The day started early. And cold–we had a dusting of snow overnight.
I sat cuddling a big mug of scalding hot coffee for a while, plucking up courage to go out and clear the crappy from the little silver Ford, prior to kicking the rescue operation into motion. I really and truly hate this aspect of driving a car. The depth of my hatred is impossible to convey except that I maintain a flawless service record on my vehicles, treat them as gentle as I can, and get professional fixing when things go wrong. And that doesn’t come cheap.
It took three sessions, each terminating in a rapid shuffle back into the warmth of the house for a huddle, a deep slurp of hot coffee, and several deep, deep breaths of warm air, aiming to get heat into my core. I got the job done, though, ending with that miserable early morning scrape, brush, blow, to get snow off the windscreen.
Then, indoors, another warm-up, and it was time to hit the ‘phone. First, the Ford dealer’s garage in Neath Abbey, to warn them the car was on its way, then, to the AA to initiate recovery services.
About a ninety minutes later, the guy had called in his big yellow pickup truck, diagnosed the fault as a broken brake pad spring, and hooked the car up on to a wonderful towing gadget and driven it over to the dealership, having arranged for a three day ‘complimentary’ car rental to see me over the weekend, when the repair should be done.
Another wait, and a splendid, vibrant young woman from the car hire company drove up in an impossibly minute but spotlessly turned out little Vauxhall car, transported Graham and myself off into the depths of Swansea, and steered me through the formalities of the hire form.
Then, tentatively, I drove out onto the Carmarthen road, up to the big roundabout and down, plunging bravely, into the Swansea early afternoon traffic maelström.
I done it.
“Didn’t I do well?” I asked, as we came out of the Sainsbury’s car park and drove into the filling station for petrol.
“You always do,” Graham said.
And isn’t that a reassuring compliment to receive out of the blue?
