Friday 13 December 2013

Beep beep

I'm waiting for a man. A rufty-tufty, macho, man's man type, in a hi-vis jacket, with a big white van and a well-packed toolbox, who's gonna lift me up and carry me off for an urgent seeing-to. Oh, that's enough of the cheap innuendo. The more boring reality is that I'm waiting for a Vehicle Recovery man to get me and our poorly car to the garage where I hope it can be fixed.

I love our little Polo, though, in spite of its refusal to start today. It's 18 years old, which I think equates to about 97 in dog, cat or car years. It's hardly ever let us down, has been backed onto, scraped, scratched and crashed into by Monster Trucks, big-fuck-off 4WDs and a herd of muntjacs, but it just takes it all on the chin door/wing/bumpers. Even though it won't co-operate today, it is the most reliable car we've ever had.

Anyway, a young lad called Kyle came this morning and tried his best to breathe some life into its engine, but it wasn't happening.  He was lovely, though; sweet-natured, polite and conscientious. Now I'm waiting for his colleague with the orange flashing lights. I can't get down to anything, can't go out and do the things I was supposed to, and I can't relax... hence I'm here. For obvious reasons, I've got this song going through my head. Still sounds good!




9 comments:

  1. Feel your pain C. I recently had to replace ye olde family wagon - a traumatic period that I wrote a long post about, but have yet to publish. Fingers crossed that your Polo pulls through.

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    1. Ah, thanks. I look forward to reading your post, although I'm sorry to hear it was traumatic!
      Here, I'm still waiting... Just want to get it to the garage and find out what's wrong now.

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  2. That's why I treat 'em like bic lighters...in the end they always let you down.

    Right now I have cracked windshield (looks like a spider web), no emergency break (it's been gutted so it would stop rattling), my low beams don't work (people hate me when it's dark), and because I haul food around it smells like rotten shrimp if it gets hot enough (it stays hot enough around here HA).

    It looks fine from the outside but it could go at any minute...I'll give it a swift kick and move on.

    They are such a ******** hassle. Good luck.

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    1. I'm picturing it now, e.f. - for some reason my imagery has you at the wheel with your nose pressed up against the cracked windshield, a cigarette hanging out the corner of your mouth, windows down and your hair blowing wildly in the wind, there's a long, straight road ahead and 'Born To Be Wild' on the soundtrack ;-)

      I think you have a healthy attitude to our four-wheeled 'friends'. Thing is, this one HAS been a real friend! It's ok now, thanks... at least I hope so (fingers firmly crossed). It's getting old, and (much like the rest of us) has a particular problem with the damp, it seems. Seeing as we're in England, this is not so good...

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    2. You've seen my hair...it would be splayed out in thick shards.

      Only thing missing is a 5,000 oz cup of coffee...otherwise you got it.

      I hope the Polo holds up.

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  3. Oh, how often I've been there! Hope you are back on the road soon. An 18 year old Polo? That's good going.

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    1. Thanks SB. Cars, eh. We've been talking about replacing it with something newer for the last 3 or 4 years but just haven't had the money. And most of the time it's just so reliable that we take it for granted. Sadly those days are probably numbered!

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  4. Never had a car that long - actually that's not true... when we got married I sold my (very un)reliable old Hillman Avenger to a lad who turned up with the money in a tobacco tin. I needed that money to buy a cooker, fridge and half the washing machine! About a year or two later I'd moved jobs and was flush with money so bought a second hand Mini Metro - horah for Longbridge's finest! Well it wasn't, always had issues with it, leaked oil all it's life - I was forever tinkering with carbaretors and the tappets. Anyway sold that when just before my daughter was born so must have had it well over 10 years.

    Most other cars were kept for four years and sold as they rolled through 100,000 miles. But these days I do far less miles, the latest one is three years old in a couple of months and still not done 30,000 miles.

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    1. Oh, your Mini Metro tale sounds familiar! My other half used to borrow his boss's one quite a lot and it was always letting him down, I remember how he frequently had to borrow mine at the time when the Mini Metro wouldn't start. Mine at the time was a 1969 Triumph Herald, about 20 years older than the Metro but 20 times more reliable!

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