Inflation creeping in

The inflation reading in Poland for July 2021 hit 5.0% year-on-year; the highest since May 2011 and the second-highest in the last two decades. Probably I would not gripe much about it, had the monetary policy been conducted in a proper manner. Sadly, it is not. Despite the rising price level and rapid recovery in the economy, benchmark interest rate in Poland stays at 0.10% (which in fact means the real interest rate is almost -5%, perhaps the lowest in the civilised world).

Interest rates in Poland were slashed to a record-low (by historical standards) level of 1.50% in March 2015, when Poland struggled a deflation. Then such move, with real interest rate of nearly 3%, was justified. Despite economic expansion, the central bank kept its rate level until March 2020, when it responded to the pandemic-related economic standstill by a rate cut of 50 basis points. In the next weeks the current level of 0.10% was reached. I will refrain from commenting on the legitimacy of such move in a situation of an unprecedented supply shock. I believe tools different than the cost of money should have been used to help businesses and customers out.

Customarily, I am referring you to my essay on harms inflicted by too loose monetary policy. Times have changed, economic principles have not, albeit some are intent on setting new paradigms.

Astonishingly many people realise why the Polish central bank does not react to the price growth which exceeds the statutory goal of monetary policy (i.e. inflation target of 2.50% +/- 1 p.p.). They do it to help the government finance its debt cheaply and pay negative interest on a large portion thereof. Not only the debt service spending is lower thanks to lack of monetary tightening. Higher prices mean higher tax inflows, predominantly from VAT. Inflation which spirals out of control always at least temporarily translates into negative real interest rates which facilitate transfer of wealth from creditors to debtors, including the biggest debtors in the world, i.e. governments.

Those particularly worse off are savers who now either accept a depletion of their savings kept in bank accounts by 5% yearly in real terms, or search for havens which might shield their money from inflation. Unlike me and my parents, not everyone noticed the opportunity of inflation-indexed 4Y government bonds in 2019 (which has turned out to be an excellent nearly risk-free investment making me give up on my resolution made a decade earlier). Folks with substantial savings have rushed to buy properties, as they believe tangible assets should store value. I am putting it down to Poles’ inability to invest in any other asset class than properties. Had flats purchased for investment reasons been put on the market for rent, this would have been quite okay, since thosee dwellings would meet someone’s housing needs. Horrifyingly, a growing number of flats stay vacant, as the purpose of their purchase was purely speculative, i.e. to benefit from value appreciation, despite bearing upkeep costs.

Moving back to the core topic of the post, i.e. to inflation, we should understand what drives prices up and why there is little chance the price growth decelerates.

1. Far too much hollow money has been printed during lockdowns. If goods or services are not produced, but economic actors receive a pecuniary compensation for being idle from a government, the link between a payment and goods or services offered in return is broken. A first-year student in economics would recognise it!

2. Recovery programmes run by governments to stimulate economies – they raise prices of specific goods and services, i.e. construction materials and services if a programme is aimed at such sector.

3. Broken supply chains, which have not been fully restored since early 2020. This problem affects several industries and strikes several markets off balances. These days the shortage of brand-new cars or bicycles is driven by shortage of components, without which vehicles cannot be manufactured.

4. Deferred demand – after several sectors were shut for months and as the general uncertainty seems over, customers rush to catch up on spending and business want to make up for losses incurred during lockdowns.

5. Lack of incentive to save. As people see their money evaporating on real terms from bank deposits, they are more eager to spend it, i.e. consume rather than invest.

6. Climate change and environment protection. This is the foremost reason. The time is coming to bring the price of several planet-destructive goods real and make them reflect the harm caused to the planet. For such reasons cars will have to be less affordable, prices of electricity generated from burning coal are bound to go up. Same needs to happen about rubbish collection charges, plane tickets, packaging, clothes and other goods humans thoughtlessly use in excess.

Having written that, I am happy I bought and furnished my dwelling in 2018, do not need to purchase a car, nor a bike and price growth of several goods does not affect me.

Depression – another episode

4 years ago I wrote about depression. At that time I felt something wrong was going on with me, yet not fully realising I was in for the third episode thereof in my lifetime. The first one struck me in late 2005, a few months before high-school leaving exams, the two other ones came in summer of 2011 and around autumn of 2017. I fully recovered from the last one in early 2018, with decreasing doses of pharmaceutical support. With such track record I am at the group of risk for suffering from recurring relapses of depression.

The pandemic did it bit in increasing the odds of a recurrence. During early months I did not fully isolate (numbers of infections were 100 lower than in late March 2021) and fleeting relationships originated on Tinder were lifting my spirits (or bringing me down). I actually considered myself quite self-aware and claimed I would easily recognise the first symptoms of the illness. In November 2020 I began to wake up two hours too early and had problems to fall asleep again. I put it down to stress and shrugged it off. Then came the continuous tension and inability to relax, resulting in constant fatigue. It kept me company since early 2021, but was bearable and did not influence my daily functioning.

Things took a noticeable turn for the worse in late June 2021. I blame a combination of four factors which sparked off the fourth episode of depression:
- prolonged social isolation (staying in home for too long, too little direct contact with people),
- general grudge borne against the society, actually the noisy fraction of them who do everything to keep the pandemic going (anti-vaxxers),
- my parents’ problems with health (amplified by lack of proper access to health care since March 2020),
- ups and downs in my relationship, including three break-ups (all revoked, we are still together).

How it encroached on me? I was void of any energy, felt constant anxiety, lost appetite and drive, had troubles focusing on even simple tasks, everything appeared to make no sense, future seemed full of negative events, I had attacks of sobbing without any specific reason. Life was overwhelming, getting through each day seemed a tremendous effort. Being quite aware how this black hole works I resisted other typical symptoms such as lack of self-esteem or suicidal thoughts. I also did not withdraw from social life (although in the darkest days interactions with people were horrifically tiresome).

In mid-July I consulted a psychiatrist and was prescribed medications. Side effects thereof were the most noticeable in my lifetime, despite moderate dosage. I felt dizzy, felt dry in my mouth, broke sweat even if not moving, my heart was beating faster than normally. For nearly 2 weeks I had to give up on driving and watch out when cycling or swimming. Then my body and brain got used to the chemistry.

Currently I can function normally or even intensely at work and socialise. I have no problems with concentration nor drive, my mood is neutral, gone is the anxiety. Sadly, I feel totally indifferent to any emotions and impulses, both negative and positive, I do not consider it natural. The tension has not waned yet and I still wake up around 4 a.m. I feel on the mend, yet a long way is ahead of me. It will involve several months of taking medicines and a therapy, to learn how to take some burdens off my mind. I also worry relapses might hamper the life of my family in the next years, even despite I have learnt how to deal with it and do my best to overcome it.

Szlachetna Paczka - edition 2021

My regular readers definitely remember my excitement about participation in Szlachetna Paczka last year, which upon learning what it is like, turned into a bitter frustration, which I vented by moaning about all drawbacks of the charity initiative after the final weekend.

In late 2020 I resolved to give myself time to think over whether I would take part in the next edition. With time bad memories faded, while the good one began to come forward. I still longed for doing something salutary for the society and hence mulled over joining Szlachetna Paczka again. At the beginning of July I learnt Piotrek, a fellow volunteer with who I co-ordinated logistics last year, had been appointed a leader of Ursynów region. I definitely have been on the same wavelength with Piotrek and have known he has all essential hard and soft competencies to become an outstanding leader. The news tipped the scales and… I applied and have been signed on.

I realise with Piotrek as the right man in the right place, several issues which got on my nerves last year would be improved, while some will not be sorted out. Volunteers will still be measuring up against families that do not deserve the wise aid and in terms of organisation and logistics much will still leave a lot to be desired.

Early in 2021 I also weighed up my decision pandemic-wise (as I had to self-isolate and fork out private money to get tested before meeting with my parents on Christmas Eve). I am fully vaccinated, the percentage of fully vaccinated residents of Warsaw reaches now nearly 65% and is likely to hit 70% by the time we begin to visit families, therefore I consider my choice not to involve excessive risk.

Despite some doubts and bitter experiences, I feel confident the decision to carry on as a volunteer is the right one and this is the role I am cut out for. I believe each man who has come into considerable wealth should share their resources with those worse off. I have decided to commit my spare time and energy, not just a fraction of the excess money I have.

Mid-summer walk, Ursynów

Gone is the heat that kept us company since mid-June. Except for a few days of mild weather, residents of Warsaw had to endure six weeks of temperature nearing highs of +30C. Having grown weary of sultry weather, I welcomed a relief brought by early days of August. Finally, a break from sweating during days and restless sleep at nights.

So when late afternoon comes, my enjoyable neighbourhood beckons. To the right – I cross ul. Moczydłowska to find out that a section of (formally) ul. Ziemska which used to be a trampled-down path, has been hardened with gravel and widened. I wonder what reasons stand behind such decision, but hope the goal was not to make this place assessible for motorists.

As I stroll west, I pass by a cabbage field. I wonder why a farmer prefers to cultivate arable land in a location where plots could be worth zillions of zlotys. A property developer would love to turn this cabbage fields into an estate of terraced houses, each to sell for 3 millions zlotys. In the distance – a plane coming to touch down at Warszawa Okęcie.

Instead of marching towards the forest, I turn right and find myself on. ul. Gminna. The scenery, especially the pines, bring to my mind seaside roads. And this very spot lies just a quarter of mile away from my dwelling.

I have scrambled up the top of Górka Kazurka, one of three hills piled up during the construction of Ursynów. The peaks of the hill have been reshaped into MTB tracks. In the distance, roofs of residential Kabaty.

Having descended the hill, I head towards the forest. Mosquitos no longer bite as badly as they did in late July, so I don’t need to make off. The area in the vicinity of Las Kabacki has retained its rural character and I hope it stays so (nature and wildlife reservoir status the forest holds sees to it). Only roof of blocks of flats visible in the distance remind I am in the capital.

The snap to the right was taken from a dirt track which on a map is officially marked as ul. Perkalowa. Greenery all over, beyond the meadow, Górka Kazurka. Nothing unusual except for the proximity of that spot from the nearest underground station – less than a mile!

I approach home, walking up. ul. Moczydłowska. I wonder what the point is in snapping with a nine-year-old compact camera, if in October my phone will be upgraded into a mid-to-high-end Samsung, whose camera might be superior to my old Olympus.

A minute later I ran across my ex-girlfriend. We broke up over three years ago. It was our first conversation since the day I moved out. Cordial, yet reserved. The decision has proven right. We were bound to go separate ways. There is no way back towards any friendship, but we come across each other again, we will finally not pretend not to know each other.

Pandemic diary – July 2021 notes

Thursday, 1 July 2021
50% of Warsaw’s population (including children below age of 12) fully vaccinated.
50% of Poland’s population eligible for vaccination (12+) have received at least one shot.

Monday, 5 July 2021
The seven-day rolling average of new infections in the UK exceeds 25,000, which is more than 12 times more than exactly two months earlier, when new infections reached their low. Thanks to vaccination of groups of risk, hospital admissions have not risen markedly and deaths… have barely risen. Vaccines do work! Many are surprised by the British prime minister’s decision uphold the date of lifting nearly all restrictions, including mask-wearing mandate, i.e. 19 July 2021. Worth noting 50% of the UK’s population are fully vaccinated, 86.1% of adults have had their first jab.

Thursday, 8 July 2021
Cyprus is another excellent example of how the delta variant might send new infections skyrocketing. On the part of the island being a part of EU the new infections (7-day rolling average) rose by 10 times within a fortnight.

Saturday, 10 July 2021
The 7-day rolling average number of new cases bottoms out in Poland at 77. With hindsight – it just crept up thereafter.

Monday, 12 July 2021
To celebrate the first anniversary of the run-off in the presidential election in 2020, I compare results of that vote with vaccine uptakes in 10 communes with the highest and the lowest vaccine uptake (defined as percentage of population vaccinated with at least 1 dose) and who the local residents voted for a year ago. Here come the results.

What a coincidence!

Tuesday, 13 July 2021
The summer wave of new infections hits its high in Russia, with 7-day rolling average of new infections reaching nearly 25,000 (vs. 30,000 during the previous wave). The country has a low level of vaccinated population (around 10%) and the daily death toll exceeds 700.

Sunday, 18 July 2021
In the Netherlands the daily number of new cases averaged out more than 10,000 over the last week, more than 16 times more than at the end of June. One music festival is to blame for the spread of the virus. The infected are usually young, hence hospital wards are not packed with patients and death toll will remain low.

Monday, 19 July 2021
The UK celebrates the freedom day, with … new inflections and 7-day rolling average number of new infections exceeding …. The British prime minister (fully vaccinated). is in self-isolation after contacting the health minister infected with mild COVID-19. What a farce!
In Poland the reproduction coefficient exceeds 1.00x for the first time since early April 2021.

Friday, 23 July 2021
The delta wave in Portugal reaches its peak, with daily new infections (7-day rolling average) 10 times higher than in early May.

Sunday, 25 July 2021
Anti-vaxxers attack a vaccination centre in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. This is the first incidence of physical violence towards a jab centre staff, police and medical rescue teams. The aggression of the anti-science cattle is growing, sadly.

Wednesday, 28 July 2021
In late June, Spain reported on average less than 4,000 infections daily. After a spike in early July, now the average number of new cases runs around 25,000. Thanks to high vaccination rate among the elderly, daily number of deaths averages out 25, a reduction by more than 90% vs. what was observed in January 2021 when the number of infections was merely 20% higher.

Saturday, 31 July 2021
Just like a month ago, a customary month-end vaccination (sluggish) progress report

1. Vaccine uptake in age groups


2. Vaccination status in the entire population of Poland

Conspiracy theories

There are a few things I can be ashamed of in my life. One of them is an episode of fascination with conspiracy I went through on the verge of adolescence and adulthood. Countless theories of other than official course of events in 9/11 terrorist attacks and climate change denialism were my focus for a while around 2007. For a grown-up, yet immature lad the uncanny explanations were compelling and fortunately, meaningless in the long run.

Then came the tenth day of April in 2010 when a Polish plane carrying 96 people tragically crashed in Smolensk. Circumstances of the accident have immediately become a fertile ground for conspiracy theories, which for years continued to mark a divide line in the Polish politics. I was three years older and much wiser, not to fall for stories of assassination, artificial fog, metal-hard birch, explosives found in the wreck and other stuff.

A year and a half ago an epidemic caused by a novel coronavirus broke out in China. The peril was shrugged off and covered up by the local authorities who acted belatedly. The virus, which could have been kept at bay, spilled all over the world and turned lives of virtually everyone upside down.

Now go back in time to July 2019 and imagine somebody telling you about lockdowns, overwhelmed health service, major increase in mortality, economy and social life running into a standstill, shut down industries, compulsory mask-wearing. You would laugh them off. The unimaginable has become a reality.

Here is what underlies each single conspiracy theory – an event so complex, so improbable, so hardly imaginable, going beyond people’s comprehension, that it calls for a simple clarification. A human mind does not like to make too much effort. It yearns for quick solutions instead of uphill and mind-bending pursuit of intricate truth.

People are sick of isolation, remote learning and working, restrictions. They hanker after normalcy. No wonder some of them, less intelligent and more gullible, fall for simple explanations, telling them the virus is a hoax, the pandemic had been planned in advance and under its guise a new order of the world is brought in. Such people have always been, yet in pre-Internet times just a handful of them were indulging in their vision of the world. With social media giving everybody a chance to share their thoughts, their visions are spread far too far and wide. They take fancy of (usually) poorly educated people who, having gotten familiar with shady articles, memes or video, claim to have knowledge superior to epidemiologists and virologists. 9/11 or Smolensk conspiracy theories referred to past events and were relatively harmless. Today, the narration of a false pandemic and bleating of the anti-vax movement can cost health and lives of millions of people. Disturbingly.

Being happy in Alaska - book review

Last Saturday, while being at loose end at my girlfriend’s mother house, I grabbed a book written by a Spanish psychologist which I’d spotted on a shelf and, with a prospect of finding myself some way of passing time until she does the make-up before setting off for the wedding, read it from cover to cover.

I am not fond of guides, nor any sorts of books which are meant to utterly change your life in the wake of the read. As a person who likes to dive into intricacies, fascinated with complexity of the world, I am unlikely to be convinced to quick fixes or delusive simple solutions.

What particularly does not take my fancy is the notion of carefree life cherished in the book. Carefree moments are essential, but unless you are a selfish hedonist, carefree life appears a detrimental daydream. Besides, it is easy to advise people to abandon all their worries if you are a healthy and wealthy bachelor. Try recommending this to somebody who needs to earn a livelihood and pay for a therapy of their terminally ill child! Even if circumstances are not that dire, life is generally about mundane stuff, punctuated with joyful moments, about obligations towards the nearest and dearest and making compromises to foster relationships.

To avoid an impression that my judgement of the book is one-sided, I have noticed several threads which I see eye to eye with the author.

Life ought to be put into perspective – instead of craving for more, we ought to appreciate what we have and notice others are not lucky enough to enjoy good health, financial comfort, satisfying job, happy relationships etc. Gratitude for little things and delight in little pleasures should fill our lives.

Mental strength is to be honed and developed in all stages of life. Life should not be about fretting and worrying.

Humans should accept the inevitable and learn to live with the prospect of it. If there is anything one can be sure about, it is, except for taxes, one’s own death. The decease is something you should not fear, like all events which you can’t escape. There are, of course, events which you may strive to avert, such as traffic accidents. But fearing them makes no sense as well. Taking precautions does make sense.

A rest is natural state of a human. I believe in a balanced life there should be time for work and for rest. To foster mental health, a human should know how to relax and recharge batteries, so that the working phase is used possibly effectively.

The author also gives valuable hints on talking to people with different views. In Poland, we tend to clash about politics and other stuff which draw divide lines in the society. When a dissenter becomes an enemy, any form of dialogue seems out of reach. Bridging the worlds which are apart is a craft and may help overcome discords within the family or friends.

Moving to the critical look at the book.

Having had an experience with episodes of depression and having gone an extra mile to understand the causes of the illness, I realise a blend of medicines and therapy is essential to cure a person affected by it. The milder the symptoms, the more therapy, the less pills, but in awful cases starting a therapy is impossible without bringing a patient into order with medicines. The author shrugs it off and claims a positive approach to life is sufficient to combat several mental disturbances. Such view is contrary to how evidence-based medicine (these days I am particularly sensitive to all assertions which undermine science) explains causes of mental disturbances and hence harmful. A change in approach is recommendable to grumblers and whiners, but not to mentally ill who need professional medical help.

The author seems to disregard the fact people have different personalities, different sets of traits, different psyches and those differences are innate. A human can decide to work to reshape themselves, but within reasonable limits of “staying yourself”. I realise the ideas of programming consciousness have grown popular recently, yet I remain sceptical towards them.

Two other concepts I find outlandish are that after a romantic relationship ends people can stay best friends (a separate post could be written why I believe this is not the best solution, except for situations when people have children) and that lack of particular skills stems from lack of self-belief in those skills. No, if somebody who lacks talent for driving believes they are a seasoned driver, they may bring misery on innocent people. I am not a talented football player and this does not come from my self-limitation or flawed belief. I just do not need to play football well to be happy and should not be ashamed of this. But overcoming my self-critical judgement to free up my potential to become a master on a football pitch sounds like a ridiculous idea.

All in all, the read of the book which had come into my hands accidentally was quite daunting. After a few months of reading-wise laziness, I am about to catch up. Several books ordered online in a local library and await my attention.

To a wedding

Just returned from a wedding ceremony and reception, the first one I attended since 2016.

Weddings have gained notoriety in the summer of 2020, as several of them were hotbeds of COVID-19 infections, leading to several participants being quarantined and some, sadly, hospitalised or deceased. Needless to say, a wedding is the last event during which a sanitary regime can be stuck to. I turned up there fully aware of risk and supposing that most guests (especially those who do not reside in Warsaw or around) have not been vaccinated. Well, hopefully with still low daily stats of new cases, we have not run across a super-spreader.

The one to get married was my girlfriend’s cousin. The nuptials ceremony was called off two times and finally the day named as restrictions eased. It was the first wedding since many years in their family, hence the excitement was palpable. For me, truth be told, such events are a no big deal I do not feel tempted to have my own memorable, lavish reception. Instead, I prefer a modest ceremony for family and friends. Besides, spending between fifty and one hundred thousand zloty for a one-night show appears to me as a far bigger waste of money than buying a SUV (though a wedding does not harm environment as an SUV does over its life cycle).

The wedding we attended was a typical zastaw się, a postaw się (literally run into debts to impress guests) one, albeit the expense was decreased by the venue of the reception which was in the middle of nowhere somewhere beyond Wyszków (fortunately, close to S8 expressway, whose proximity guarantee a fast comeback in the middle of the night).

I must admit this was the most weird wedding reception I have ever attended. As a company to my girlfriend, I knew nobody except for her, her mother, brother and his girlfriend, but truth be told, most guests seemed to know nobody except for their closest companions. On top, my girlfriend and her relatives shared my opinion nearly everybody had turned up to the reception treated their attendance as an unpleasant obligation to be ticked off and left behind. This was visible particularly on a dancing floor, where droves of people definitely were not witnessed. Also most people pushed along just after midnight to put themselves out of misery and return home early enough not to spend the entire Sunday morning sleeping off the event.

I wonder how many couples manage to tie a knot before restrictions are imposed again, if the Polish government decides (or is forced to) to bring some businesses to a halt if hospitalisations and death toll on account of COVID-19 begin to rise. Look at the approach of the British government which is set to lift all restrictions in a week, despite more than 30,000 new infections daily reported recently, with hospital admissions just creeping up (they rose 3 times, while new infections rose 16 times since trough in early May 2021) and deaths holding low thanks to vaccinating the 50+.

Pandemic diary – June 2021 notes

Thursday, 3 June 2021
A record-high number of 621,000 jabs administered on one day is reported, bringing the percentage of Poland’s fully vaccinated population to 20%.

Friday, 4 June 2021
In the UK the seven-day average of new cases is 100% up from early-May bottom. Those infected are mostly children, teenagers and young adults. 75% of adults in the UK have received at least one dose of a vaccine, 50% of adults are fully vaccinated.

Saturday, 12 June 2021
I get my second shot. Side effects – arm is less sore than after the first one. Besides – feeling just fine.

Tuesday, 15 June 2021
The Ministry of Health publishes vaccination statistics by residency (rather than vaccination centre location as hitherto). Warsaw can boast of the second-highest participation in the vaccination programme, with 58.81% of the city’s population (including children aged less than 12) to have received at least their first jab. Podkowa Leśna near Warsaw tops the chart, with participation of 59.38%. At the bottom of the list lies Lipnica Wielka in Małopolska where vaccine uptake is only 13.46%.

Friday, 18 June 2021
In the capital of Poland:
- 60.0% of residents have received at the one dose,
- 40.0% are fully vaccinated.
Feeling proud of my neighbours.

Monday, 21 June 2021
After scant testing on Sunday, a single-digit number of new cases is reported for the first time since March 2020. Sad news is that merely 25,000 people received their first jab yesterday.

Wednesday, 23 June 2021
Things are getting nasty in the UK. More than 16,000 new infections are reported, seven-day average reaches now over 11,300 and has doubled within 15 days.

Sunday, 27 June 2021
In Russia, one of 3 European countries where the Delta variant is prevalent (the UK and Portugal being two other ones) the seven-day average number of new infections doubled within 16 days and now reaches over 19,200 (vs. peak of the winter wave of almost 29,000). Local outbreaks have been witnessed in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In both cities local authorities have resorted to stringent measures, including compulsory vaccinations to crack down on the epidemic.

Monday, 28 June 2021
Bulgaria overtakes Poland in terms of number of tests carried out per 1 million citizens since the beginning of the pandemic. From now on, Poland is at the very nefarious bottom of the list. This does not bear testimony of current testing, which results in positivity rate below 1.0%, but is the aftermath of grossly inadequate testing in October an November 2020, as well as in March 2021.
My first in the (almost empty) office since March 2020. Feels ghastly, but the aircon is on.

Tuesday, 29 June 2021
One-third of Poland’s population fully vaccinated. Much enough to curb the spread of the virus, far too little to be close to herd immunity.
I buy a 90-day travelcard. Time to return to public transport, whenever possible. Although I will not work from the office regularly, yet it will come in useful for returning from the swimming pool (2 stops by bus) and for trips to town to socialise. Time to live it up before Delta variant gets a foothold in Poland.

Wednesday, 30 June 2021
I am coming up with a new customary month-end vaccination progress report.

1. Vaccine uptake in age groups

2. Vaccination status in the entire population of Poland

Megane III – ten years old

The coming Thursday my car is bound to reach an important milestones in its history – a decade since its first registration. My father bought it brand-new on 1 July 2011 and gave it over to me in November 2016.

First 4 years during the car’s warranty period did not bode well for the future. The car had three breakdowns. Once had to be hauled to the Renault garage due to brake system vacuum pump failure and needed to have its thermostat and driver’s door hinges replaced. Over the next six years the onlydefect was the airbag sensor failure in May 2017. Since then – I have had it serviced once a year and except for spare part replacements driven by wear-and-tear, I did not need to sink money into the vehicle. The car, which for over two years has avoided journeys shorter than nine kilometres (six miles), now has nearly 75,000 kilometres on the clock.

In mid-distance and long-distance driving the car’s 1.4 turbocharged engine consumes on average 7 litres of petrol per 100 kilometres, while consumption below 6.5 litres is perfectly achievable in motorway driving with tempomat set at 110 kmph, aircon on and people and luggage on board. Sadly, the record-low consumption was 6.11 litres per 100 kilometres, but I hope to break that record.

I appreciate the car’s dynamics, low upkeep cost and reliability, but some details such as sixth gear which has characteristics of a fixth one (I can drive 68 kpmh at steady speed on it) or slowly heating up engine sometimes wind me up and both increase its appetite for fuel.

Given the vehicle’s excellent roadworthiness (no accident nor prangs, but one solid scratch and dent on rear-right wing arch made by me in February 2021), I plan to carry on with it as long as repairs do not become too frequent to be a big hassle for me, which I believe might happen in around five years. By that time we won’t part company.

For the record, two shots. To the right – taken on 19 September 2020, after a comprehensive interior cleaning and wash, looking almost like factory-new. Could have been in perfect condition for resale, a gift for nobody to bestow on.

Another one – taken on 16 June 2021, after belated spring cleaning at my parents drive. I do look after it and visit car washed during winter only to wash away the worst of the dirt. No signs of corrosion so far, nor other trace of its actual age.