An interesting day

Or at least half a day. I wasn’t up for the first half. On reflection, the first half was better.

Today was the day my little car went to the car vet. I know most people call them ‘mechanics’. I call them car vets. Let’s not get into an argument over it.

Anyway, the car was overdue for a service because I couldn’t afford it at MOT time. The brakes were making noises that suggested they weren’t going to be brakes for much longer and then it became incontinent with regards to coolant. So it’s in there now while some decision is made as to whether to fix it or have it humanely destroyed.

I did have front brakes replaced a little while back. The rear brakes are now due for fixing. I’ve never replaced both sets at once because they aren’t perfectly reliable until they bed in to the braking surfaces.

Unfortunately, today was also the day the landlord arranged to visit to deal with the mould around the leaky window. So I waited and waited… eventually I gave in and called to ask when he was coming. At least an hour. Okay, that gives me plenty of time to get to the garage and get the bus home.

Straightforward enough? It’s only about five miles. Easy. Except… I set out just as schools were about to close so traffic was dreadful. No matter. I made it to the garage, left the car with the car vets and went to the bus stop.

The stop has one of those fancy displays that tells you how many minutes until the next bus. Well, it does that when it works. It wasn’t. Okay, just sigh and wait. The bus is pretty frequent.

A bus arrived. Not mine. A car pulled into the bus stop behind it. My bus arrived and couldn’t get in to the stop so we had to trek between the car and the first bus to get to it. I’d thought there were only two of us at the stop but those old ladies are pretty masterful at blending into their surroundings. A large queue just appeared.

In front of me. Obviously.

There was much counting of coins from purses but we finally got loaded on and under way. Then stopped while every damn car in town went past at the first junction.

Those old ladies had a plan. Every stop, one of them got off. Just one, so they could stop the bus at every stop all the way through town. I was beginning to think I could have just walked back.  Okay, I stayed calm, we reached the dual carriageway and I thought fine, we’re moving at speed now.

The dual carriageway has a couple of random stops which don’t appear to go anywhere. At one of them was a woman so thin, I thought she must have been stranded there for weeks. The bus stopped for her. I couldn’t really complain. She might have starved to death before the next one arrived.

Finally… roadworks. Of course. On any journey of five miles there are always roadworks.

So I drove five miles, took the bus back, and it took almost an hour. I made it home just in time.

At least I now have a mould-free window. Next it’ll be the painter. I have no idea when.

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Update:

The next day (today) was much better. The car vet phoned at about 8:30 to give a quote on the work. That wasn’t the good part. I really think phone networks should shut down between 4 am and noon. Even so, the quote wasn’t too bad.

The water leak was just a rusty hose clip. Easily and cheaply replaced. I was right about the back brakes, they had about a month left in them by car vet estimates. If I had done an emergency stop in about 6 weeks’ time I’d have welded the brakes together.

Now, fully serviced, the car goes like something that’s probably illegal. So it was a good idea to get the brakes fixed.

I was meant to see my son yesterday. He was expecting me, but everything ran so late and of course, in the evening I had no car. So today I went into town on the bus and lo and behold, the car vet sent a text to say the car was ready when I was already on the way! That’s pretty impressive luck in my world.

Then the bill was lower than the quote! Car vets never, ever do that. I paid it quick before they noticed.

And Son has a new toy. I have got to get me one of these 🙂