Woeful tale

My car overheated (yes, Aquacarina) on the way to the first day of an
officetempmonkey job, last week. Radiator exploded, the thing that fell
off the lorry and bounced underneath the bonnet having been the last
straw/lump of metal for the poor old thing. Two days later, credit card
handed over to garage, and we were back on the road.

Today it overheated again on the way to work. Much steam and floods of
ucky water. RAC man diagnoses split hose (the new rad is ok); the hose
is a Toyota special, needs tow back to... where should I choose? After a
few phone calls (including one for the purpose of crying on Bear's
shoulder), decided on Ipswich, so that I can borrow No. 1 Son's
ebaymobile. Meanwhile phone calls to work have no luck, as no-one is
picking up the phone at Flixton.

Now very late for work, back on the road in the Citroen BX. Red light
comes on. Buggerritt, I'm carrying on, sort it out when I get there.

No-one in the office or around the factory, no security on the gate.
Empty. Strange, but I'm worried about the work I've missed: have the
orders been put through? Start checking the systems and sorting out the
spreadsheets and suddenly everything dies and the place goes dark. Go
out to the factory, still no people. Back to the office, on emergency
lighting. All the phones are off. Hear voices in the distance... humans!
Building contractors. The electricity is off because of work on the
generators and that's why everyone has gone. Not the Mary Celeste after
all. But nothing I can do. What a waste of a stressful two journeys.

There is a puddle of LHM under the Citroen. Engineering manager turns up
on site, introduces himself, and helpfully takes a look at the Cit and
says it will probably get to Ipswich. So I set off. After a few miles
the suspension goes. I phone around for advice and assistance (no
garages here, and even if there were they'd be shut on a Sunday). No
help available. They're all away on holiday or something. Phoning is not
easy with hardly any signal. Maybe if I ease it further down the road...
steering goes, brakes... Car-hedge incident. Signal no better here,
either. Eventually get through to help and someone calls a breakdown
truck. The steering rack is split/broken/leaking.

Tomorrow I shall phone work and say I'm not coming in. With better luck,
I shall make it on Tuesday. Or perhaps I should Read the Signs?

Person who offered floorspace for a couple of nights has just made Thai
curry and sticky rice and I feel better now. Must phone Son (who is on
holiday somewhere) and confess that I have written off the car he bought
on ebay.

Now I'm safely in a warm house with people and phone and 'net, it all
sounds silly enough to be funny; at the time it was not only stressful,
it was frightening, especially being alone and stranded and phoneless on
the Norfolk/Suffolk frontier.

 

If you hadn't it would've been whichever person drove it more than a
mile. It sounds like it was a right snotter and your son got diddled.

Glad you're back in a good place though. Best of luck for next week...

 

It's surprising how cut off you feel these days if your mobile's dead.
Don't worry about the car, as Christofire says, it was a POS just
waiting to blow. An ebay special, as they say.

 

Flixton? What are you doing up there?

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

not killing chickens, honest, guv! *spits out fevvers*

i have gainful employment there, processing orders for the carcasses
from various supermarkets. oh wow, are we having fun? pfftt!

 

i wouldn't do it with a working car, really i wouldn't, but you should
see the BX... Son got it for 50 quid on ebay and ran it for a few months
before it fell apart and he left it in the drive here. i just hoped it
would get me to work and back :/

 

I honestly didn't think you were old enough to have a son that would
be old enough to drive a car.

 

Ben said:

You smoooooooth old bugger.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Ben Blaney

The same thought crossed my mind.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets
and Ducati Race Engineer.

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha GTS1000

 

Learned from the master.

 

I honestly didn't think you were old enough to have learnt from the master.

 

Ben said:

I didn't realise Champ gave personal tuition.

 

I didn't think Flixton had anything like that there

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

You may not realise this, but the whole of ukrm is an Open University
for skills which don't usually get covered by more traditional
curriculums.

 

Yes, It was a dark day when they dropped "Swearing and pointless arguing"
from the GSCE list.

 

I suspect she's talking about Flixton, Suffolk rather than Flixton
Greater Manc.

--
Adie
(replace spam with nickname to reply)

UKRM FAQ: http://www.ukrm.net/faq/

Triumph 955iSS / ZX9R E1 / GSF1200 bandit (for sale) / CG125
MRO#11 BOTAFOF#7 BOTAFOT#130 DIAABTCOD#17 MIB#24 YTC#16 BOB#15 ex-UKRMMA#22 BOMB#11

 

....and 'speeling'

 

There's two?!?

--
Veggie Dave
UKRMHRC#2 BOTAFOF#08
IQ 18 FILMS http://www.iq18films.com
Extreme Racing http://www.veggie-dave.co.uk
Toxic Shock Syndrome Gets More Girls Than Me

 

three according to multimap.

--
Adie
(replace spam with nickname to reply)

UKRM FAQ: http://www.ukrm.net/faq/

Triumph 955iSS / ZX9R / GSF1200 bandit (for sale) / CG125
MRO#11 BOTAFOF#7 BOTAFOT#130 DIAABTCOD#17 MIB#24 YTC#16 BOB#15 ex-UKRMMA#22 BOMB#11

 

Champ said:

I'll be in touch - the usual rates?