Temporary Car Insurance for your newly qualified teenage driver

So your teen has passed their driving test! Yippee! they can take you home from parties, ferry you to the pub, share the driving on holiday ... oh wait... you do know that you need to sort out the car insurance right?

On the very moment they pass their test, they are no longer insured to drive the family car they've been cheerfully practicing in! Yes a quick call to the insurance provider is needed.

In our case Raffy had been driving my Fiat Panda, not a well known sports car or hot hatch, and it had raised my insurance to have her on the policy from £200 a year, to £400.
So it was with some surprise to find that upon passing her test the insurance now rose to £4000.

After some clutching at my chest and deep breathing, I went to a few comparison sites to look around, I did finally find insurance at as little (as little! *bitter laugh*) as £1500 a year, but as Raffy tends to only use the car for about an hour a week to drive to and from college, this seemed excessive. So it looked like her driving days were numbered.

That's when I remembered a product I'd heard of that enabled people to drive your car with a temporary insurance, literally an hour at a time if necessary. It was sold to me at the time as festival driving insurance "giving a mate a lift? why not share the driving to and from the festival" but I realised this might be useful for newly qualified teenage drivers too.

I took a look at Cuvva as it was the first one I had heard of, but it turned out they wouldn't insure drivers under 19. As Raffy isn't 19 for a good while yet I had a hunt about. And I found Veygo. Underwritten by Admiral Insurance it enables you to insure a car for anything from an hour to...well a month or so if you like (perfect when your student comes home for summer from University and wants to borrow dad's wheels) . And as it's done via an app you can even do it on the go. They insure learners too!

I used it for the first time this Monday, and it seems pretty simple to use. You take pictures of the car (if you forget to do that and then need to claim, your excess will be higher) and then fill in the info on the app and it's all good, the policy documents are emailed to you immediately (Mr TM and I joked that Veygo should sponsor Police Interceptors as one of the major crimes seems to be young lads driving uninsured, for only £17 or so they could escape a fine or worse!)

I insured Raffy for 24 hours as she wanted to car late in the evening, Veygo stipulate that for insurance after 10pm and before 5am it must be 24 hrs minimum, but even then it was only £26. For day time only on a Saturday the cost was more like £17. All in all a cheaper option than £1000, as she doesn't have her own car, and is now using mine only occasionally.

So there you go, my top tip. Try out temporary car insurance to ensure your new driver doesn't forget how to drive! Veygo even say you can earn a years no claims discount if you use the app for driving more than 30 days in a year!

Top Ten Things about letting your Border Terrier off the leash

I have a Border Terrier, she is 18 months old and her name is Fizz, you can read more about her here (*with tiny puppy photos!) and also here (*with training tips)

Fizz is my 3rd BT and all of them have been exercised off leash, all had/have pretty good recall. Many breeeders will tell you that BTs can never run free and are not safe off leash. So this post is my own view on the subject.

It's worth noting that American and UK views on dog's off leash vary greatly, and that some councils and many UK areas, such as beaches and common land, have rules about allowing dogs off leash. Dogs should never be off leash on a pavement near a road.

Assuming you are allowed to have a dog off leash...here are my top ten tips.

1. No dog and especially not a border terrier will ever be 100% 'safe' off leash. Dogs are not robots, however much you train, however good their recall, there may come a day that something you could not have planned for will happen, a car will backfire and scare your pup, a bitch in heat will be walking nearby, a squirrel will dash out from a bush right in front of your dog....This list will help but it can't make off leash a safe, risk-free pass time.
2. Until you have some confidence in your pup consider a long leash, not a flexi that you keep hold of, though they can be useful, but a long line of the sort used to lunge horses. We bought a 12 foot line in wide (less chance of a burn if it whips around your leg) purple (nice and clear to see against the grass). A long trailing line has many benefits. People can see your dog is learning. You don't have to get close to your pup if their attention is on another dog. Other people can easily grab the leash or step on it if you shout out! And it will get tangled on something if the dog does decide to try and bolt.
3. Choose a car free fenced area if you can for the first few months of off leash fun. A dog park is ideal or a recreation ground if dogs are allowed there. (always clear up after your dog) Visit regularly so that your dog doesn't have to 'explore' each time, if your dog knows an area it will be less likely to roam around.
4. Practice recall. It seems obvious but lots and lots of practice! Find out what your dog likes best, cheese, sausage, or a squeaky toy and make that the reward. Let your dog run and play but call it back often, treat and release. If your dog isn't coming back, use the long line! Make your dog return if you call or it will learn to disobey! Especially practice recall when your dog is interacting with other dogs, your dog must learn you are the boss, this takes time, but Fizz has finally sussed it.
5. Never punish a dog when it returns to you. No matter what your dog has done, ignored you, humped your friends chihuahua, eaten a kid's ice cream, it doesn't matter, coming back to you must always by good! You don't want to teach a dog that a return to you gets it yelled at or (shudder) hit. (Don't hit your dog)
6. Find a friend and walk far apart, take it in turns to call the dog for treats or a game, make your terrier work at watching and listening to see who will call, make it fun.
7. Consider having your pet neutered or spayed. Unless your dog is a show dog and destined for great things, have it 'done'. A girl will no longer have the desire to escape and be shagged twice a year and your boy will find he no longer has the urge to mount everything in sight, he will lose some aggression too and will be less interested in bitches in season. When we had a boy his recall became 90% more consistent after he was neutered.
8. Check your surroundings before allowing your dog off leash. Never let your dog off near roads. Keep dogs on leads where there is livestock of any kind. (one of my previous dogs was a chicken killer - he was proud of this, I was not. The farmer was extremely nice about it and we were very lucky and learned a big lesson!) Keep your terrier on a lead if they may be fox dens or badger sets about. Keep dogs on leads on cliff top walks (do not assume your dog is clever enough not to run over the edge)
9. Don't wait til the end of a walk to call your dog. Call your terrier often, treat often and pop your dog back onto the lead a few times, before releasing it again, during a walk, don't make recall and lead = the end of fun!
10. Don't feel bad if your dog has poor recall even if you've followed all the tips. Dogs vary in personality and some will be more biddable than others. Also dogs can have 'relapses' in training, especially during their 'teenage' years at around 2 years old. Keep practising, resort back to the long line or use a flexi.

Do you walk your dog(s) off leash? Any good advice I've missed? I'd love a comment below or on Facebook/Twitter (Links in the sidebar >>)

Living with an invisible illness

Charcot-Marie-Tooth can be an invisible illness. It isn't always. Some people with Charcot-Marie-Tooth are in wheelchairs or wear leg braces/supports or use walking aids. Many of us have clawed toes and fingers. Some have curved spines.

But it can be invisible and in the early stages it often is. Charcot-Marie-Tooth, named for the three Drs that discovered and diagnosed it, is a type of (oddly common) neuropathy that affects both motor and sensory nerves. It is usually inherited. In fact, it's other name is Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy.

I was diagnosed with CMT in my 30s after years of being bad at sport and even bad at walking! I was teased as a teen and have struggled in some jobs due to my poor motor skills (very weak hands and clawed fingers). It was a relief to be diagnosed.

Knowing why you can't do what everyone else can is actually very liberating. I can tease myself now, shout "oh you silly helpless cripple!" when I can't remove the bank card from the ATM (no pincer grip with my fingers), and I can use a walking stick on days I feel especially wobbly.

And that's what I wanted to tell you. You might see people park in a disabled bay, with a blue badge of course (I don't have one yet, I may reapply, but last time I tried I was deemed fit enough to walk far enough to get by without one), you might see them get out of the car and pop into a shop, they don't look very disabled do they?

You might see an attractive young lady or handsome young guy wait at the foot of a flight of stairs because both sides of the stairs have people coming down holding the handrail, why don't they walk up the centre? They look young and fit. (I cannot walk up or down a flight of stairs without holding either the wall or a handrail, my balance is simply too poor - I once fell down an escalator on the London underground due to the crowds and people pushing)

You might see someone leave the pub and stumble into the gutter, are they drunk? (TBF they might have CMT and be drunk - *me)

You might see someone in a wheelchair get up and walk, where there are a few steps, to help their mate who has to get the chair down the steps. Has there been a miracle?

Maybe a wheelchair user gets up to reach up to a high shelf in a supermarket, are they playing a prank?

Maybe a women is crying because she can't open a water bottle, what's wrong with her?

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (and many other illnesses) can be hidden,they are still there, lurking beneath the surface, we don't want to be ill, we don't want to be weak. We just want to be able to do the things that able bodied people do every day with out thinking about it.

So this September (and always) think about invisible disabilities, but particularly Charcot-Marie-Tooth as September is awareness month. Try and remember that when a person that appears visibly fit asks to take the lift rather than the stairs, they might not be 'lazy' (if I had a £ for every time work colleagues have joked that I'm lazy when I take the lift I'd have £28) they might need to use the lift. When they take an age to descend a staircase, clinging to the handrail there could be a reason beyond what you can see.

When a grown up asks you to open their Pepsi, think of the embarrassment they already feel, the bravery it has taken to ask a stranger, they don't need to be laughed at or called weak (all of this especially important to tell teens as they start school or college too - CMT gets worse as you age but embarrassment at asking for help from peers increases). Lend a hand when you can.

Be patient, be considerate, be kind.

Image Copyright: designer491 / 123RF Stock Photo and nd3000 / 123RF Stock Photo

Beautiful Balloon Release...

Listening to Radio 4 about seabirds and plastic reminded me of this so I'm updating and re-posting.

Balloons are lovely aren't they. All shiny and floaty. Either being played with by children at a party or floating off into the wild blue after a wedding. Balloons are used for competitions too, whose will travel the farthest? And for sending prayers, or for memorials.  

Like everyone else I think the sight of hundreds of balloons soaring up into a blue sky is a beautiful thing, trailing tags with notes of love to heaven, what a gorgeous idea...

but balloons come down, and when they do they kill things, lots of things.

They fall into rivers, get snarled in trees, drift to the sea, and wildlife gets caught up or eats the burst 'skins' of the balloons (particularly turtles that naturally eat jellyfish drifting in the sea)

Click here to see the (distressing) photo gallery of balloon damage.

You wouldn't organise a mass litter. Please don't organise a balloon release.(Ditto 'sky lanterns')  Maybe you need more convincing, if so here are some links. I'd appreciate it if you spread the word.

 

Marine Conservation Society

Balloons Blow

But just telling people not to do something can be quite unhelpful, so I searched around for some celebration ideas. Here are some other things you could do that would not harm our planet.

I especially like this idea 

"Floating flowers- For a lot of people, the gently upward drifting of balloons gives them a sense of letting go, and at the same time thinking the balloon will eventually reach their loved one. Because remembering a loved one by potentially killing another life isn’t exactly the best feeling, there are many alternatives. Floating flowers or flower petals down a calm stream can give you the same sense of letting go. You will be able to be in nature and feel the energy of your loved one and all the life that surrounds you! Be sure to use non-poisonous flowers and not to let go an excessive amount."

We only have one chance, let's not screw it up - I want a beautiful planet for future generations. I hope you do too.

All Pictures Above Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos