I rang the garage first thing this morning as my car was theoretically going to be ready on Friday, or Saturday at the latest and I’d not heard anything. We had a half arranged plan to see Caz and Bid today but weather and transport issues on both sides had us rearranging that for later in the week.
I got called back by the garage and was given a saga type story of when I dropped my car off on Friday to the current time. To begin with the bonnet catch had not worked so they’d spent two hours trying to get the bonnet open. They struggled to do the work agreed to as the strut for one of components was all rusty so really hard to get off, then on a final test drive round the block the car died and something else had blown. They got it back to the garage and left it for the day. On Saturday they had fixed that (which he said he’ll pay for) and then it was misfiring (which is what it does to me) so they fixed that and left it ticking over for ten minutes while they were looking for my phone number to update me.
Then the radiator blew up!
At which point they gave up on it again and went home.
So this morning when I rang he had sourced a replacement radiator which he was waiting for before fitting that and finishing with it. Clearly in light of all this the cost of £300 which we could barely afford and had agonised over had gone up. He said he’d do it cheap and split the cost with me bringing it in at £420. Eek.
Arranged that he’d ring me once it was sorted and sat wallowing for a while in financial angst.
I went and chopped some logs and then came in and decided I would NOT have a bad day. So I rang the letting agent I’d most liked last week, had a chat with him about various queries I had and agreed to put the house up for rent through him. The next stage was for him to come and take photos and get it up on the website so we agreed he would come and do that this afternoon. Felt better 🙂
I rang my Dad as I wanted him to come and meet the letting agent as they will be dealing with each other while we’re away and also get a lift to the garage when my car was ready. The kids and I had lunch and watched all of the dvd extras on Toy Story 3 then had a mad dash around the house doing a quick tidy up for the letting agent.
In the middle of all this I had a text reminding me I was supposed to be going to dinner at a work friends’ this evening. Hastily informed Ady of this fact, arranged a lift and confirmed I would be going.
The agent arrived first, we had a chat, went through the paperwork and then he went off round the house with his camera then Dad turned up so they had a brief chat before the agent left. Dad and I chatted and drank tea / coffee before I rang the garage for an update. The bloke said he hoped to have it finished today but it might go over to tomorrow.
Ady arrived home and Dad left. We’d got a couple of things to return to Tescos and wanted to do some festive food shopping – we’re at Mum’s for Christmas Day but home here for Boxing Day so wanted to get in a few nice bits and pieces. So we headed to Tesco and all went round together selecting our favourite things like crisps, nuts, cheeses etc.
We got home with enough time to put it away and for me to get changed before my lift arrived. The others apparently had a nice evening eating tea together, having baths and early nights for the children.
I had a very pleasant evening with two work colleagues, the food was nice, the company good and the conversation fun. I have made some good friends at the library who I will miss next year and hope to stay in touch with :). There was talk of my leaving do, at which I imagine I will cry lots :).
I got home at about 1130pm, Ady had just gone to bed so we had a quick chat before I came back downstairs for a bath and the kids were both fast asleep, allegedly since fairly early.