Saturday (I don't want to blog about politics) night.

What a shitty, shitty day! I was out in Mrs Buckos car this afternoon and the exhaust came off. The cat came apart from the front downpipe on a petrol station forecourt.

If I believed in fate I would say that dam exhaust knew just when to go to cause the maximum disruption. Our breakdown recovery lapsed last week and we didn't renew it because the MOT is due next Friday and I fully expect to have to scrap it.

I had to drive the bugger for the last mile home making an unbelievable racket. Folk were giving me the queerest looks. I then had to drive it from our home to the exhaust place in town where I had to leave it. He didn't have a cat for our model and he won't be able to sort it until Monday, at a cost of 110 quid. Now I'm going to have to pay whatever it takes to get the car through it's MOT next week because I'm not scrapping a car with a hundred quid exhaust on it.

I know it's going to need welding. The front cyl has collapsed at the jacking point. There also appears to be some corrosion around the front suspension. The problem is with welding, it costs an arm and a leg and I can't do it myself.You can bet there will be nothing mechanically wrong with it at the MOT, because if there were I could fix it myself and save some money. No, this is going to cost me as much as it possibly can.

We booked a holiday last night as well, so finances have already taken a hit this month and it's hardly begun. By the end of the month I bet we will be breaking into the emergency food stash.

It's not just the car that been conspiring against me this weekend. The kitchen is having a good go too. We have been stripping everything out in preparation for building a new kitchen. The walls are absolute pants with all the plaster crumbling off. One wall had a thin cladding of some crappy wood on it. We took it off and underneath was just bare brick. All that needs re-pointing so I made a start it last night. What a mess. I've never created so much shit in my life ever. There was a thin layer of brick dust in the bathroom; god knows how it got there, I think it must have come off me when I went for a pee. I found out what I will look like when my hair goes grey.

The sun isn't quite over the yardarm yet but after today's fiasco, I've opened my first beer. Hopefully nothing else will go wrong before now and bedtime.

I think I'll spend tomorrow bunging stuff on ebay to try and make some money to pay for this sodding car. If anyone wants to buy a vintage Spectrum +2 with joystick and a whole host of games, just let me know. Thirty five quid to you, including postage.

Anyway, I'm off now. A small rebel force has just landed on Endor but the Emperor is aware of it. I'll find out what happens to them (for the umpteenth time) while getting right royally drunk and washing my cares away.

Happy Saturday.