Real Gone.

Been an exciting few weeks here and very busy. As I've mentioned previously we have the girls in college a total of 5 separate days now, which means we're having to take them/bring them back every day (the last few years we've been 'lucky' as it was only Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) as well as organising things to do with Cassidy seeing as he no longer attends college which is giving us precious little time for things like shopping, getting (any) work done, laundry and the like (yup, still awaiting repairs).

As you can probably tell we've completely given up on ever having any Social Work support after the utterly abysmal attempts of them to be helpful (or even remotely competent) last year so it's just the pair of us doing everything.

As per normal. 

Suffice to say we're both slightly knackered at the moment (and let's face it, we're not getting any younger - more attractive - yes, more powerful in the dark arts every single day? - obviously but being sole carers for 3 Autistic kids can be a bit tiring at times).

Plus Ro has the added bonus of having an Autistic adult to keep out of trouble too. 

 

 

Another thing we've been (trying) to deal with of late is swapping over our Motability car and yes, I know that according to various members of the press and a fair few (uneducated) knuckle draggers on social media having a Motability car is the worse crime against humanity possible and we should be burned at the stake for even looking at one but frankly I don't care what you think so if this fact has triggered you in any way feel free to fuck off now.

Thank you.

It's the first time we've ever had to swap over our car (you initially get it for 3 years) so we reckoned it'd be fairly easy and to be honest the staff at Motability have been great and really helpful, it's a pity then that the rest of the process is an utter Kafka-esque nightmare.

And not just because Benefits Scotland managed to change my name on the claim form meaning I couldn't log in to my account.

Oh and in a totally unrelated event they also lost two of our children on the forms which was quite exciting but that's a story for another day. 

Anyway, with that out of the way, on with the story...

Car lease is up, wanting a car of similar size and make - nothing special, no hyper alloy racing wheels or 'go faster' stripes (which surprisingly they try to get you to have) so we phone our local Motorbility dealer to arrange an appointment.

He's on holiday so we have to phone back to arrange to see someone else.

Phone back, he's not in that day.

Need to phone again.

Now you'd think that if the whole Motorbility car thing was as rife as the press made out there'd be dozens of staff around throwing cars at any old disability but no - only 1 (maybe 2 at a push) - per dealership. 

Ro (for it is she who drives, does car stuff) makes an appointment and goes in to see him.

Now we reckoned it'd be a quick and easy swap to a similar model but no...turns out that certain garages only have access to certain cars and to swap over to the same model will now cost £3000 as it's become quite popular.

And before you ask, no you can't just keep the old one.

There are cars that have cheaper - or no deposit - but guess what? It turns out that car dealerships aren't allowed deliveries of cars from other - affiliated - dealerships.

You have to go home and find out for yourself which ones have the car you want/need and where they are yourself.

Now I've never bought a car so I've always assumed that when you go to a garage to buy one the staff/sales folk are chomping at the bit to sell you one so was quite surprised to find out that this isn't the case as it looks like not only do you have to get the right day to visit to actually find a salesman but then they only have 2 or 3 types of car as they're not allowed to sell other types. If you want a different model they just see you on your way without any help at all.

Not even an address of another dealer.

 

This time next week this should be ours!

 

 

Yup, turns out that all this talk of sales being a high pressure job is all bollocks and it's almost as if they really don't want to sell you a car and if they do it's less easy than a very complicated Dungeons and Dragons quest.

In a second language.

And without a Dungeon Master to run it.

Or dice.

I assume this is the case as the alternative is that the company sign up to the whole Motorbility scheme to look caring and sharing in public but when it comes down to it really can't be arsed.

But that can't be it could it? 

Anyway, we finally tracked down a garage we can actually get a car from so Ro popped in to see them.

All was going swimmingly till she was told that even tho' she's the driver and has all the information I'm not allowed to ring to confirm who I am and have to be there in person.

But they can ring to tell me this which is odd because that means I'm actually who I say I am when it's convenient for them.

NT rules are really confusing.

So come Monday Ro is gonna have to drop the girls at college whilst I persuade  Cassidy to get the train into town where we'll meet up and head to the dealership (again) in the hopes of getting the whole thing sorted.

Luckily the person we're currently dealing with seems really nice and actually helpful so hopefully we'll be up and running within the week and then it's back in touch with Motorbility to see why the whole process is so damn complicated.

Wish us luck!