Carless Whispers – In Which Keris Is Banned From Cheese.
One thing we learned pretty quickly on this carless journey of ours is that it’s, well, impossible. We can’t manage without a car. Not all the time, that’s for sure. One of the first things I thought of after David’s car broke down was a naming ceremony we were due to go to. It was for the baby of two of our closest friends and we really didn’t want to miss it, but it was in a small Yorkshire village,...
Carless Whispers – In which Keris takes on Mrs Thatcher, and thinks carlessness is genetic.
Just after David’s car packed up and we became carless (should that be “car-free”?), David read the following quote from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: “A man who, beyond the age of 30, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure.”* Well she was just a treat, wasn’t she?! But I somewhat take her point. I mean, we can’t exactly consider ourselves a great success, can we?...
Carless Whispers – In which Harry samples Bus Life.
Before the cars went kaput, we’d got into a routine of going swimming every Sunday. It had been a long time coming – we’d tried various local swimming pools with little success (too dirty, too inconvenient, too crowded, too small changing rooms) and had finally discovered a brand new leisure centre with family changing rooms and free family swimming on Sundays. Brilliant. But a 15 minute drive away. Harry was keen to...
Carless Whispers – In Which Keris Actually Realises What Carless Means.
As we suspected, David’s car was done for. Not completely beyond repair, but bad (and expensive) enough that the mechanic suggested it wouldn’t be worth doing. And when a mechanic is telling you not to bother, you don’t bother. We’re lucky in that David only works 20 minutes away and can get a bus there from the end of our road (the buses back are a little trickier, but still doable). The fare is pretty steep...
Carless Whispers – In which Keris loses a car. Or two.
In a new series from the little-bit-brilliant Keris Stainton (she of the weaning diary ‘Slopsville’ fame… and rather less importantly a small amount of minor stardom as a much-touted fabulous YA author of course), Carless Whispers is a record of her family’s experience of Life Minus Car… Once upon a time, we had two cars. Well, I say once upon a time – it was about a month ago. The MOT was due on my...