Tips for teens on the highway

According to a web release on the Carinsurance.com site, GEICO has added "Teens and Trucks" to its online library of safe driving materials for teen drivers. The brochure, developed with the American Moving and Storage Association, includes valuable information for teens on how to safely share the highway with large trucks.

In case you didn't know GEICO, which stands for Government Employees Insurance Company was started in 1936 and the name was derived from their first customers who were government employees and Military personnel. At present they have a customer base of about 7 million auto policyholders and growing and they insures more than 12 million vehicles.

Anyway, the GEICO teen safe driving Web site focuses in providing teens with a library of material for driving safely. Parents and other drivers of all ages might find it helpful too. For example in "Teens and Trucks," there are some very valuable tips for safe highway driving around large trucks:

-Stay out of a truck's blind spots or "No Zones."
-Be careful when attempting to pass a truck.
-Do not swerve in front of a truck or cause the driver to come to a sudden stop.
-Avoid "Squeeze Play" when a large truck needs to make a wide turn.
-Do not cut off a large truck or passenger bus.

The materials are at no cost to families, driving classes, law enforcement officials and state agencies. I recommend that all parents and teens should visit GEICO's teen safe driving site

Tags: Car insurance Geico

Loan comparison guide

It's a new year but for a number of UK resident's, the holiday season has had a nasty pinch on their finances. Whether it's for buying gifts, houses, cars or for studying we often have no choice but to take loans.

The problem is that a lot of people don't really know how to compare the loans offered by various companies. Most people depend on the junk mail coming through their letter-boxes offering "attractive" offers. This may not really be the right way to evaluate loans.

So if you are looking for a personal loan, Selectloans.co.uk - an online guide for personal loans can help you find an offer, cheaper than what you have been quoted already. This is regardless of whether you are looking for a cheap unsecured personal loans, secured loans or even a guaranteed car loan.

So if you are looking to compare various personal loans, then this is the site for you.

Sponsored post.

Tags: Loans Online guide

Rainy carboot day

Today is Sunday and CJ's car boot was on - the first this year.

Unfortunately it was raining and we got off bed late. By the time we reached there at Stoneleigh, it was already 11am. There were not many sellers today and not many buyers either.

There are advantages and disadvantages of going late to a car boot sale. The disadvantage is that most of the great stuff have already been bought by other punters. On the other hand, you can get a lot of stuff at real bargain prices because the sellers don't want to take the stuff back home and just want to get rid of them.

Rahil was a good girl today and so we got her a toy baby pram (Mama & Papas brand), together with a baby doll in diapers and toy cassette player, all for £5. We also bought her a fairytale book for 20p.

The other stuff we bought:
Brand new M&S stole (£4)
Dan Brown's Novel: Digital Fortress (50p)
Brand new anorak i.e. raincoat for me (£3)
Teapot (£1)
2 packs of Sainsbury's biscuit collections (£3)

Looking forward to the next car-boot 2 weeks later.

Related post: Car Booty in Coventry

Tags: Car boot sale CJ's Car Boot

Go Dubai

I have been to Dubai but that was only for a few hours in transit on the way to UK. In case you didn't know Dubai is one of the seven emirates (the 2nd largest) that make up the United Arab Emirates(UAE). Dubai city is a vibrant city and is fast emerging as a world business hub.

My architect friend who resides there was telling me of the property boom taking place there. This resulted from it's government's decision to diversify from the traditional oil based economy to one that is service and tourism oriented.

You should check out the newly developing Dubai properties in IMPZ. It stands for Dubai's International Media Production Zone, which seeks to create a unique cluster environment for media production companies from across the world.

The Palm Islands, also referred to as The Palm Dubai and The Palms consists of three largest man-made islands in the world, which are being built on the coast of Dubai. It's an amazing work of engineering.

Sponsored by Dubai venture.

Tags: Dubai IMPZ Palm Islands Property

Change of school

My daughter Rahil will start going to a new play school from Monday. She was in another play school (The Little Hollies) but that was about 10 minutes drive by car. So when we got the call from this school which is just a walk away, saying that they have an opening, we jumped at it. FYI, most schools in the UK have a strict limit to the number of kids per carer.

Rahil is now eligible for 5 free sessions (with each session being 2 and half hours), per week. Before this, we had to pay £6.50 per session.

Had a look at the school last Friday and it was more organised and better equipped than the previous one that Rahil went to. Unfortunately we couldn't get into the school which is just down the road. Hopefully by the end of this year.

Vans for wheelchair users

If you have a friend or relative with a physical disability, which makes him/her a wheelchair user, then you can understand the challenges they face all the time, especially when traveling.

Modifying a vehicle to van to make it accessible to a wheelchair can be really expensive. To enable my wife's grandfather - Atok, who's a wheelchair user, to ride comfortably without getting off his wheel chair, they bought a Naza Ria. It was then modified “MTV Pimp my Ride” style with a hydraulic ramp in the back. Read my posts here and here.

The total cost for modifying the car was quite expensive but it was well worth it because it made life much easier for Atok.

If you have something similar in mind, I recommend you check out this site on handicap equipped vans. They have a number of topics. One discusses whether you should buy a full sized van or a mini van(the latter handling better on the road and getting superior gas mileage but potentially not spacious enough for some users. Another interesting and very important topic is regarding safety. They have provided a link to the NHTSA brochure: Adapting Motor Vehicles for People with Disabilities. Wish I had found this site earlier.

This is a sponsored post.

p.s. Just cam to know that the term "wheelchair-bound" is politically incorrect. The right term is "Wheelchair User".

Tags: Handicap Van Naza Ria Wheelchair user

Hari Raya Aidiladha Gathering

The Malaysian Coventry Society organised a Hari Raya Aidiladha gathering at the Muslim Resource Centre (MRC) today. It was scheduled to start at 9 am but we were late preparing the kids and only got there at 10am. Actually we were fortunate because the guests were only starting to arrive.

It was nice to meet up with the other Malaysians (mostly students) here in Coventry. As usual there were the speeches. We were also introduced to the new committee members. There was a speech by an Ustaz from the Malaysian Students Department. I felt that it was a bit long drawn. Probably because my BM is not really good and maybe because I was really hungry. Hey! I didn't have my breakfast. I was impressed by the fact that he came all the way from London to be with us.

Anyway, the food was great and we enjoyed ourselves.

Tags: Hari Raya Malaysian Coventry Society