments. I need to check with my physio massage therapist next week.
Tuesday and Wednesday just passed by. I didn’t do much this week after work, just had good meetings, one of which lasted 10 minutes, and I believe that we are making progress. Slower than expected but quicker than anticipated – if that makes any sense.
Thursday I started the day with a fab meeting and ended the day with drinks and networking. However, although (and I promise) I only had 3 pints, two ales and one stout, I felt like I had about 10 lager the next day. You know that I cannot drink lager to some intolerance, and I thought it might be down to whether the beer was over or under fermented. Stout, Ale and dark beers should be ok, but maybe the one beer I had, a very dark one, was a “Schwarzbier” and not a Stout. Never mind, I don’t in particular like beer anyway.
Friday we finished the day with some nice finger food (and it still smells of home made garlic mayonnaise) where we shared a nice bottle of Californian Zinfandel I bought in Harrods a few years back. Money well spend on this one I don’t believe how much of a connoisseur I have become on one hand, then still going on about intolerance to beer on the other. Guess life is for sharing
Last but not least I bought an audio book of the book I read a few years back: “Eckhart Tolle, The power of now” – I will write an exclusive post on that but thought I mention that this book is both fascinating and helpful. Sometime I do worry what we are all worrying about….
Enough said, have a great week ahead, mine looks fairly busy!
Sunday Column (49)
Posted by Volker in Sunday Column on January 31, 2010
What a busy week lays behind me. After a weekend, which wasn’t a relaxing weekend, I found myself being off sick on Monday. Some virus got me down and I worked from home with more breaks and naps than I would normally have. I wasn’t well.
I felt better over the next few days, partly because I had to. I had a lot of social engagements and meetings at work. Networking parties, a trip to Leeds and Manchester and more meetings, emails etc. You know the drill. So work is very busy at the moment and things are going well. I cannot believe it is February already and I have been in my new job for a month. Time flies.
Colin, who I saw little of this week, is growing up. I believe he develops his own character, slowly but surely. He is playing by himself whilst I watch him. However, we believe it is due to his teething, he seems to have a bit of diarrhoea. Shall see and hope it is nothing serious.
Tai chi this week was good, and it will be one year next week. I believe that this is the first activity in a long time I have stuck to for as long as a year. Still I enjoy it and it is good to have a day a week to complete relax and wind down.
Saturday night we took our wee man to friends’ house for supper: Burns Supper. I had my first vegetarian Haggis which gave me heartburn but tasted really nice. It was a great night but unfortunately our baby wouldn’t settle at all. Too much noise, different smells etc. So we had to call it a night at 10 pm and he fell asleep not even seconds after we put him in his own bed. Bless him!
On Saturday we looked for car seats and came to terms that our car just cannot fit the car seat we think is appropriate for Colin. So it is either a compromise on safety, no car or a new car. We spent most of Sunday looking at cars and the results are quite simple:
- Jen and I are both tall and need a car which fits potentially 2 car seats and us plus a pram.
- We don’t want to spend too much money but need to go through a car dealer for our conscious of buying quality and because they offer finance deals.
- Whilst I don’t care less about status, brand or looks, my wife is thinking more about the latter.
The choice will come down to either a big 4×4 (and by big I mean Shogun or Land Cruiser, potentially XC90, Sorento or Outlander), or a people carrier – here it comes down to price….
Anyway, enough thoughts about cars. The more I look at it the less I am interested. I would like to spend little, get much, have enough space, enough security and still have a reliable car. No need for design and looks, just pure functionality – to be continued.
Enjoy your week, enjoy February!
Volker Ballueder
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