1111: Oneoneoneone

So today is my one thousand and eleventh daily post on this blog, and the… errr, hang on… (*counts*… 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 777, 888, 999… 1111) 19th time that all the digits in my post number have been identical, something which, coincidentally, will not happen again for another one thousand one hundred and eleven days.

This feels like it should be significant somehow, but in reality, well, it just isn’t. It’s just another arbitrary post number on a relatively unremarkable day. Regardless, since it feels like it should be something significant, I shall use this post as a permanent (well, as permanent as anything on the Web is) record of exactly what happened today, Saturday the 2nd of February 2013. (Yes, I know the post date probably says February 3rd, but that’s because I played Hyperdimension Neptunia for too long and drifted all the way past midnight… as usual. I’m sure you’re used to it by now.)

This morning I woke up rather late because I’d stayed up rather late the previous night reading my current visual novel fix, a rather compelling (if also rather wordy) tale called Kira Kira. I’ll save any discussion of Kira Kira for another day and instead point you to my “first impressions” post over on Games are Evil if you’re curious, since that’s not relevant to what went on today.

Andie and I eventually got up, had some breakfast (bacon and omelette; Andie added some chilli peppers and onions to hers but branded it ultimately disappointing due to the lack of “kick” that said peppers had; I had a plain one as my digestive tract was already on fire following a spectacularly spicy dhansak at my friend Tim’s on Thursday night) and contemplated what the day would hold.

Andie decided that she was going to look at new cars, as her trusty Nissan Micra “Ratty” had been starting to develop a few flaws and also had an impressive (though purely cosmetic) dent on the rear-left door. (It wasn’t her fault, but it would have cost several hundred quid to fix.) I was going to spend the day editing the much-delayed Squadron of Shame horror-themed podcast, but was requested to come along for moral support on the car hunt, so I agreed. I’ve never bought a car myself before, and Andie hadn’t done it “solo” before, either, so I understood her hesitance to go alone.

We took a drive down to a local used car dealership that was basically a big hangar-type building full of used cars of various descriptions. Andie took a bright red Peugeot 207 and a white VW Polo out for a spin; the Polo was a nicer car but was also several thousand quid more expensive, so that was eliminated from the running after some deliberations. Despite the best attempts of the newbie salesman and his boss double-teaming us and trying to convince us to buy a car there and then, Andie told them firmly that we would be taking a look at some other places before we made a decision. (“Why?” asked the boss guy, clearly only half-jokingly.)

We went and grabbed some lunch at The Crown, a pub I used to frequent as a student at Southampton University. It hasn’t changed at all, though the prices have probably gone up a bit. We both had a “Crown Inn Burger”, which is a burger with two toppings of your choice; Andie went for chili con carne and egg, I went for bacon and cheese. It was tasty — they do good burgers, so if you happen to find yourself in there, I recommend them. (I also recommend the “hill” or “mountain” of nachos, which are super-tasty.)

Following lunch, we went to a strip of car dealerships in the middle of town, opposite Ikea. There was a Hyundai place that looked like it also sold Renaults, a Honda place and a Ford place. Andie was particularly keen to look at the Fords, and I’ve had reasonably good experiences with Fords in the past too. (Apart from the fact that my Fiesta blew up on the way to work one day, and the Escort I subsequently had just flat-out died one day for no apparent reason.)

We took a look in the Hyundai place first, and were immediately accosted by a smug, smarmy salesman who completely ignored everything Andie said (“I’m interested in a used car,” she said. “Here’s a brand new Hyundai,” he said. “Fuck you,” we thought.) who showed us a car that we weren’t really interested in. Then we tried the Ford garage and discovered that it closed at lunchtime on Saturdays, which seemed enormously counter-productive from a “we want to sell lots of cars” perspective, then discovered that this was apparently not an unusual practice, since the Honda place was also closed.

Eliminating both Honda and Ford from our deliberations, we moved on to a dedicated Peugeot dealership on the very far side of the Southampton urban area. I was flagging a bit and getting a bit depressed and frustrated by this point, but we stuck it out. Andie took a diesel-based Peugeot 207 out for a spin and really liked it, so after a bit of pondering we decided that it would make a good new car. Andie did a bit of haggling (and judging by how little they argued, could have probably got away with more, but it was late in the day and we were tired) and we agreed to part-exchange both Andie’s current car and my elderly Peugeot 106 (which I really don’t need any more) against the new vehicle. (The trade-in value on the 106 is considerably better than the cash prices I’ve been quoted for selling it to places like We Buy Any Car and whatnot, so it seemed foolish not to do that, as we’ll both use the new car.)

Then we came home, and I posted the first of two new columns on Games are Evil (the second came later) then settled down for a bit of Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2. I’m closing in on the end of my second playthrough. I still haven’t decided if I’m actually going to play it through seven times, but it’s seriously tempting, plus it will actually minimise some of the “grinding” required to get certain specific endings, so I might; skipping events I’ve already seen lots of times cuts the total time down considerably, and fights are over in a flash when your main fighters are level 90+ and equipped with beastly weaponry. Man, I love that game.

Then, seeing the time stamp on my save game, I figured I should probably come and write this. So I did. After I click “Publish” I’m going to bed. Good night. Happy oneoneoneone day.