Murphy I'm really and truly very sorry and for what it's worth I promise never to try and get one over on you ever again. I've managed to dupe you out of a bit of good luck twice now and I know that is more than my fair share. It won't happen again, honest!
Thursday was not a day filled with laughs. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure we'll laugh about it one day, just not today.
We started the morning peering out of the windows trying to work out what the weather was going to be like. Of course we could have checked the weather on the tv or online but I'm fairly sure they're all standing in the met office peering out windows and wondering what the weather is going to do as well.
Having finally decided that the last remaining clouds weren't suddenly going to blow away and leave us with a beautiful day we decided to risk it. I packed a picnic, we jumped in the car and headed for the Folk and Transport Museum. This is the third year we've tried to plan a trip to the folk park and something else always seems to crop up or get in the way.
This year was no different ....
I needed to lift out money and told Robert this before we left the house, but as soon as he's behind the wheel of a car he slips into autopilot and managed to drive past every ATM on the way there so we drove on past and stopped at a garage in Holywood so that I could get some cash.
Just as a quick aside on the slim chance that somebody from Tom Tom should ever come across this. Luckily we know where we're going but it doesn't stop Robert punching in postcodes "because he can", but I just wanted to point out that the exit from the city bound lane into the Folk Park is roughly 200 yards closer to Bangor than you think it is. It is not, as you would lead unsuspecting people to believe, at the end of some poor bloke's driveway! You should probably fix that by the way, best case scenario is that the guy has a couple of barbecues disrupted by people unfamiliar with the area while he redirects them 200 yds back up the road, worst case scenario the poor guy winds up on a register after running out into the garden wrapped in a towel to grab some underwear off the line just as a huge gust of wind carries the towel up into a tree and at the same time a bus load of school kids on a day trip arrive at the top of his driveway while he makes a run for the house to a chorus of screaming kids drowning out the dulcet tones of the rather posh lady telling the bus driver that he has arrived at his destination. What, it could happen!!
But I digress ... we'd just pulled into the garage and parked in one of the uncovered spaces close to the ATM, which was out of order so instead I nipped into the shop to get us a few drinks and pay with switch so that I could get cash back. I had just hopped back into the car and put on my seat belt when Chloe told us that her tummy hurt, she then proceeded to pebble dash the entire back seat of the car with Frosties.
We both jumped from the car, just as the heavens opened and started to try and clean her up. Completely and utterly soaked to the skin and looking like a couple of drowned rats we both finally realised that we'd have to take her out of the car if this little exercise in cleaning up was to be in any way successful. It was at this point that we both turned to look at the spaces beside the petrol pumps, which were bone dry as they're covered by a huge roof to keep people from getting wet when they have to get out of their cars. These spaces were a mere ten feet away from us. Robert jumped in the car and reversed it back under the roof and we lifted Chloe from the car, just as the rain stopped!
We finished operation clean up as best we could and headed for home .... at about 10mph. The car having decided that it didn't really appreciate being covered in sick and then parked in the rain with all it's doors open had decided that now was the time to take a huff and not work properly.
We arrived back home again a little after 11am, completely knackered, still soaked to the skin, with a child still smelling of sick and while I started the clean up, Robert tried in vain to figure out what was wrong with the car. He had a look over it himself and was stumped so he called Renault and explained what the car was doing. The guy on the other end of phone told him that he hadn't a clue what it might be and that he would have to bring the car in to be hooked up and the diagnostics checked to see what the problem is. This alone was going to cost £76.00 before they even thought about fixing the problem!
Then my lovely postie arrived with a kilo of buttons for me and obviously because of the state I was in when I answered the door (bedraggled, might have been a bit of Frostie stuck to my cheek) he asked if we'd had an eventful morning and after listening to me rant for a few minutes he told me about SS Car Repairs, just round the corner from my house.
Robert called the guy and was told to bring his car down to be looked at straight away. He drove the car into the repair centre, turned off the engine and stepped out of the car only for the mechanic (proper mechanic, with a socket wrench set rather than a laptop) to tell him the problem was a coil pack. He didn't even have to lift the bonnet, he just listened as the car came in. £30 later and the car is running like a dream again.
So the silver lining to this miserable, manky grey cloud is that we now have a car guy and a bloody great one at that:)
We started the morning peering out of the windows trying to work out what the weather was going to be like. Of course we could have checked the weather on the tv or online but I'm fairly sure they're all standing in the met office peering out windows and wondering what the weather is going to do as well.
Having finally decided that the last remaining clouds weren't suddenly going to blow away and leave us with a beautiful day we decided to risk it. I packed a picnic, we jumped in the car and headed for the Folk and Transport Museum. This is the third year we've tried to plan a trip to the folk park and something else always seems to crop up or get in the way.
This year was no different ....
I needed to lift out money and told Robert this before we left the house, but as soon as he's behind the wheel of a car he slips into autopilot and managed to drive past every ATM on the way there so we drove on past and stopped at a garage in Holywood so that I could get some cash.
Just as a quick aside on the slim chance that somebody from Tom Tom should ever come across this. Luckily we know where we're going but it doesn't stop Robert punching in postcodes "because he can", but I just wanted to point out that the exit from the city bound lane into the Folk Park is roughly 200 yards closer to Bangor than you think it is. It is not, as you would lead unsuspecting people to believe, at the end of some poor bloke's driveway! You should probably fix that by the way, best case scenario is that the guy has a couple of barbecues disrupted by people unfamiliar with the area while he redirects them 200 yds back up the road, worst case scenario the poor guy winds up on a register after running out into the garden wrapped in a towel to grab some underwear off the line just as a huge gust of wind carries the towel up into a tree and at the same time a bus load of school kids on a day trip arrive at the top of his driveway while he makes a run for the house to a chorus of screaming kids drowning out the dulcet tones of the rather posh lady telling the bus driver that he has arrived at his destination. What, it could happen!!
But I digress ... we'd just pulled into the garage and parked in one of the uncovered spaces close to the ATM, which was out of order so instead I nipped into the shop to get us a few drinks and pay with switch so that I could get cash back. I had just hopped back into the car and put on my seat belt when Chloe told us that her tummy hurt, she then proceeded to pebble dash the entire back seat of the car with Frosties.
We both jumped from the car, just as the heavens opened and started to try and clean her up. Completely and utterly soaked to the skin and looking like a couple of drowned rats we both finally realised that we'd have to take her out of the car if this little exercise in cleaning up was to be in any way successful. It was at this point that we both turned to look at the spaces beside the petrol pumps, which were bone dry as they're covered by a huge roof to keep people from getting wet when they have to get out of their cars. These spaces were a mere ten feet away from us. Robert jumped in the car and reversed it back under the roof and we lifted Chloe from the car, just as the rain stopped!
We finished operation clean up as best we could and headed for home .... at about 10mph. The car having decided that it didn't really appreciate being covered in sick and then parked in the rain with all it's doors open had decided that now was the time to take a huff and not work properly.
We arrived back home again a little after 11am, completely knackered, still soaked to the skin, with a child still smelling of sick and while I started the clean up, Robert tried in vain to figure out what was wrong with the car. He had a look over it himself and was stumped so he called Renault and explained what the car was doing. The guy on the other end of phone told him that he hadn't a clue what it might be and that he would have to bring the car in to be hooked up and the diagnostics checked to see what the problem is. This alone was going to cost £76.00 before they even thought about fixing the problem!
Then my lovely postie arrived with a kilo of buttons for me and obviously because of the state I was in when I answered the door (bedraggled, might have been a bit of Frostie stuck to my cheek) he asked if we'd had an eventful morning and after listening to me rant for a few minutes he told me about SS Car Repairs, just round the corner from my house.
Robert called the guy and was told to bring his car down to be looked at straight away. He drove the car into the repair centre, turned off the engine and stepped out of the car only for the mechanic (proper mechanic, with a socket wrench set rather than a laptop) to tell him the problem was a coil pack. He didn't even have to lift the bonnet, he just listened as the car came in. £30 later and the car is running like a dream again.
So the silver lining to this miserable, manky grey cloud is that we now have a car guy and a bloody great one at that:)
Sometimes the truth is better than fiction. No way you could have made all of that up. ;)
ReplyDeleteHope Chloe is feeling better.
1. Pouring rain makes for a good shower for a puking child. Just sayin'.
ReplyDelete2. It is my dream to find an honest mechanic in my current town (7 years so far without luck) like the one I found back home (who, after nearly 20 years, my father still sees).
Hilarious - sorry I'm sure it was anything but when you were living through it but it makes for a really funny read!! I hope Chloe is feeling better and that you make it to the Folk Park some day!
ReplyDeleteAww bless ya. We had a fab car guy back home, parents use him too. Here there is a garage just outside who charge abomnible prices as they are close to camp but we found a local garage down the road that gives us a discount.
ReplyDelete:o)