Who says the world isn’t flat…..
No Comments »Ok - maybe its not, but my part of it certainly had its share of flat bits at the weekend.
A trip out on Saturday proved not to achieve much of what it was set out to - to buy a new hedge trimmer (to replace the one I broke!), to do a bit of geocaching, and to buy some groceries - out of those, only the grocery shopping got done, and that because we were stuck for so long at Asda.
We got close to buying the hedge trimmer, but decided to do the geocaching bit before checking out prices at other DIY stores once we had decided which one we wanted. Before that, a cup of drink and some cake at a department store - that probably was the high point of the afternoon. A short drive out took us through a housing estate full of speed bumps - oh joy - and ended at a private road along which we could gain no access to the geocache - should have checked out the parking beforehand on Google Earth. We decided to come back another day when we had more time and do it properly, and returned through the housing estate (speedbumps) back into Boston. At that point the guy in the car behind us who had been flashing and hooting got out of his car at traffic lights and approached us - I didn’t realise I’d done anything to provoke road rage, but it turned out he wanted to tell me I had a flat tyre - great. I continued my drive to Asda garage, where I tried to pump the tyre up and could actually hear the air hissing back out again almost as quickly as I was pumping it in. Smart cars are too small to carry a spare (no room!) and the repair kit was missing one important part so a call to the RAC eventually (and this is where the extended shopping time came in!) resulted in a recovery vehicle to take us home.
Trying to find new tyres for a Smart on a Saturday evening/Sunday is not easy - no-one appears to keep any in stock - but I found via the internet that Kwik Fit do a mobile service, so once the tyres were available they would come out to fit them, rather try and fit two (yes two) wheels into the Roadster (even less space!) to take into town. I am guessing that the previous owner of the Smart had left the car standing for long periods and that is what damaged the tyres, helped by a more than generous helping of speedbumps. The other rear tyre had deflated by the next morning too.
Did I mention that the slight leak on the brakes on the 2cv had turned into more of a stream while it has been standing over the winter? I found this out as I was making sure it would start in preparation for Monday morning. Another car out of action. We own four cars between us…..and only have one on the road - another job to sort!
Anyway, as I write this, I have spent half the day waiting for Kwik Fit to appear - for the last two days I have been getting up at 6.15am, driving Stephen 20 miles to work, then driving myself 40 miles in the opposite direction to get myself to work - repeat for home time. I got a phone call about 40 mins before the latest time they would appear saying that they had someone off sick and wouldn’t reach me today - whoopee! To say I wasn’t impressed was an understatement - I had already managed to put off a deadline at work until tomorrow morning, only for Kwik Fit to say “we can do it tomorrow morning, is that any good?”! The result? somehow I convinced them to come and do the car before 8.15 in the morning - fingers crossed this time tomorrow I should have a working Smart again - and I will be re-negotiating the price I am paying too!
So….at the moment my world is flat, but hopefully soon to be rectified!