Definitely a Weather God

There are a lot of signs pointing to me being a weather god. But definitely not in the good way. As I believe I mentioned before, I seem to attract rain. As temperatures seem completely out of my control, I suppose I should say precipitation. And my 'powers' kick in right when I want such precipitation least. And conspire to ruin my life. Or at least my plans. Like the snowstorm that made me cancel my appointment to pick up my new car. The one that I've been waiting months for, and secretly dreaming of for years. So I rescheduled. And what showed up in the forecast for the new date? Another snowstorm. Luck arranged that my dealer eventually dropped off the car to me at my house. (Yay! Snow or no snow, I wasn't looking forward to bussing over to the dealership.)

It's now been almost two weeks and I still haven't driven my new car. First I didn't have a car seat, so I was limited by The Little Ninja, but that arrived a week ago. No more excuses, right? We planned a maiden voyage to Oma's house for Saturday past. And wouldn't you freaking know it? Another cursed snowstorm! Seriously!

I know some of you (likely Canadians and Americans living in the northern states) might be wondering what all the fuss is. A little snow (and yes, trust me, it's not really that much snow) and I refuse to drive? What kind of Canadian am I, right? But clearly, you've never been here when it's snowed. There are maybe a couple of snowplows in the country, which operate (as far as I can tell) during business hours, only clearing the highways. There are more salt trucks, which do salt the main roads, but obviously these are insufficient to combat a storm of my making. I really wanted to pick up my car = 25 cm of snow. Continuing cold means that, two weeks later, the local roads are still covered with hard-packed, slippery snow. That I obviously don't want to risk driving on with my shiny, brand-spanking new Clio.

Is it just when I make plans? The more I focus on a particular day, the more precipitation we must get? Must I stop making plans? Or stop caring about the plans?

On the plus side, now that it's warming up, at least I won't have to stand in the rain waiting for the bus or the tram, or biking. Maybe this is why the weather fought me so hard on the car pick-up. The car is my ultimate win! As long as it doesn't freeze, the car will defeat my weather powers! Mwahahaha...

I bought a car!

Why is my life turning into a Dora episode? I wanted to start this post with 'I did it!' and immediately the Dora conclusion song (and dance) popped into my head: We did it, we did it, we did it, yeah! That bzitch is gonna ruin everything!

So anyway, as I was saying before Dora interrupted, I did it! I made up my mind and bought a car. Can you guess which one I picked?

So right after making the decision I was all excited - I bought a car! Holy shit! Wicked! But then I went to the dealership and signed away a year's salary and suddenly felt sick. Is this buyer's remorse? does it necessarily mean that I made the worng decision? Or is it just my body recognising that it was a BIG purchase?

I hope it was the right decision. Unless it turns out to be a lemon I won't really ever know, though.

Anyway, here it is:

 Clearly, I went for the Renault Clio. The one seen above. I should have it by the end of January. Inshallah and all that. Tell me I made the right choice!

Buying a car: form or function?

I'm in the process of buying my first car (shut up; I'm only 33). The process is kicking my ass.

I'm not all that good at easy, inconsequential decisions, like what to eat for dinner or what should I wear? A big, momentous decision like this will likely take me months, if not years, at which time I'll just randomly impulse-buy something because I'm so fed up with the whole thing. OK, it might not take that long, but it will still probably end in eeny-meany-miny-moe. I'm hoping to make a more reasoned decision before it comes to that.

Deciding which car to buy has been taking up serious brain space ever since I finally got my Dutch driver's licence, back in June. I narrowed it down to the class of car and basically decided to buy new, but I got distracted by press releases about the new Renault Clio, which wasn't out yet and decided to hold off on any decision until I could see and drive that one for myself.

Fast-forward four months to now. The car has arrived at Renault dealerships across the country. I've seen the car. I've driven it. I drank the bottle of wine they gave me in celebration of the car's launch. And now I can't make up my mind which one to buy.

I didn't realise the joyous process of buying a car was so freakin' difficult.

These are the two finalists:
Renault Clio IV

Pros: GORGEOUS. Easy Isofix system for child car seats. GORGEOUS. Renault has a good (prestigious) name. GORGEOUS. Total customisation. Fancy touch-screen with GPS.
Cons: More expensive. 2-year warranty. Cheap/flimsy/weird rear door handles. Relatively big blind spot. The clutch vibrates a lot. 4 month wait on delivery.

Hyundai i20

Pros: Cheaper. 5-year warranty. No wait time. Basically no blind spot.
Cons: No 'wow' factor.

I can see that logically I should choose the Hyundai. But aesthetics aren't about logic. Clearly there's something to be said for driving in a nice car, or who would ever buy fancy sports cars? and this is my first car. It's a big deal to me. But how much is the prestige worth? Is feeling like a million bucks worth a few thousand euros and a 4 month wait?

So it's come down to form or function. Do I go for looks or reliability? Am I prepared to pay more and wait longer for the looks? Or should I give in to reason and the amazing warranty (can be extended to 7 years). That's a lot of years of not worrying about my car....

Gaaaa. What would you do?