Watford Gap
I didn’t make it to Watford in the end. The engagement party had to go on without me. But don’t worry, as far as I’m aware the wedding is still going ahead.
My car decided that 5 years and 89,000 miles under my ownership was just about all it could take, and made Watford Gap services (which, for the uninitiated, is a surprisingly large distance north of Watford) its final resting place. A dashboard light came on, all the power went off, and the AA man did a kind of tutting / head shaking manoeuvre which is nature’s quickest way of saying “this is going to cost you hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pounds to fix.”
Apparently the engine was telling him that a coil had broken, but upon replacing it, the car was just as broken as before, and thus his best guess was that it was something to do with “the computer.” My momentary pleasure in discovering that my battered Punto contained any computer technology at all was replaced with the gnawing terror that wherever said technology was, it was bound to be buried beneath complicated engine components and require skilled technicians to dismantle it. And, as I have found to my cost, mechanics don’t come cheap. It is cheaper to pay a QC for his labour than it is the man from the garage.
My AA cover is at the “We’ll come to try and fix your car, but if we can’t then you’re marooned forever until you pay the recovery firm a large sum entirely of their choosing” level. Thankfully Tamsin has the gold plated rescue card which meant we were transported home in the back of an exciting truck. And en route I decided that there should be no messing around, that I needed a car that wouldn’t break at the first sign of Watford, and that I needed it ASAP.
So yesterday I purchased a new car. A Peugeot 207. And I pick it up after work today, allowing it to make its debut at the Resource and Performance Scrutiny Commission at the Town Hall this evening. It has exciting new automotive technology that I am not used to, including a fully functioning lock on the boot, windows that don’t leak when it rains, and an engine which doesn’t sound like a pack of angry leopards when stuck in traffic. I am very much looking forward to its arrival.
Rick
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