Bellerophon symbol, variation 7 jonath.co.uk
Monday 8th October 2007

Today I've had to take the day off work, on account of A****** being unwell. We don't know what's wrong with him, but he ain't eating much and has a bit of a temperature and generally doesn't seem his usual self. Other things have happened recently that may be interesting, may be not (maybe not?!). I finally had the meeting with the, er . . . I'm not sure what you call him . . . some kind of medical dude. This is in relation to my bicycle accident of 2nd February. My solicitor wanted a medical examination done by this guy, this being one of the final things required before the claim can be settled. I suppose the examination was a bit of mixed bag: kind of good and bad news. Good in the sense that there is a very real link between the damage in my right knee and the accident of 2nd February, but bad in the sense that the damage may be much longer term than I had previous thought. There's still some fluid on the knee-cap and the extent of damage may require an MRI to determine properly (I've only had x-rays so far). So yeah . . . not sure.
And then there's the car. The mechanic (only known as 'James', from Piccadilly Garage) had previously estimated the cost of work at between £400 and £450 so on that basis I said, "Fine, go ahead then." Then I didn't hear anything for a while, so rang them up and was told that the repairs had come to £597 and some pence. Naturally I was a bit annoyed about this and during the phone conversation with James, asked for some detail about how he arrived at this figure. He kind of lost his rag a bit at that point, which kind of sent further alarm bells ringing. But yeah . . . in the end, M**** and I were like, "Well, whatever, we pay for the car, we don't go there again." So I collected the car on Friday, and it barely made it home, stalling several times (some kind of engine warning light went on about halfway through the journey and stayed on). I coasted along Windsor Avenue, as it didn't seem to want to start again. James had stated that any problems related to the recent repairs will be rectified free of charge, so I rang him this morning to explain the problems. James said to check the oil, check the water (this I did) then return it to his garage. On the trip to the garage this afternoon, the engine warning light never went off and it stalled once, but it made it there. That's the saga of the car. Not good.