22nd Jan 2025 A Sad Event.

A simple two job day compared to yesterday!! A train from Aylesbury to Maidenhead via London Marylebone was an uneventful journey.. But travel on the London underground is not usually this quiet.

An unusual and eery Marylebone underground station

A day when my non stop nature, thought by some miracle. That people might just be interested in reading about the daily travels of a fairly ordinary person who for some stupid reason, gave up a very well paying, but stressful job to start something new.

One of the deciding factors was seeing, all over the country, people who stand at railway stations and watch, photograph, video and log trains. So I guessed, (we will see if I'm right) That people may actually be interested in someone who gets on the things on a daily basis and has to travel on them for work. Not a daily commute but on different trains and different parts of the country every day.

Even I am finding it fascinating. Another deciding factor later.

Anyway. Today I collected a car in Maidenhead, which has this statue at the station, which is one of Sir Nicholas Winton. Who was the British "Schindler" Who smuggled 669 boys and girls, destined for concentration camps, out of Czechoslovakia in 1939.. I had never heard of him to be honest.

Statue of Sir Nicholas Winton

This collection was for an online company who source cars for dealers nationwide. This Audi A5 was a 2017 model and was purchased from an individual but the car was stored at his local garage who obviously serviced it for him. I arrived to find an elderly lady waiting for me.

Now this happened a lot in my career of buying stock and it was always a very difficult situation. The ladies husband, the cars owner, driver and the person who loved the car like his baby. Had died. Leaving his poor wife to sell it. She was a genuine lovely lady. And we had a long conversation about the car, her late husband and life. The car was part of her husband and she was very upset about it going. Very sad. But she thanked me for talking to her and making her feel better about it and I suggested that I took some photos of her with the car so she could keep that memory going. Something I learnt from my own experience. Having lost my wife of 20 years some 8 years previous. Instead of hoarding all her vast collection of belongings I gave to charity after photographing everything for posterity. They are just things. I have all the good memories still and now I have photos for when that memory eventually goes south... I told this poor woman who was obviously struggling with losing the car. That these memories are more than objects and what I did to help with the loss. I hope it helped her.

Hampshire bound Audi A5

So I took her Audi A5 to Fareham car sales in Hampshire. Who as usual, just boringly signed my digital appraisal. Without looking at the car. And I Uber'd my way out of there to head to Southampton Lexus to collect a Range Rover Evoque which had to be driven to a dealer in Gatwick. Where another very uninterested sales person, signed my appraisal, again without looking.

Range Rover Evoque delivered

I never get tired of the response I get from sales managers and sales execs, when I arrive to collect or drop off a car. I'll explain later.

The Range Rover Evoque was an awful drive. They were bad to drive when I worked for Land Rover in 2018. They haven't improved.

The gear change is awful, the kickdown hesitancy at roundabouts is downright dangerous. And the interior has got worse if anything. The media and Satnav system, I remember, was designed and built in house. And is clunky in operation. I said this in 2016 . But £60k for one of these.. when, I can buy a Dacia Duster and keep £40,000 in my bank. I know what my choice is.