I’m blogging at the Audi dealer, while our car is fitted with a new starter relay. This will hopefully solve the problems we’ve had recently when starting the car.

Outside, it’s rainy, the first rainy day we’ve had in a week, more or less. Florence and Mike, Sarah’s parents, always assure us of good weather when they visit.

I’ve spent most of the week coding, adding signature authentication to Ruby/AWS, and fixing the massive breakage caused to my MythTV grabber by UPC’s complete overhaul of their on-line TV guide. This second project is rather urgent and has consumed rather a lot of hours, as many users have been left out in the cold by UPC’s changes. That’s the inherently problematic nature of a screen-scraper for you.

Across from me, a brand-spanking-new, black 5.2 litre V10 Audi R8 beckons to be test-driven. I don’t usually go in for short-dick-man cars, but this one’s a beauty, and a snip at just under €250,000. However, much like the computer used by Little Britain’s sullen receptionist cum travel-agent, Sarah says, “No.”

She’s right, of course. I have enough difficulty keeping the battery charged on our current car, because it doesn’t get driven even once a week at the moment. An R8, as nice as it is, would undergo a brief period of gratuitous daily driving and then sit and rot in the driveway.

When I do need to drive, it’s usually with the whole family in tow, so what use is a two-seater?

But dreaming is gratis, right?