Daily Mutterings

Insurance in 2011

2011-03-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

Apologies for not having blogged here recently, I have been off researching what is going on in the world of insurance for 2011.

If you havent heard about the high court ruling against women only car insurance then where have you been??? UK companies like Sheila's Wheels will have to have a good hard look at their marketing strategy before December 2012, which is when companies will no longer be to market cheaper car insurance to women simply for being women. The High Court have decreed that it is sexist to offer cheaper insurance down to whether you are male or female, so companies who market cheaper car insurance to females will have to scrap this.

Where will it stop though? Surely it is age-ist for companies to offer larger premiums for young and inexperienced drivers, or higher premiums for OAP's? Premiums are worked out on a number of criteria, but surely there criteria are all independently discriminatory? Watch this space for any updates that I hear, people!!!

In the mean time if you are wanting to get your grubby little mitts on some Cheap Car Insurance then shop on the internet; this is where the savings are at!

New Blog - Great Read!!

2011-03-02T06:23:00.000-08:00

In my wanderings around the world that is the internet I have come across a great new blog, InsuranceIntelligence.co.uk Its got information about new cars, great stories about what is going on in the news to do with all sorts of different insurances and funny videos from the car insurance providers on the market. Swing by and have a look, I'm sure you won't be disappointed!!

Ice Ice Baby

2011-01-10T07:12:00.000-08:00

November brought us a great deal of snow; uncharacteristically early for our normally wet country that time of year, and giving the whole country a complete cold snap. I was driving on my way to work the day after the first lot of snow had hit, and I wondered what the fuss was about. The newsreaders were surely scaremongering, it was all white but felt less worrying that that had suggested. After all, there was snow all over the road, but the car didn’t seem to be slipping very much and all was seemingly well. Until iIhit the kerb. The snow, it seemed, had created a blanket across the road and caused me to be unable to see where the road stopped and the kerb began, and I had knocked it without realising. I was a little shaken, but soon realised the problem. No harm done, i resumed my journey and made it to work safe and sound.

But industry experts are warning drivers to have their wheel alignment checked now the weather conditions have improved, as the snow teamed with the alarming amount of potholes that still are scattered across our roads from the LAST lot of snow in January 2010 are causing damage to our cars.Drivers up and down the country have done the same thing, and we could not be driving around in death traps, just waiting for an accident to happen.

Misalignment on your wheels can seem fairly minor, but when the car is on the road and travelling at speed it can cause it to pull to one side, and cause excess wear on the tyres. Both of these are costly for us as drivers when we come to have our car MOT’d and serviced, and with the increase in VAT and petrol prices, the last thing we need is inflated costs for driving.

A great way to save money that can be better spent on having your car fixed is to buy Car Insurance Online to cut out the brokers and save a few pennies.

New Blog

2010-12-08T02:36:00.001-08:00

www.tinkerbelle86.wordpress.com
Read this!

The Grinch

2010-11-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr Seuss, was one of my favourite stories as a child. Admittedly, I was a bookworm of a little girl, and most people saw the film version with Jim Carey, but if you are unfamiliar with the story its about a green monster who tries to steal Christmas from the people of Whoville.

It is that though. A story. But warnings from the police this festive season have echoed the Grinch, as they have warned that when we are out, getting into the spirit of the festivites and buying presents for our loved ones, that there are people out there who are trying to ruin it for us.

Criminals see Christmas as a great time to cash in on us, and as we face the crowds and brave the queues, we are more likely to make a trip back to the car to dump our purchases. Car thefts increased in December last year by ten percent, and these figures are set to rise this year. The police are recommending that we are extra vigilant, parking in specific car parks and if we cannot, parking in well lit areas.
Many car insurers will cover theft to your vehicle, but you will risk paying a hefty premium and losing your no claims bonus, plus paying inflated cost for your Car Insurance next time, which isnt very festive, is it?

Car Surfing

2010-10-21T03:58:00.000-07:00

When I was in my teens, we thought we were the coolest, that we were doing stupid stuff that our parents never would have done, and that we were invincible. But if worrying new reports coming out of America are anything to go by, our antics were relatively tame, and safe. I mean, the most dangerous thing I ever did was watch a boy spray deodorant on his sock and set fire to it. While it was on his foot. I remember thinking even then that it was a bit silly, and I would much rather go to MacDonalds, so I clearly wasn't cut out for daredevilry or anything remotely dangerous. Leave that to my sister!!

But news coming from across the pond is showing that teenagers are getting more reckless, and engaging in worrying hobbies and past times that are getting them killed. To research this, I searched 'car surfing' on YouTube this morning, and couldn't believe how many videos I found. Kids that looked barely old enough to have hit double figures on the age scale, surfing on moving vehicles, with other cars and lorries whipping past in the adjacent lanes. Another related link that surfaced was 'ghost riding' where the participants skateboard is attacked to the back of a moving vehicle, much like water skiing. Obviously much safer when water is involved, to cushion your face from grinding along something hard.

Excuse me for sounding like my grandmother, but come on guys. Linked with these stories are CNN news pieces with parents, distraught at losing their child in such a pointless way.

Car surfing is dangerous. It doesnt take someone like me to point this out, however much I would like to feel like I am revealing something. Moving car + balance = fail. And not only do you risk breaking something, like a bone or your face, but you risk being mashed into the concrete by an HGV. Not the most ideal way to go.

Ghost riding is also dangerous. See dangers above, but also you risk 'penduluming'; when the skateboard swings out, and again, mashes you into the ground.

However upbeat the tone, its really not a good idea. Kids.... just go bungee jumping!!

If you are driving a vehicle, make sure you have Car Insurance.

Eating In The Car - The Cause of Food Poisoning?

2010-10-04T02:07:00.000-07:00

We are all guilty of having done it; grabbing a sandwich of packet of crisps before we embark on our trip to a meeting, and munching them behind the wheel. This is bad news for other road users, as it is really distracting behaviour that could see you ploughing into the car in front, but it is also really dangerous for you too, as a recent study by Halfords discovered. In their latest round of car checks, the retailer discovered that you could be putting your health at risk, due to the high levels of bacteria that can be found in your car.

Is this a surprising fact? Not really, when you think about the amount of time that you spend in your vehicle, getting from a to b. We shed loads of skin in there, and if you are guilty of eating your lunch in your motor on a regular basis, then the crumbs are going to be vital evidence too.

Also, think about how often you clean your car. I know the last time my car had a Hoover was when all the Beatles were still alive and kicking, and when i do give it a dust, it’s a cursory wipe with the sock that lives under my seat. For emergencies, obviously.

So the advice is thus. Don’t eat in the car. Then you won’t be subject to whatever nasty animals are wishing to take up residence in your tummy, and the police will have no reason to pull you over for driving with undue care and attention. Result! If you are planning on driving then make sure you have valid Car Insurance.

Christmas Driving Capers

2010-09-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

With Christmas descending, we are bound to see more cars on the road as people head off to do their Christmas shopping in the towns. This leads to stress for all the poor people who live in the surrounding areas, so please take notes of these irritating nuances and make sure that you don’t do them!

Not letting people in and out. People really have poor manners when it comes to letting other Car Insurance customers in and out, and it’s always the ones that go off on a massive rant when people don’t act courteously to them. It gets worse in peak times when people get more stressed, but why cant people just be polite?

Appalling parking is another issue that bothers us all in the winter months. People hurry to the supermarket, park the car and create a mess for the rest of us. When there are limited spaces its really annoying when mrs people carrier has parked her enormous wagon juuust over the line, so you cannot physically squeeze your car in, no matter how hard you try. Just because you drive a big car doesn’t mean you have to attract more attention by making yourself look like a wally.

Parallel parking on the street is something that you have to be really considerate about whatever the time of year. I used to live on a road where the only parking was parallel, and it used to drive me insane when someone parked in a really big space, but centrally, so there wasn’t enough space to get in front or behind them.

My last rant is about people who stop in the road to talk to someone else, so there is no room for anyone to get passed. Pull over!

And that is it for my Clarkson style rant. Many thanks!

Car Parks

2010-09-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

I hate car parks. It’s not the trying to fit into an ever so tiny space, with brick columns on each side that riles me, or the fact that I always end up parking next to someone who has an army of children that cannot physically stop themselves from bashing the paintwork of my car. Oh no. It’s the fact that after going through this ordeal just to get a new pair of shoes / top for the weekend / birthday present for distant relative, i then have to use the stairwell to leave the space and get to the shopping centre.

Ah, the stairwell. Always smells of wee, sick or both. I actively seek out the open air car parks, favouring the smell of fresh – ish air and petrol, to someone’s body fluids. And it makes it ten times worse if i am shopping on a Saturday, because i absolutely have to, with a hangover. Ugh.

It seems I’m not the only one to feel this way. NCP, who own the majority of car parks across Britain, are trying to develop technology to combat the foul smell that assault our nasal passages every time we use one of their car parks. They hope to win back disgruntled customers who not only object to their impressively high parking charges, but the smell that comes with them.

They have surveyed motorists and found that cut grass, flowers and mint are the top three scents to smell, and are therefore trying to use these to attract motorists and provide us with “a better motoring experience”.

I’m not sure that it’s going to work. Surely the smell of mint will just slightly mask the smell of sick, much like if the person who it belonged to had eaten a tube of tooth paste before the incident.

Make sure that you have Car Insurance; as if you are anything like me its touch and go as to whether you’ll lose a bumper when parking next!

Winter Bugs

2010-09-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

Its that time of year again. How come the summer seems to fly by, with balmy nights and long days, and the winter seems to last forever? But the rain and wind has blown back with a vengeance, and the jumpers are pulled from the back of the wardrobe to keep us from catching pneumonia.
The office airconditioning / central heating really doesn't help the immune systems of the masses either, with germs getting sucked in and spat back out with alarming speed.
So what do we do? Of course, what we do every year. Pay a visit to the local pharmacy, stock up on every cold and flu remedy we can find in a manic supermarket sweep style, and leave feeling smug that whatever bug attacks us, we are totally defended. And when we get sick, we pop a cold and flu tablet, or make our self a warm, medicinal drink, finish the pile of paperwork on our desks and drive home, ready to snuggle up with a blanket and pile of DVD's, and get over whatever is eating at our immune system.
Most of us don't even consider the implications of driving with these drugs in our system. I mean, they're only cold remedies, right? Wrong. thirty five percent of UK motorists have had car accidents while under the influence of these so called harmless remedies, and a whopping sixty percent of Car Insurance customers in Britain admit to being reckless and driving their vehicles when they are feeling under the weather. Think about the rest of s! its bad enough having to concentrate on paying attention to children with balls / dogs / other cars let alone drivers who are drugged up and driving towards us with no concern to what is in their system.
With a lot of these drugs stipulating not to drive after having taken them, its a worry that nearly thirty percent of drivers fail to even read the instructions on the packet, putting the rest of us in danger.
So if you get hit with the flu or some other nasty bug this winter, make sure that you do one of the following. Either call in sick, wrap up warm and ride out the fever, or get a lift.

In Car Arguments

2010-09-20T03:50:00.000-07:00

As we all know, when it comes to cars, men and women don’t get on. But a recent survey has found that twenty two minutes is the amount of time it takes for a couple to fall out when driving, so my advice is, if going on long journeys, go alone!

More than half of the couples interviewed admit that after their row, they wouldn’t speak to each other for the rest of the journey, and ten percent of couples admitted that their in car argument had resulted in them splitting up.

The majority of arguments occur over directions or getting lost, with the driver being reluctant to take advice from the passenger, regardless of their sex. The next most common arguing point is parking spaces, and manoeuvres. I can completely relate to this one. One weeknight a few years ago, after boyfriend and I deciding we wanted a Chinese takeaway, we drove to said Chinese. I drive. All went ok, until we got to the parking space, which was a tight parallel park. I got flustered, tood and froed between forwards and backwards, always getting the wrong angle and hitting the kerb, or getting too close to the car in front. Boyfriend tried to give helpful advice, but eventually i threw a strop, turned off the car, threw the keys at him and huffed off into the takeaway. All passersby thought the incident to be hilarious; I ended up with a bruised toe after furiously kicking the tyre. Needless to say, i don’t rank this incident highly in my list of greatest moments!

One in five motorists say that they have gone as far as to pull the car over and refuse to drive any further with their partner in the car, with twenty four percent of drivers arguing about the proximity of their car to the car in front.

Although humorous, my advice rings true.... don’t get in a car on a long journey with your partner! Make sure you have valid Car Insurance, in case your argument distracts you and you bump the car in front.

Smart FourTwo Coupe Review

2010-09-15T03:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a workmate spent a whole five minutes laughing at my attempt to parallel park on a main road. I had managed to fit my car into the space, just about, but I had mounted the kerb with two wheels and the car was at an interesting forty five degree angle. Right.

So the smart four two, in my eyes, is a fantastic idea. It’s so compact that even the world’s worst parker (don’t look at me!) could get it perfectly into any space, and the emissions are low (possibly as you are driving a car the size of a trainer) so you feel smug that you are protecting the world. It’s a really sensible choice if you live in the city but need a car to get around in, and it can keep up on faster roads if you go for the larger engine models.

The car does have its downsides however. The standard model doesn’t come with power steering, so unless this is something you can cope without, you will have to upgrade. Also, it’s quite heavy to drive as it is quite a tall car, so needs to be for keeping upright.

For safety, there are two airbags as standard, although you will have to pay to upgrade if you want side airbags. The cars are all fitted with immobilisers as standard, and with an upgrade you can have panoramic glass sunroof, air conditioning and an automatic potion.

And the best thing about this zippy, stress free car? The price tag. It will barely make a dent in your nice things fund, saving you money for shoes, clothes and far more important stuff that machinery.

You will find that you get pretty cheap Car Insurance Quotes, due to how eco friendly the model is. Try buying online for more money off!

How To Organise Your Shoes.. and Other Interesting Facts!

2010-09-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

If, like me, your house is slightly cluttered with shoes coming out of every draw, cupboard and space, then you need help. According to my family. I'm perfectly happy seeing my pretty little purchases peeping out from their hiding places, but still.

If you have a special pair of shoes that you feel are just too beautiful to hide away, then why not make a feature of them? Put them under a cloche (think the sort of thing that cafes keep their yummy homemade cakes under) and have guests wowing at your fantastic style and great taste in shoes. Why not?

If you have the space, then why not design some wardrobe space that caters to your exact requirements. Dedicate a section with wall to wall shoe storage, and think about space, after all, we all know heels take more space than little flats or flip flops.

A great suggestion is clear boxes for your shoes, so that you can organise them in the right colours. And easily see the shoes when you are flying out the house in the morning, or late for drinks with the girls. If you decide to use opaque boxes, then why not add a touch of class by taking a Polaroid of the shoes, and attaching it, luggage label style to the front of the box, again making it easy to see where your beloved heels are.

If you have a shoe collection to rival Imelda Marcos, then make sure that you have a Home Insurance policy that reflects your outgoings. After all, there would be nothing worse than getting burgled, losing all your shoes and not having the correct policy to cover the cost of the chore of re buying them all.

Scamming Surprises

2010-09-03T03:22:00.000-07:00

Us UK drivers have a lot to deal with these days, with road tax costs soaring and Car Insurance premiums being hiked up. And a lot of this is due to criminals and con artists on the roads, thinking of little tricks to try and get us out of some of our hard earned cash, or worse, more sinister activities. So be aware when you are driving on the roads that these criminals are out and about, and be on the ball.

One of the latest scams by crooks is to throw eggs at the windows of your car. you automatically add water and windscreen wash by giving your screen clean button a little push, which is what they want. this emulsifies the egg mixture, making it go creamy and completely ruining what little visibility you have left on the screen. Lo and behold, you have to pull over, and they can rob you at ease while you are distracted.

A much more dark method is for crooks to put a doll in a baby carrier by the side of the road. This has been reported by police forces across England, and is to target women. The carriers are left by the side of the road as it turns dark, and women are stopping to see if it is a real baby, and getting mugged, or worse.

If you find yourself in any of these situations, call the police and try to drive onto the nearest petrol station or garage, where there are other people around. Be safe!

Council Extortion to Employees

2010-09-01T03:42:00.000-07:00

As if we don’t have enough to worry about on a day to day basis; the traffic on the way to work, making sure you reach the office at the right time in a presentable fashion, with your clothes on the right way and your hair not resembling something that may have been electrocuted, and being able to string together a coherent sentence. Our lives are hard enough as they are. Add to this that towards the end of the month, regardless of how grown up we feel we are, we always bring curly sandwiches in to work at the end of the month to stop us from dying of malnutrition due to a severe lack of funding, so we hardly need an additional cost to the bank statement. But local councils disagree, and are pushing plans to charge us drivers a fee to park at our workplaces.

Nottingham will be the first to introduce the fee, with towns such as Bournemouth and York to follow suit shortly after, and us road users could be looking at up to two hundred and fifty pounds a year for the privilege.

Despite promises from the government about reducing the cost for drivers, the councils seem to think this is a good idea. Any employer offering more than eleven spaces to its employees will be charged a levy of two hundred and fifty pounds per space per year, with the cost rising to three hundred and fifty after the scheme has been established. Employers will have the option to pay the fee themselves or pass it over to their employees. Councils feel that it will discourage congestion and make their cities greener. If you end up car sharing with a colleague you may find that it reduces your Car Insurance Quotes, as you will be clocking up less miles per year on your premium.

Novels are a Nuisance, Store them Safely!

2010-08-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

As a self confessed book lover, I understand having too many books. I buy them, read them, and then are physically unable to throw them away, or give them to a charity shop for someone else to love as much as I do. Oh no, they are mine! I may lend them gracefully to someone, but I always want them back, to cradle again like a mother with her child.

But when it comes to storing my treasure trove of interesting tomes, it becomes a little harder. Piles formed in corners, with tea cups balances precariously, and they appear everywhere, like mice playing hide and seek.

Rather than your home looking like an extension of the local library, why not try some innovative storage solutions to keep your possessions near, while keeping your house clean and tidy.

Shelves under the stairs are a great idea as they minimise wasted space and make the house look clutter free. Add boxes if you also favour storing old magazines, and keep the clutter to a minimum.

Use a bookcase to divide a room to make an open plan area look a little more compartmentalised. Pen shelves are ideal for this purpose as they add light to a room without creating dark areas, and created a stylish focal point.

Another great way to add a little intrigue on a normal shelf is to colour coordinate your books. By painting the shelf a really neutral colour you can organise your books in colour bands, to add impact to an otherwise neutral room and create a focal point to get people thumbing through your list of titles.

Make sure you Buy Home Insurance online to save your pennies for more book purchases!

Buzz Off Bumper Sticker!

2010-08-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

Everyone has them; those irksome little things that make your blood boil for absolutely no reason. Their little bug bear, something that irritates them beyond the point of rationality. May be its TV chefs and the way they manage to effortlessly whip up something right every time, or wasps, or the way your boyfriend leaves the milk on the side yet never seems surprised that it flies back into the fridge all by itself... whatever your issue may be, I would put money on the fact that you have one.

Mine is bumper stickers. They're awful!

Bumper stickers have no redeeming features. Often supported by the chav, or balding man, the bumper sticker is a sign of trying to act cool and regain lost youth in the case of the latter.

"Honk if you love dance music" No thank you, I don't honk on demand.

"Princess on board" REALLY? Wow, that is fantastic. Most have drivers, how retro of you.

And my least favourite "Baby on board". Even i know that this one is irrational, but it causes me massive aggravation as it implies that you would happily plough into the back of the person in front, was it not for the fact that they had a rug rat in the back.

Car Insurance companies must also hate them. The writing on these elaborate stickers is often so minute, that the brokers must get some of the slightly less intelligent of the species calling up to report an accident, the crux being that they drove into the back of someone whilst trying to read that they indeed, love Wales.

I just don't get them. Why would you want to advertise to complete strangers that you a) have a dog b) love your dog or c) hate dogs? They are written by the individuals among us that use irritating phrases, such as "that really gets my goat!" (A commonplace pet in the British home) and "hence why" (meaning the same thing, almost as pointless as saying "why why?" )And "I’m not being funny, but ...".

So, to the people responsible for circulating these annoying stickers, please, stop. If not for the sanity of the country then just for mine. That would be great. many thanks.

Think about it. And I'm really sorry if, after reading this, you have just acquired another bugbear. Rant over.

Cleaning Buddies

2010-08-20T04:02:00.000-07:00

I live in a world where life moves faster than I want it to. I think back to when I was six, and the days seemed to go so slowly, the thought of six weeks off school for the summer holidays seemed like forever, and the thought of being in my twenties was something that my childlike brain couldn’t even comprehend. Now I sit on the sofa at the end of the day and wonder how it went from 7am to 7pm in what feels like a second. Where does the time go?

So housework features low on my list of things that I have time to do. Add this to the fact that it also takes bottom ranking for the list of things that i like to do, and you get an accurate picture of the state of my house. I would much rather make dinner than wash up, and I optimistically put washing in the machine, to find it there days later, having forgotten to get it out again.

So anything that helps my daily clean is a little gem to me, and anything that minimises my hovering / washing time also is embraced, like a long lost relative.

Cue the discovery of the Irobot. The clever little robot is set to ‘clean’ and makes its way around the house, nibbling away at dust and pet fur, and returning to its little docking station when its job is complete. It cleans corners and edges, and senses where the walls are, turning when it reaches one. Fantastic!!

The clever little computer – Hoover can be set for a whole week of chores, so you can get on with avoiding any cleaning whatsoever, just emptying it once a week when it fills up. Its amusing when it encounters the dog, who hasn’t got a clue what this weird little machine that has entered its kingdom is, and chases it around, but other than that, Irobot and my house have a harmonious relationship. It doesn’t fall down the stairs, as it is programmed to know where the step is and avoid it, and the clever little thing can identify whether it is in the kitchen or the lounge due to the flooring, and adjust appropriately.

The Irobot will lighten your wallet considerably, so go online for Home Insurance to save yourself some money.

Domestic Goddess

2010-08-20T03:48:00.000-07:00

The idea of being a grown up and let loose in the kitchen is a worry for most fledgling children. Don’t get me wrong, mothers do well by teaching you how to boil and egg and reheat dinner, but we are all used to the call of "Dinners Ready!" to hail feeding time at the zoo.
So going to university, is like a bird being kicked out of a nest. Left to our own devices, teenagers and young adults all over the country balk in horror when they see a cookbook, or are asked to cook a lasagne.

A friend of mine tells an amusing story, of when she first moved in with her boyfriend and decided to be a domestic goddess and cook soup. From scratch. And croutons. From scratch. Soup was duly made and croutons were prepped, ad popped under the grill ready for dinner. Boyfriend came home, chatting started and the next thing she knew, boyfriend was hollering in the kitchen. Due to the flames that were leaping from the back of the oven, and the ominous orange glow from the entire room. Woops. Luckily the fire brigade were not called, as I’m sure they would have found it less amusing, but the whole incident was deemed a write off, and croutons / charcoal were abandoned in favour of a takeaway. Job done.

I think the moral of the story here, is to make sure that you have Home Insurance. It would be a painful lesson to learn if you burnt the house down, lost all possessions and didn’t have anything to help out!!

Eco Warrior

2010-08-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

We all try to do our little bit in the home for the environment, like unplugging our phone chargers from the wall rather than just unplugging the phone from the wire, and washing out our yoghurt pots and leaving them for the recycling men in their shiny vans. Newspapers get put in the relevant crate in my household, and tea bags are deposited in the food waste bin, along with leftover dinner and peelings. Quite frankly, there are so many different recycling bins around my house that there is little room left for me!

And recycling makes us all feel better, doesn’t it? I mean, we may have just returned from an environment – damaging flight home from the Caribbean, or driving back from the supermarket when we could have walked, but as long as we took all our junk mail and put it in the paper recycling; we feel all smug and embrace our inner eco warrior. And this is fair enough, if everybody attempts to reduce their carbon footprint a teeny bit, then our world would be a cooler place. That’s food for thought when you are putting your aerosol deodorant on or coating your hair in hairspray!

Environmental issues aren’t going to go away, either. We may be surfing the wobbly line of environmental damage in our lifetimes, but our children’s children will suffer from lack of fossil fuels / full landfill sights / birds with crisp packets stuck on their heads. So we need to do something about it! Where is all the rubbish we create going to go when the land is full? Will we be firing it off into space, to orbit the earth and draw attention to our waste full, rubbish generating ways? Oh the shame.

The process of doing our washing consumes massive amounts of energy, and uses water and chemicals that are then pumped back into the environment. There are little things that we can do however, to reduce the damage we are doing. Wash your dirty clothes on a cooler setting, to minimise the heat by product that is produced every time you set your clothes to spin, and line dry your washing instead of bunging it straight into the tumble dryer. It will smell better too. Choose eco friendly detergent for your wash, and next time your rust old washing machine is due for an upgrade, really look into the energy saving offerings on the market. Look at safe guarding the future.

To save money on your Home Insurance, Buy Home Insurance online and keep your hard earned pennies to put towards saving the planet!!

Itchy Feet and Wanderlust

2010-08-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I have managed to unwittingly subscribe to the Lonely Planet's newsletters. Im not entirely sure how one would do this, but every week, like clockwork, a magical email falls into my inbox. When I open it it takes me away from my desk and off to far flung corners off the world, where I can dream about wake boarding, kite surfing and generally just cooking in the sun.

My favourites are the interesting little city guides I recieve, asking me why dont I try a weekend in Florence? Why DON'T I? I think. Walking around the tiny little windy streets and stepping back in history, stopping at the little cafes and bistros along the way? Much better than a dreary August day, looking out of the window and dreaming of the rays of sunshine twinkling in the med.

So why not do the same? There are hundreds of interesting little sites dotted across the web that will give you a key to unlock the door to the rest of the world. learn a language, taste a new food or dabble in a new watersoprt, its all at the tip of your fingers, and a mere flight away.And if that isnt for you, why not take a try at camping in the New Forest?

For all the options you have, do however make sure that you have Travel Insurance. There is nothing worse than having the bad luck to fall ill on a trip and having to weigh up the cost of paying for treatment, or feeling rubbish for the rest of your trip. With hundreds of policy options to choose from, go online and find a cheap policy. Use the money you saved to go a little further, and experience the new!!

The Dors Mobile

2010-08-09T01:32:00.000-07:00

If, like me, you find the sophisticated style of the fifties film stars, like Audrey Hepburn and Ginger Rogers intriguing, then it may spark your interest to find out that the 1949 Delahaye Roadster, once owned by Diana Dors, is currently up for sale.

The curvaceous, sexy convertible was one of only fifty one of the vehicles made, and was bought for five thousand pounds from the first owner by Diana, who didn't even have a driving licence at the time. A considerable amount of money in those days for a seventeen year old, the car has a transparent steering wheel and bird motifs on the inside of the doors and was owned by Dors until it was bought by an American and shipped there in later years, where it now resides in Monterrey, California. The opulent interior is blue and white, with the exterior being a flashy blue and white style.

A modern day mystery. Diana Dors left two million pounds in various bank accounts across Europe before she died of ovarian cancer, and gave her son a code eighteen months before she died. The idea was that the code, when put with the key that she had given her husband, would unlock the fortunes. Her husband committed suicide five months after her death, and despite her son drafting in top forensic experts to crack the code, it seems that there was a second sheet of paper, and the code has therefore never been cracked.

The car has been completely restored and is estimated to sell for up to six million dollars, with interest from both car and movie enthusiasts across the world with money laying heavy in their pockets.

I however, am not sure how practical it would be for modern road use if I wanted to use the spare six million I have in the shoebox under my bed. The enigmatic vehicle may be slightly out of place on the long commute home in the rain, and is perhaps better suited in California. Also, the cost of Car Insurance on such a rare vehicle would have me living off pot noodles all month. Hardly ideal.

Re Test Terror

2010-08-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

My grandfather hails from an era where everything was difficult, and people struggled through adversity to succeed on society. Or so he says. He also says, with proud prominence, that things are much easier these days, children don't appreciate their blessings and exams are far easier. He assures us that he could pass GCSE's and A levels now with his eyes closed, and the driving test would be a walk in the park for someone with such amazing skill at, well, everything.

But a recent study, published in the Daily Mail and conducted my What Car? magazine, might leave him having to back up his outlandish, and quite frankly, aggravating claims.

According to their studies, almost half of Britain's drivers would fail a learner driver test if they had to re take it. Of the twenty people that were studied, with ages ranging from 17 to 71, only eleven of them passed. Thirty percent of the guinea pigs were marked down for poor attention, with one in ten failing to even maintain car control. Bit of a worry as these people are legally allowed on the roads. Eight of the people that failed committed failures that were deemed so serious that the examiners commented that they would have failed them on the spot. Out of the eleven that passed, eight of them made more then ten minor mistakes, putting them very close to failing the test too.

This proves a little bit of a worry for the general public, knowing that the majority of us drive at a level that is not deemed safe enough by the examiners and testers that govern our driving skills in the first place. It is also a worry that there is a whole generation of under 20 year olds who have recently passed their tests, and are therefore a lot safer than you or I. it almost makes you glad you have Car Insurance, really!

Bumper Work Out

2010-07-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but my bikini body took a bashing this winter. The lure of Christmas cake, minced pies and mulled wine were more than my will power could take, and I succumbed to sitting on the sofa, gorging myself and watching Men In Black. while actively avoiding any sort of exercise whatsoever, let alone the high impact, calorie burning type that nightmares are made of. Bliss. But joy turned to horror as the seasons changed, clothing got thinner, fashioned turned, and I realised I had given my bikini body a complete battering. Gone was the toned tummy and in its place, a lumpy bumpy bit. Argh!!

So cross trainers, power plates, abs attack, any hardcore and brutal gym activity was taken on with gusto - I pulled out all the hard work in an attempt to not be mistaken for the lilo when in the pool, after all, California girls are not renouned for being the size of a house. To the gym! And quick.

But according to recent research, us women could burn more calories washing the car. It seems that forty five minutes of hell doing circuit training burns less calories than getting out there and giving your motor a good scrub. And with the cost of a gym membership often exceeding £600 a year, that's a really good incentive for me to avoid the gym like the plague. Plus, there are sweaty people EVERYWHERE!

The research revealed that despite this, almost half of female UK Car Insurance customers have never washed their own car, preferring to take it down to the garage, or talk someone else into doing it. Industrious, but probably not the best way to burn off the cake you just ate. Just because it has the word carrot in it, doesn't mean its one of your five a day ladies! According to personal trainers, the high calorie burn when washing the car is because the movements you do to wash the whole of your car incorporate all of the major joints in the body, crunching abs and stretching hamstrings, to provide you with a workout that it would be difficult to replicate in the gym.

So why not? If it saves me money, keeps my car clean and eliminates the love handles, I'm all over it like a rash!

The Great Age Debate - Who Rules The Roads?

2010-07-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

Picture the scene, its Sunday, you have a raging hangover and you are late for dinner at your parents house. The speed limit is 30 mph and you are stuck behind an old biddy doing 24. At the maximum. So they should hurry up, right? Wrong. If recent published studies are anything to go by, it looks like its time to take a look at yourself in the rear view mirror. Recent tests have proved that elderly drivers are far more capable that their younger counterparts, despite the fact that after the age of seventy, a driving licence has to be renewed every three years.

Young drivers are guilty of being more likely to only see what is imminently in front of them, and therefore not seeing other hazards like pedestrians, children and road users further ahead. They are also more likely to speed around the roads, disregarding other road users and pedestrians, something that pensioners dont tend to do. Older drivers, who had on the whole been driving for more than 37 years, were as good at responding to hazards as the middle aged group. Their only pitfall was lack of memory when remembering the route, as they had to rely far more heavily on road signs that younger drivers that were tested.

And their success is backed up by Sir Stirling Moss, who returned to the race track this month at the ripe old age of eighty, and drove his 150mph Osca Fs around Silverstone. Known in his driving career as Mr Motor Racing, Sir Moss is truly a British legend, winning his first grand prix in argentina in the late fifties, and soaring ever since. He retired from grand prix in the early sixties, and during his career, worked for Mercedes and Mini, to name but a few. Try telling him that senior citizens are the worst group of drivers!!