Car

It's been a day and half today, it really has, and it's not over yet.
The plan today was simple, or at least it was at the beginning of the week. We'd do a little garden tidying, remove the cat mess from the lawn, do a little grocery shopping and settle down for a nice barbecue in the cooler evening. I mentioned in an earlier blog that we were planning this and I've got a nice pack of burgers waiting in the fridge now.
I did the groceries, no problem, and the garden cleaning was quickly done, even the lawn was mowed. It was after this that the plan changed a little. Andy had noticed that his car was starting to sound a little off, the gear changes were not as smooth as they used to be and he wondered if a bearing had gone.
We knew we had two choices. Pay a lot of money to keep the old thing on the road, or seriously consider junking the thing and finding something better. I had misgivings, we are, after all, trying to save up to move house. We're going to need all our spare cash for all the hidden costs of house moving and there might be unexpected DIY at the other end. On the other hand, putting a new gear box in and mucking about with the clutch was not going to be cheap and we'd probably end up spending more than the car was worth.
With that in mind, and having been reminded that we'd sort of agreed that the next big bill the car presented with was going to be the time to change, I reluctantly agreed to at least go and have a shufti at what was out there with the local dealers. Andy had got a few ideas from the internet and was liking the idea of a Ford Focus.
I tagged along, after all, what was the worst that could happen?

Well wouldn't you know, at the first dealership they had the ideal car. It was a Ford C-Max and not a Focus which to me seemed a better car what with it being cheaper than the Focuses on offer and having a much much bigger boot. We like to go camping, a big boot is a must. Andy took a few moments to warm up to it, he thought it looked like a Dad Car. I pointed out that he was a Dad now so what was wrong?
We took the details and left. We looked round several more local dealers and drew up big fat goose eggs every time. Everything else seemed to be more expensive, in worse condition or just plain wrong. There was a reasonable Citroen Xara Picasso, but it was over budget.
There's only one thing to do at a point like this and that's to go to a coffee shop and have a good old mull over the facts. We went to our favourite garden centre (Henry Street, the coffee shop is excellent and I recommend the scampi) to have a drink and some cake.
Joseph had a plate of chips. He's had two lots of chips in two days which is a bit negligent of me, but I think he'll be fine. He liked the chips and seemed entirely unfased by the whole business of cars and the like.

We mulled and then decided to call the first dealership for a test drive the lovely C-Max. After all, if it was a pig to drive then it settled the question.
It wasn't a pig, it was actually quite nice. The air conditioning worked a treat and the car seat went in all right. Joseph threw a small spanner in the works by pulling the information board off the side window, but I managed to rescue it before it got dribble damaged.
So, the final question. Do we go for it? I was slowly leaning towards a yes as I'd noticed that every time Andy changed gear in his current car it sounded like a little person was shouting "Ouch!" in a high voice. On one junction we struggled to pull away and it was very juddery.
We went for it. After all it did have a full service history and a recent MOT with no advisories on it at all. When we bought the last car, I had asked Andy if it was normal to have regular puffs of white smoke coming out the back as it went along and it turned out to have a broken head gasket. Perhaps we should have given up with it then and demanded our money back, but instead we simply insisted that they fix it for free.
So, I was wary, but we did it. We put down a deposit and became the proud owners of a Dad car.

It is now I should admit that I am typing this on my Dads computer and Joseph is asleep upstairs in my Mums spare room. Why am I here at my parents house and not at home helping with the last of the garden tidying and getting a few bits ready for the barbecue?
Because just as we signed for the car, the leader of the four guardian angels that live under the wheel arches said: -
"That's it lads, he's bought a different one. Let's go and have a look at our new home!" and off they went. The one that was holding the clutch together dropped what he was doing and went to have a look.
We got in the car, our old car, to go home. Andy started the car but could not get first gear. We'd driven in all right, reverse parked the thing all right and here we were unable to leave. We spoke to the man in the dealership: - "That small part exchange offer we agreed, does it still apply if the thing is actually dead?"
Yes, it did. To be frank, he'd not offered us much but it was more that it was worth. He said that all he'd been going to do was pass it on for scrap anyway.
He had a go at starting it again but the engine sounded like it was screaming out in pain. Something very nasty had gone wrong in there. 

I got out, packed Joseph into his buggy and walked for about ten minutes in the hot sun to my parents house, who aren't even in today. I spent the whole time wishing I'd remembered to put my sun cream on. Joseph had a nappy change and then pretty much went straight to sleep so I'm sat here typing. Andy walked home, a significantly longer distance and is having a brief rest before continuing with the original plan of the day by tidying the garden. I'll ring him when the baby wakes up. Hopefully this week we will cope with one car, but at least the thing had the decency to break down at the dealership and not the garden centre which was a lot more than walking distance from home. It was a little miracle and I'll settle for that for now.