Taxi!

I did something today that I've never done before - I went to the supermarket and got a taxi home. In the past I've always either walked there and back (and used internet for beer shopping) or (been) driven there and back when a car is available.

It's K's birthday today and she's having a minor party this evening so we needed to get food and drink. Unfortunately the car is currently in a garage for its MOT and to fix an oil leak. We therefore had no transport and due to poor planning, no time to use the internet for heavy stuff. Therefore we were left with the taxi option, or go hungry/thirsty.

It works really well. There's a little phone in the supermarket lobby. You pick it up, press a button, speak to a little man and a taxi comes for you about five minutes later. Magic. The taxi man even helps you put your shopping in the boot.

It cost about six quid. So I've worked out that if you do a shopping trip once a week and get a taxi back, total annual costs are about £300 (I used a calculator for that one). If the supermarket is the main thing a car is used for then this feels like a much cheaper number than running a car - the garage bill alone will probably be several hundred pounds.

The only other thing we could thing of that a car would be needed for would be going to dancing class. So this means we're in a slightly surreal situation of only being able to justify having a car so that we can go dancing. Doesn't feel right to me :-)

But I've now thought of some other things we use it for:
1. Buying Christmas trees
2. Taking Christmas trees to the Christmas tree recycling place (somewhere...)
3. Ram raiding the local shop
4. Moving belongings
5. Visiting places that don't have trains (none spring to mind but I'm sure they exist)

But I reckon with judicious use of further taxis and car hire, we could get around these things too.

Message and moral is therefore "Kill All Cars". Nasty smelly things, they are.