Farewell, My Lovely

Where have I been? Mostly, Happendon Services. Travelling back from Stirling after a pretty hectic couple of days, the car started running a little hot. About 4 miles from the Services, the water light came on. So I turned off, thinking a little top-up would do the job. Er, no. Basically, the engine caught fire.

Having solicited the aid of a succession of men to help me push the smoking vehicle into a safe position (thank you, Great British Public), did I panic? Oh no, for I have been a member of the AA for about five years. I have Roadside Recovery.

OK, I didn't have my membership number on me, but I knew my own name, address and the car registration number so thought all would be fine. I rang the emergency number, gave the nice lady all my details and she said,
'We have no membership details for you.'

I said,
'You must. I only paid my annual membership a couple of months ago. Could you check again please?'

She did, and said she had no record of me. After a bit more to-ing and fro-ing she finally admitted she did have details of a member at that address, a Mr. C. McKay. I rather reasonably said that yes, that would be my husband. Remained calm.

Until she asked me if my husband was with me. By now, I think I could tell what was coming, but my disbelief was such that I told the truth. 'No, I'm on my own.'

'Then we don't come out.'

Having foolishly thought (small print! read the small print!) that we had joined the car to the AA, it turned out I have merely been paying for my husband to be a member of the AA. At this point I wanted to kill the AA. Still do, actually.

So help had to come from home, and upon its arrival another Great British Family helped me and my AA member husband push the car up into the car park, where we left it to its own devices overnight. The next day we went back and towed it to a garage. Two days later the garage rang to say the car was dead.

This made me sad for more than the obvious reason that we now have to rob a bank in order to buy a new car. The Fiat Ulysse was bought on the hurry-up when the boys were born and we needed a car that could take 6 people. I didn't like it much; it was grey and, to be frank, a bit ugly. But good golly I came to love it. Those sliding back doors - genius. Why don't all cars have sliding back doors? So much easier when de-bussing children. That utterly capacious boot! Which you could make even bigger by taking the 2 rear seats out. This car was made for Ikea-impulse-purchases! It was a fair drive too, and ate up the miles. 200,000 miles and counting. Until now. So farewell, lovely Fiat, I'll miss you.

In other news, the school holidays have continued. We have made a junkyard phoenix


and a junkyard Pegasus


and whilst I have mainly been working, one lucky AA member, two boys and a dog got to go on holiday.

I'm off to Glasgow tomorrow to run a workshop, whilst the holiday heads have been detailed to search Dumfries for a new car. Then drive it away while no one's looking.