I've had better trips

The day could have started better.

Firstly the shower head has started leaking which means a lot of the water which should be coming out of the nozzles has started leaking out of the pipe. I then discovered that my alarm clock has broken. Or to be technical the power lead has broken, it's just suddenly broken off. A almost straight sheer through the cable bizarely.

But I was soon on my way as I was heading up north to see my sisters and their extended families for a get together to get some 'official' family portraits done. Grumpy had kindly let me borrow his car as he was off into Nottingham to take part in some NHS style survey.

All was well until about a junction await from my Sisters when I started hearing a odd noise, a really loud noise as it so happened. I eased off the gas and the noise started to die away, my first thought was the engine was acting up and Grumpy was never going to let me hear the end of this. I decided to get off at the next junction and stop to have alook as it didn't seem that bad. Of course it was this precise moment that I saw something in the rear view mirrior fly off from the car and disappear which made me realise that it wasn't probably the engine and that stopped straight away would be good. I pulled onto the hard shoulder, carefully got out and moved to the opposite side of the car to see if there was anything obivous.

What I did see made me utter one or two very bad words indeed. It wasn't the engine, I had in effect lost the rear tire on the passenger side as it had blown out/shredded itself. How the tire was still on was my first thought, my second thought was how the hell had it not thrown me out of control going at speed on the motorway and my third thought was now what!

Fortunatly I had my breakdown details with me and quickly called them up. I could have tried changing the tire myself but the damage looked so bad I wanted some experienced eyes to look at it first. The repairman turned up pretty quickly and changed the tire and found the culpript for the damage. A huge nail sticking out of the tire on the side facing into the car. His guess was I had picked up the tire and it had deflated the tire quickly enough so when the inevitable blow out came the pressure was low enough not to affect the vehicles handling which meant my luck was definatly in today. He got the tire changed very quickly and a bit more fearlessly then me as I would have jumped everytime a lorry went past.

After moving off somewhat nervous of any odd sounds the car was making I did make it to my destination without anymore trouble. Which gave me a chance to look at the tire again and ruminate on my lucky escape. Of course it did mean that I had to then go and find a garage quickly to get a replacement tire sorted as there was no way I was making such a long trip back without a spare. I had given the fates more then enough opportunity to mess with me today.

It was at this point whilst at the garage that I discovered that the tires on Grumpys car as they are somewhat larger then the ones on my little KA and more 'top of the line' as it were, also came with a top of the line price tag. £92 for one tire! Although that price did include a environmental 'green cost'. Yes because after charged me £86 for a new tire, a valve and to balanced the wheel they then charged me £6 to get rid of what remained of the old tire and no doubt make themselves look good as they were 'environmental'. I did wonder if it was a flat charge or if it was a sliding scale and you would have to pay more for a intact tire.

The picture taking was already, if complicated with so many of us. As regular readers will know I don't like getting my picture taken at all. I'm one of these people whose convinced that they never look good in a photo no matter what.

The trip home was much more uneventful ( apart from what I think was a near suicadal owl), however I was quite tense as I was listening for any unusual sound that the car might make.

I got home okay glad nothing else untoward had happened.

It had been a long day.

Later folks!