When I bought a house a few years back, I was initially very scared of all the complicated and and arcane procedure that I'd heard was involved, and I wondered in particular how I (or anyone else without experience) could possibly get through it without getting something wrong. I found out (of course) that the answer is your solicitor: in addition to their nominal role of handling the legal aspects of property transfer, they also perform the vital secondary role of experienced guide: the person who understands the whole procedure, tells you what you need to do when, lets you know when you have to make decisions and expresses them in terms that make sense, and makes sure nothing gets left out.

After my car accident last week, I had a similar feeling of ‘help, this is surely all too complicated for me’, and was relieved to find out that in such situations your own insurance company performs a similar secondary role, even when they're confident it's going to be the other lot paying. At least, mine is doing that, and doing it very efficiently; rumour has it that some insurers will basically let you fend for yourself in the post-accident clearup process. So I'm currently in a good mood with Direct Line.

So DL arranged for a temporary hire car to be delivered to my office on Friday, and someone from a body shop showed up early this morning to pick up my own car for repair. (The chap who came out said it probably shouldn't take too long, but then actually looked at the dent and muttered ‘bloody hell’. So I'm not sure whether he stands by that estimate any more, but apparently they'll ring me at some point and let me know what the situation is.)

My neck is still a bit stiff, but the doctor reckoned it was nothing serious, and it's definitely feeling better than it was last week.