Manic Wednesday

Wednesday turned out to be a long day.

It started off in the usual manner; I took Michelle to work, but this time in my nice shiny Mercedes. I then came home, set up Michelle’s laptop and scales and then went for my fortnightly signing down the Old King Cole office. I think we’re supposed to say Jobcentre these days but that’s a little like newspeak in Orwell’s 1984; the Ministry of Truth, or the BBC as it’s now called.

I called into Asda for some shopping; mainly for Michelle’s slimming groups’ raffles and came home to sort out her crates. This didn’t leave a lot of time before going to fetch her from work. Once home, I put the crates and all her other paraphernalia in the car. Most of it went in the boot unlike the Peugeot. She swiftly got changed and we set off to her group; calling for one of her members on the way. During the drive down to Pompey my phone rang and Michelle answered it for me; it was the agency which had got me the interview last week, so she said I’d ring back as soon as we got to Pompey. I eagerly phoned back, but alas the news was not good; I had not got the job, they had given it to someone who fitted the role better. (Strangely, I saw the job re-advertised with same agency today, so much for the other guy then.)

After helping set up the hall I went home to cook the dinner for everyone. I discovered that the car is an interesting colour; ‘Mercedes Invisible Blue’, as there were several people who tried to occupy the same space as me. Dinner was duly cooked and eaten and I then set off to collect Michelle and Marion.

We had to drive to Havant to drop off Marion, but as we got to the top of the slipway off the motorway the car started juddering and lots of smoke came out from under the bonnet. We were very close to Marion’s house so I managed to get the car there, where we called out the AA.  I had a think about what had happened and concluded that, as the temperature had remained ok, the juddering meant one of the injectors had failed. The mechanic arrived relatively quickly, about 30 minutes, and had a look. Sure enough on of the injectors had popped out. He checked the bolt thread, which was ok and tried to refit it. Unfortunately, the bolt was having none of it and wouldn’t tighten. I tried starting the car but the injector just popped out again. The mechanic said he would call for a flatbed truck as, being an automatic, he couldn’t tow us home. He then departed and we started the wait for the flatbed.  After 30 minutes we phoned the AA for an update and were told the truck would be there at 11.30pm due to there being a lot of breakdowns that night. It was 9.45pm by then, so I called Ross to see if he could come and pick up Michelle while I waited for the truck.

I began my vigil and played golf on the phone. The next AA man turned up in a transit which had an extendable trolley in the back. He wasn’t sure this would work, but he tried to get the car on the trolley. Being a rear wheel drive automatic it meant that the car could be towed provided the rear wheels were lifted. It took half an hour to get his kit ready and then load the car. At this point he found he couldn’t close the back door of his van, as being an estate car the back of the car got in the way. 

By now it was nearly midnight and the flatbed, which was now being re-ordered, would arrive at about 1.25am. Deep Joy. I settled down to my phone golf and waited. Not for too long as it turned out. The flatbed arrived at about 12.45am and by 1.05am the car was back on our drive, where Matt helped me unload it. I could now go to bed.

Thursday morning I phoned the garage from where I bought the car, and they couldn’t have been more helpful. Being located 50 miles away meant towing it back wasn’t an option but the guy tried several other options before saying I should get it towed to my local garage for the repair and for them to bill him. He was embarrassed about the whole thing and couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful.  It’s good to see customer service still survives.

The car has now gone and will be looked at on Tuesday. We were hoping to go away in it this weekend but we will have to wait for another time. 

Michelle will have to use her car for work tomorrow, so Kev will have to pick me up in his car to go to see Pompey play Cardiff.

Hopefully the gods are now bored with tormenting me and help me find a job.