Collecting our Micra!

Hello everyone,

So, today was the big day. We were off to pick up our Nissan Micra! Arriving in Rochdale I thought it looked a lot better than I remember it. It still needed to be boosted as it had a flat battery but it seemed good nonetheless. We had to get my Dad to drive it back for us as we haven't yet sorted out our insurance. He wasn't overly impressed and apparently there are a few bits and pieces that need sorting out. But with a few weeks left till the rally, we can hopefully get it up to scratch. From the picture we've uploaded on to facebook nobody else seems that confident either including Phil, Tim and Florence already all saying we won't make it, but I have high hopes. The guy we bought it off said, "course it will, it's a Nissan". You can't argue with that!

xx

Car boot

Hello,

Yesterday was the start of all our fundraising to get to Mongolia. We headed down with a car full of stuff to Notre Dame car boot sale in an attempt to sell as many items as possible in order to raise as much money as possible.

With grey clouds in the sky we had our fingers crossed that the rain would hold off. However, after about 20 minutes the inevitable happened and it started to rain. We used a plastic sheet to protect our stuff until Rich's Dad turned up with a gazebo. It was perfect keeping all our items and ourselves out of the rain.

We managed to raise a total of £84.55 which was much more than we'd hoped for. We weren't actually expecting to sell hardly any of the items we had on sale.

Thanks to everyone who came down and supported us.

xx

Buying a car

Hello there prospective followers. This here is our first proper blog entry and we intend to make it a regular occurence as we get stuck in to the preparation for our rally. Please do check back for updates.

So, after some unsuccessful car hunting last weekend, myself and pooch set out this weekend to buy a car. Along with our respective fathers we descended upon Rochdale to check out a little Nissan Micra we'd had our eye on on autotrader.

After some difficulty finding the garage, we got directions and arrived at our destination. Last weekends car hunting had consisted of Rich and I looking at God knows what on the car and pretending we knew what we were doing. Hence the reason we had our Dad's with us. They gave the car the once over and did not look particularly impressed. Rich and I again were none the wiser to the soundness of the cars mechanics and instead elected to give the tyre's a good kick.

It was difficult to make a decision on the car so we went along to see the car's paperwork and see if a deal could be done. We were offered a best price of £1050 with the car being put through a full mot. Having spotted another Micra on the way to Rochdale we chose to postpone our decision to give us chance to have a look elsewhere.

The other Micra we'd spotted in Glossop turned out to be a 1.3 litre Micra, not meeting the conditions of the rally. So upon our return to Sheffield, we decided to get in touch to arrange buying the initial Micra we had seen. We shall now be collecting our new car later on in the week, at which point we'll upload photos to show all our followers, currently zero, just how much of a beauty she is! I forgot to take pictures when we were there today unfortunately.

Let's hope she really is up to the job and makes it all the way to Mongolia (without breaking down ideally). We won't know until we try though!

Finally, please come down to Notre Dame High School tomorrow for their car boot sale. We shall be taking a collection of our old junk (it may be your treasure) in order to sell to raise funds for our trip.

xx