One of those weeks and it’s not quite over yet. The week started with me dropping the car off at the garage as there’s oil getting in the cooling system – thought of blown head gasket/cracked cylinder head/oil cooler gone – hopefully it’ll be the last option as the other two are really expensive to fix!
Spent Monday evening playing snooker against Dave and Ed. Dave vs Ed 2-0, me vs Dave 2-0, Ed vs me 2-0. Zero sum game. 🙂 Sampled the local pan-Asian restaurant which was rather pleasant and then caught the train home. To be honest, the train wasn’t as bad as I remembered it to be, it just doesn’t give you much flexibility. I can get to work and back on the train without too much hassle (although more hassle than the car), but going anywhere which isn’t radial to Central London from where I am takes a lot of effort.
Due to lack of car, I cancelled my violin lesson on Tuesday, as public transport from Staines to Teddington and then Teddington to Isleworth is more than I can bear after a day at work! This did mean I could spend the evening playing music for fun and having a play with Google Calendar, which I’ve used to implement a dynamic calendar on the church web site. I also needed to do my clothes washing, but without my car, I made a visit to the local corner shop. OK, a box of 16 tablets of Ariel non-bio in the corner shop costs the same as 48 tablets of Fairy non-bio at Tesco, but that’s the price you pay for being immobile – not quite what you want and more expensive to boot. (Yes, I understand the volumes of the local shop are a lot smaller and they need to make a living. I can also understand why some people – myself included – prefer large supermarkets)
On Wednesday I was still lacking a car, although work colleague who lives nearby was kind enough to give me a lift to and from work. The garage phoned and reckoned it was a crack in the oil cooler, so they’d ordered the parts and would be fitting them. I’ve resigned myself to not having a car now, and spent the evening listening to a broadcast of Mahler’s second, from the Proms, on the radio.
It’s now Thursday and I have my car back! Yay! I don’t think I’d realised how attached to my car I’d become. I guess it’s not the car itself which I’m attached to, but the freedom of mobility it gives me. Anyway, it now has a new oil cooler, a well-flushed cooling system and a replenished dose of oil. Only £300 as well, so I can recommend Barry Symons of Maidenhead. 🙂
