History Matters
History Matters Blogging for one day in history.
This is what I did today.
I got a shock when I tried to start my car this morning - tried being the operative word. I had noticed it wouldn’t start on the first go yesterday, either first thing in the morning or at night. This is important as I live forty miles away from my work, down in the Scottish Borders. Anyway, this morning I when I turned the ignition it wouldn’t catch. Neither would it catch the second time, or the third. By this time I was having kittens imagining if this happened on Friday when I’m due to fly out to see D, and have to be at the airport for 6.00am. I immediately went into planning mode, trying to work out what I would do - it’s not as simple as all that, as the sensible thing to do of course would be to just leave the car and get a taxi, but my ability to do that would depend on whether or not I managed to secure a ‘permit holders only’ space the night before. The council always issue more permits than there are spaces and it’s sometimes impossible to get properly parked. If I was on a yellow line I couldn’t just leave the car because I would get fined or worse, the car towed away.
I was on the point of going back to the house to phone the AA - naturally I didn’t have my mobile phone with me - I never use it and I don’t think it’s even charged - but I managed to get the car started on the next go. Whew! Next problem was that I really needed to get petrol - I had enough to get to work, but not to get home, and I prefer to fill up near home as it’s about 3p a litre cheaper than near work. However, I didn’t dare stop in case I couldn’t get it started again. When I got to work I drove straight to my garage and grovelled to see if they could fix it today.
When I went to collect the car at five, the bad news was they couldn't find anything wrong with it, and had been unable to replicate the problem. This always happens to me. I remember with my last car it took them ages to confirm that the funny noise I kept hearing was in fact the wheel-bearing going. I'd had one go before and knew what it sounded like, but they couldn't find anything. I was right in the end though.
The mechanic said today if it was sticky starting tomorrow to bring it back and he would fit new spark plugs but he didn't think it was that. In any case, he said, leave it on a hill so you can bump start it if necessary. I'm filled with confidence. :(
Now I am REALLY having kittens about Friday.
This is what I did today.
I got a shock when I tried to start my car this morning - tried being the operative word. I had noticed it wouldn’t start on the first go yesterday, either first thing in the morning or at night. This is important as I live forty miles away from my work, down in the Scottish Borders. Anyway, this morning I when I turned the ignition it wouldn’t catch. Neither would it catch the second time, or the third. By this time I was having kittens imagining if this happened on Friday when I’m due to fly out to see D, and have to be at the airport for 6.00am. I immediately went into planning mode, trying to work out what I would do - it’s not as simple as all that, as the sensible thing to do of course would be to just leave the car and get a taxi, but my ability to do that would depend on whether or not I managed to secure a ‘permit holders only’ space the night before. The council always issue more permits than there are spaces and it’s sometimes impossible to get properly parked. If I was on a yellow line I couldn’t just leave the car because I would get fined or worse, the car towed away.
I was on the point of going back to the house to phone the AA - naturally I didn’t have my mobile phone with me - I never use it and I don’t think it’s even charged - but I managed to get the car started on the next go. Whew! Next problem was that I really needed to get petrol - I had enough to get to work, but not to get home, and I prefer to fill up near home as it’s about 3p a litre cheaper than near work. However, I didn’t dare stop in case I couldn’t get it started again. When I got to work I drove straight to my garage and grovelled to see if they could fix it today.
When I went to collect the car at five, the bad news was they couldn't find anything wrong with it, and had been unable to replicate the problem. This always happens to me. I remember with my last car it took them ages to confirm that the funny noise I kept hearing was in fact the wheel-bearing going. I'd had one go before and knew what it sounded like, but they couldn't find anything. I was right in the end though.
The mechanic said today if it was sticky starting tomorrow to bring it back and he would fit new spark plugs but he didn't think it was that. In any case, he said, leave it on a hill so you can bump start it if necessary. I'm filled with confidence. :(
Now I am REALLY having kittens about Friday.