Magic diesel necks

A couple of updates. First, my throat ultrasound revealed bubkis, ergo est sweet fuck all. I was so excited and relieved I took the rest of the afternoon off and baked some soda bread and clafouti. Mind you, if the big, scrawled one-word question in the doctor's prescription - "Goitre?" - had been answered in the positive, I would have been so upset and disappointed I would have took the rest of the afternoon off and baked some soda bread and clafouti. Goitres are fucking gross. And I'm trying to treat my time in Belgium ninja-ly - slip in, do my job, slip out with 50 grand - not slip in, have some hideously involved throat procedure to get rid of a goitre, scrape together what I can and slip out. Still feel fine. The F-word's magic yoghurt worked. And yes, I'm aware of how that sounds.

Second update: my driving test, though theoretically possible anytime after March 14, won't be until May, and I don't know when in May because they haven't opened the planning for May yet. It's a good thing I shifted the ambition from 'license before 30' to 'license before 31'. This is not a good country to be in a hurry in. Makes my job as a ninja so much harder. Oh well.

My mind has bounded far ahead of itself to which car it's going to buy when it moves back to a country where you need a car because you live out in the country a bit and you're making babies and have to bring them places. I'm cheap when it comes to small purchases over time, less so for single large purchases, so at first I thought hybrid - protect myself a little from the vagaries of gas prices. But I'm also selfish, and even though I'm not very good at it, stickshift is so much more fun. Into that, throw in the F-word's desire for a station wagon - as an artist he needs something to haul art around in. So far, this car is winning (the TDI model).

But I already know there's basically no way in hell we'll buy a new car - I'm far too tight to buy anything that depreciates that heavily that fast. The odds are excellent we'll end up with some third-hand clunker and I'm happy with that too. I have a bit of a problem with buying a new car for environmental reasons anyways. There are so many used cars on the market that have to be disposed of one way or another, and it doesn't make much sense to bring another into the world. A bit like adoption, I guess.