Well, that was fun...

... Yesterday we picked up the new car. Early signs are, of course, good. Time will tell if it's a good purchase or not, but hopefully the next few years at least will be relatively trouble-free on the motoring front. Plus I've managed to pair my iPod touch to its Bluetooth, so wireless music is now a go-go.

However, Saturday 25th October 2014 will not be remembered particularly as the day we upgraded our car for the first time in over 10 years. It will instead go down as the day Birmingham City Football Club suffered its worst home league defeat in history, going down 8-0 to the mighty Bournemouth at home. That's right, while teams like Crystal Palace and Ipswich can point to the quality of their opposition when looking back on record defeats, Blues will look to the south coast and beyond either Portsmouth or Southampton for theirs.

By the time I logged on to Twitter 20 minutes in to see how they'd started, Blues were a goal down and a man down. By half time it was 0-3, and then we had a penalty in the second-half, which we naturally missed. By the end, Bournemouth were hitting the woodwork at will in addition to providing the ultimate humiliation for our long-suffering fans. Naturally, our erstwhile owners out in Hong Kong will stay silent, keeping their heads firmly in the sand as the BIHL investment vehicle slowly crumbles into the dust taking my football club with it.

To be fair, I'm past caring. Since winning the Carling Cup three years ago, fate has claimed a rather heavy (and if I may say so, completely disproportionate) price for our solitary success. You kind of hope that we hit the floor with yesterday's result, but we all know it's another false bottom, and we'll soon be falling even further. After a while, it gets a little boring, and there's far more to life than following a rubbish football team. Like a new car.

Within the next 48 hours we hope to confirm our new manager. One crumb of comfort from yesterday's result is that the current caretaker, who put his hat in the ring last week, won't be getting anywhere near the job. I hope.

A new car

First, the good news. After 10 years, we've finally decided to wave goodbye to our VW Golf and move on up to an 11-month old Hyundai i20. It's like entering the space age will all the whizzy new tech they pack into cars these days, but ultimately it was the basics that swung the car our way over a brand new Dacia Sandero, which we also took for a test drive.

I'd been looking at the 0.9-litre turbo-charged version of the Sandero, but with none in stock (and none due until December apparently) we were forced to try the entry level 1.2-litre model instead. It was reasonably nippy in the low gears, but as soon as you hit fourth and tried to put your foot down it struggled and was clearly a poor second even to the 15-year old Golf. It left us feeling underwhelmed, but not surprised. As soon as I'd seen that the i20 was within our price range, I knew I'd have to try one.

And what an experience. Aside from the slick look and feature-packed interior, this car's 1.2-litre engine was streets ahead of the disappointing Sandero's. It exceeded the Golf for responsiveness, is much easier on the fuel consumption (£30 a year road tax? Thank you very much!) and was comfortable to drive for both of us, with plenty of adjustment options.

So the deposit has been paid on a stardust grey coloured model which is due to arrive on Monday. We'll take that for a test drive and give it the once over to confirm we're happy with it, then the excitement and waiting begins. Like all consumer purchases, it's the buzz of the buy and the impatience that's infectious - I swear I've not felt this kind of anticipation since I was a boy waiting for Christmas Day 1985 (ZX Spectrum+). It's nice to know that at age 41 the inner child is still in there somewhere, behind the greying hair and creaking knees!