#either way the procedure is really really expensive and we'd have to drive like a day to get to the nearest place that's safe to do it

[syn4k]

researching all of the available types of top surgery because we're considering possibly getting one in the future, and it's like huh... this is incredible. scary, but incredible

[carrotsareaces]

I've been to Canterbury: on why I hope that living in Bicycle Country will allow me to never own a car

Cars that are actually gonna keep working are expensive. The other option is buying a cheap car and paying for repairments. My dad'd decided to buy a car that's cheap to repair. This was succesful; a complete engine in good state for Langhorst only sets you back €50. But Langhorst needs a LOT of repairs.

We one went to Canterbury. That's a five hour drive if you take the tunnel below the Channel in Calais, or six hours if you catch the boat just in time.

The trip from NL to UK was, well, mildly confusing, I guess.

We spent two hours in Calais because we missed a boat by five minutes. Calais looked like it'd been deserted yesterday.

Like, deserted all of a sudden for a volcano warning or something? Everything was in okay state but there were no humans.

Just

No humans

We couldn't even get döner, but we eventually reached our destination safely.

The way back, however, was Horrible.

We had no hind lights.

We'd blown a fuse by switching on the fog light (it's the UK okay, we needed it) and the replacement fuse did not have enough contacts. So we had to choose between tail lights or headlights. We chose headlights. We drove without tail lights.

The we reached the port of Dover, and had to go through passport procedure. The car was on gasoline since the UK sells very little LPG. Technically, it can drive on either. In practise, not really. It struggles with driving on gasoline.

The passport process was a full hour of idling engine.

We filled up the place with blue smoke and felt shock after shock go through the vehicle like a child coughing with whooping cough with how bad it struggled to keep running.

For a full hour

Currently, Langhorst has headlights and tail lights but we still cannot use the fog light since we know it will blow the fuse.

My parents have had numerous cars. Each acquired a name. Prestige leaked oil. It's named after a crashed oil tanker. Whale was whale-shaped. It also constantly had issues with the gearbox. Litterbin had the gray color otherwise only common on litterbins. It had six warning lights, of which three burned perpetually regardless of the state the vehicle was in.

I do not have good experience with cars, and really only enjoy them when they're old, pretty, and standing still.