KierNet

Slightly annoyed at the moment, as I’ve said in a post before, I currently own a Ford Focus, which I thought would be a lot more reliable than my old car, a Fiat Punto.

Anyway, on Sunday I was driving home from dropping something off, and it was a little bit jumpy, but I put that down to me being in the wrong gear, carried on going, about 5 minutes later it cut out completely, managed to steer it off the main road. Tried starting it a few times, and nothing happened. Phoned the AA and got toed home as they couldn’t fix it at the side of the road. Then got toed to a garage in the morning.

Got a phone call today, its the diesel pump that has gone, and brand new one from Ford costs £900! Plus £300 labour. Really did feel like crying when they told me .

No really reason for this post, just trying a new app that I just got, hopefully it will work.

Trainig is going pretty good, only got a few weeks left know, can not wait to go on my first duty, hopefully it will be as good as I hope it will be, little worried that I don’t know the area that I’ll be based at all, could be interesting, got myself a map though, so hopefully it will be ok.

Not long until the new F1 season either, really looking forward to it, Jenson and Hamilton in the same team should be great as well, will be happy if either of them win the champonship, although to be honest, would be happy if anyone but Massa and Alonso won.

I know I’ve not updated for months, but I’ve been a little busy…well, that’s my excuse anyway.

I’ve started my training for the Police Specials, and not got long left, don’t want to say too much, but loving every minute of it so far, a lot better than what I thought it would be, mixture of theory and practical. We’ve got a knowledge check this week, for all the units we’ve covered so far, so spending a lot of time going over my notes…also printed some stuff off to put over my walls in my room. Personal safety has been a lot of fun, hard work though, had two days of it, and body was killing me by the end of the second day, bruises all over me at the moment .

Little worried that I am going to be based at a place that I know very little about, although I wont be allowed out by myself until after a year, so hopefully I’ll learn my way around, also got myself a map, which will hopefully help.

Become a bit obsessed with Road Wars and the such, watching them pretty much all the time now, does annoy me when some channels (Watch) play the same one 3 times a day…and yet I still watch it…

I’ll hopefully blog again within a few days, but dont hold your breath.

Since my last post, I’ve had my Police fitness test!  Happened in the 21st of November, and passed!  Just got my medical left which is on this Friday, and then I start training.

I’m not sure when I start training, I got a letter on Friday saying that I’ll be starting in January, however, I got a phone call a few hours later asking if I can start in April…little disappointed, going to phone up on Monday saying that it would be easier if I could stay doing the January session, as I’ve already got the time off work.  Hoping that they’ll be OK with it.

I’ve also got myself a new car, decided to get a Ford Focus 1.8 TDDi.

Very pleased with it, drives brilliantly, nice and comfy to drive, and seems very economical at the moment, managed to get 250 miles out of half a tank, which isn’t too bad I dont think, was getting around 300 from my Punto.

Was a little shocked when I first filled up, £55, hopefully it will last a month though, think I’ll cry if not. Doesn’t help that I have been driving it everywhere lately, since Tuesday I’ve done 250 miles. Tempted to go for a drive now xD.

Think thats all for now, I’ll most likely post again at the end of the week after my medical.

Welcome to Wordpress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

As I said in my last blog, I had my assessment day for the Police Specials on Sunday, the day involved my PIRT’s (Verbal Usage, Checking, Numerical Reasoning, Verbal Logical Reasoning and Observation), although we only did 4, and not sure which one we didn’t do and my interview. Was pretty nervous the night before, and before I sat my PIRT’s, and again waiting for my interview, I was due to go in at 11.30, but didn’t go in until around 1pm.

Wasn’t too sure on how the interview went, cant really remember what I said and what they asked, and wasn’t sure about the PIRT side of the day, if I failed any of it, I hoped it was the PIRT as I only had to wait 6 months before re-sitting it, rather than 12 months and re-applying for the interview.

I phoned up on Monday, and passed both parts! Got my results in the post today, and only just passed the PIRT’s…pass mark is 168 out of 264, and I got 173, but still a pass, so its all good.

I’ve got my fitness test on the 14th of November, and my medical on the 4th of December, and if I pass both of them, I start training on the 9th of January.

In my last blog I said about my PIRT and Interview for the Police Specials might be in either, November or January, however, last Thursday (or Wednesday) I got a phone call from recruitment asking me if I was available to attend the assessment centre on the 4th of October. Of course I said I would be able to attend, but starting to get really nervous. The amount of forms I have to fill in before hand is unbelievable, medical forms, then security questions and then the core competency questions in which my interview is based around. Which is a lot harder than I first thought, I’m hoping the answers that I have will be enough.

Also got the 5 tests as I mentioned below, I’ve got a book that has practice questions in to help me for this, which I’m going to start working though tomorrow, got my suit ready, just need to get a tie to wear. Part that I’m not looking forward to is having to get at the Headquarters for 8.45am…which is around a 45 minute drive away…really not looking forward to getting up early .

Got myself a new laptop today, my old one had been playing up for a while, and was getting out of date, and thought as I had been paid for Feedback Fun over the summer I would treat myself.

Ended up buying this one which I’m rather pleased with, also comes with the Windows 7 upgrade which I’m looking forward to, as I already cant stand Vista.

Not sure when I’ll next be blogging, its my 20th tomorrow so doubt I’ll be doing it then, so maybe before my interview.

Decided that I needed a new layout, got rather bored with the old one, similar idea, but I believe it looks better, still got a few things to get sorted, but hopefully that will be done within the week, depends when I find the time.

Right, little update about my Police Specials application, on the 16th I had a awareness evening at the headquarters, was a good evening, answered a few questions that I was wondering about, and got to have a go at the Police Initial Recruitment Tests (PIRT) (5 altogether, Verbal Usage, Checking, Numerical Reasoning, Verbal Logical Reasoning and Observation), and also got to watch the fitness test, I was going to take part in the fitness test, however, the day before I had a ingrown toenail removed, and it was still a little painful to walk, so couldn’t take part. However, it doesn’t look as bad as I first thought it would be, believe I should be able to pass. Going read up on some of the English based PIR, English has never been a strong subject of mine, but hopefully its something I can work on.

While I was at the awareness evening, we where told that the dates for the assessment day (PIRT and interviews are held on this day), one in October, one in November and one in January, they said that most of the people in the room (40 to 50) would be taking them in January, which is rather annoying, would rather it was sooner, but gives me more time to get ready.

Different topic now…F1…always some drama going on off the track, which is one of the reasons I love it so much, latest is that Renault have been fixing races, for more information, the following links explain whats happened.

Renault called to face fix charge
Renault to launch Piquet lawsuit
Briatore out over Renault fix row
Renault blames Briatore & Symonds
Renault face Formula 1 fix fate

I’m really liking this latest twist in F1, I’m not a big fan of Renault, and despise Alonso, always happy when he has a crap race, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be charged with anything, which is rather annoying, but maybe he was involved, will hopefully find out soon, FIA have got their meeting tomorrow.

Not done too well with blogging lately, opps. In my defence though, I have been rather busy the last month, as I’ve said in a few posts down, I got a second job, which I’ve been doing over August, and have loved every minute of it! Really hope that I can do something similar again soon, got some great memories from it.

Been catching up on my sleep this weekend, had a staff party on Friday evening, had a great night, but not much sleep, 3 hours tops maybe, and then work for 9 hours, which was a nightmare, head was killing me all day.

Last few days I’ve been looking to buy a new car, at the moment I’ve got my eye on a BMW 3 Series, my aim is to get one by this time next year, seems a long way away, but, I’m crap at saving money, need to save around £4,000 for it, so going to need to save roughly half my wages each month until then…hopefully I can, just got to hope my car doesn’t break down in that time.

Talking about my car, just had to spend £150 on getting it past its MOT, wasn’t happy with that, knew that my tyres would need replacing, but was hoping that was it, sadly not.

Right, think its time for bed, start work at 8am tomorrow, not really looking forward to it, forgot I said I would do the overtime few months ago, just need to think of the money…time and a half…love it.

**Please note that the images where deleted by mistake**

My car insurance is due in just under 2 months time, so its time to start looking for quotes.

At the moment I’m paying £914 a year for my Fiat Punto 1.2 2001, which for my age isn’t too bad to what some people are paying.

My aim for this year, is to get a quote for under £600 fully comp, I believe that this is possible, I’ll be 20 and (hopefully) have 2 no claims bonus, I’ll also going to try and go for £0 voluntary excess each time.

To try and get the best quote possible, I will be going to the following sites:

Confused.com
Gocompare.com
Tescocompare.com

From each one of them, I’ll go directly to the top 2 companies and see what quote I get without going though the comparison sites.

First site is Confused.com
Good start with a quote of £702.65, hopefully they will keep going down.

Next site is GoCompare.com
Slightly more, however its Admiral again, think they might be the place for me to go in September.

Last site is TescoCompare.com
Prices seem to be getting higher each time, so its time to go to the sites directly! First up is Admiral:

£710.72

Was expecting it to be less, however, maybe if I phone up I’ll get a better quote.

Elephant.co.uk is up next, with a price of…£710.72 as well, think that Admiral and Elephant are part of the same company, their forms where the same, and the exact same price.

Anyway, going to Elephant.co.uk direct was cheaper than going to Confused.com, so maybe I can get it a little cheaper if I phone up, still over £100 more than what I want to pay.

Next up is Hastings, they where the third cheapest overall, so was hoping that they where going to be around the same price, however, they came up with a price of, £819.18…dont think I’ll be going with them at the moment.

The next two, I’m not going to bother with, I’ve not heard of either of them before, and they aren’t competitive enough from the quotes I’ve got already.

Got two more companies that I want to get quotes from, Bell.co.uk and MoreThan who are my current providers.

Bell.co.uk have come up with a quote of…£677.30! Slowly getting to my target of under £600.

Last quote is from MoreThan who have given me a quote of…£888.23…little annoying…only around £20 cheaper than what I paid last year…

Anyway, this post was mainly for me to keep track of the quotes I’ve gotten lately, and what companies are worth looking at.