Ireland day 0569. Thursday 20 April 2023- NCT *

Ireland day 0569. Thursday 20 April 2023- NCT

Today’s summary	Took the car for its NCT and it passed. Big relief. Then did some shopping at Decathlon and Ikea, got a car-wash and had a haircut. Spent the evening planning the summer with Val
Today’s weather	Bright dry and sunny all day. Moderate north easterly wind. Appx 12C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where I walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Keeping the car going is an expensive and time consuming business. It has to be taxed, insured, serviced and have a National Car Test (NCT). These are annual process, and for our car, they all run out between March and May every year. Over the last two months, I have successfully managed to do the first three (including getting a wheel bearing that was on the verge of failing, replaced), but the NCT (equivalent to UK MOT) was the most problematic.

Unlike the UK, NCT tests can only be done at a limited number of government run test centres, and they are booked up months in advance. I left it too late to try and get a booking – so couldn’t get a slot before the existing NCT ran out. So after repeated phone calls to the NCT centre, I managed to get put on a wait list for a cancellation and luckily, one came through for today – with a couple of weeks still to go before the existing certificate ran out.

The test itself was well organised and quick – it took less than half an hour. And much to my relief, the car passed without a hitch. The Trusty Yaris lived up to its name!

By way of a celebration, I drove to the other side of the M50 to Ballymun, to buy myself a new pair of underpants at Decathlon. And then I went a bit mad and also went to neighbouring Ikea and had a delicious Swedish lunch of smoked salmon and pickled herring. I thought that the car needed a treat as well, so for €10 I got a hand car-wash at a nearby Applegreen station, as well as a full tank of petrol. Then after getting back to Malahide after all these successes, I topped it all off by getting a haircut.

So I feel like a page was turned today, and now that Val’s off work for the next four days, we need to sit down and start planning our next exploits. Perhaps I’ll start by making a booking for next year’s NCT.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


The Yaris mid-test – on the raised platform so the inspectors could poke around underneath	At Ballymun – Decathlon on the left, Ikea on the right

At the car wash! I thought the car deserved a treat after having passed its test seemingly with flying colours



The NCT test centre in Northpoint Business Park