Twang!

This is a classic Mildrew moment of gargantuan proportion but one which ultimately must have been a relief to the driver of the recovery vehicle I called out.

While on the way home from work, my car suddenly lost all power. Fortunately I was able to cruise it into a nearby entrance and walk the 400 metres to my house and phone the RAC. There was an irony to this in that it happened a mere 30 metres from the Cemetery at the edge of town.  

On calling the RAC, it seems they were busy and were not able to get out for a good hour. Wanting to get my monies worth of subscription I decided at the time to tough it out and turn down an offer of a tow up the road to the garage, despite I was supposed to be going out for a meal at 19:30. 

After almost two hours a contract vehicle arrived at 19:30 to assess the problem and rescue the dead car. It seems, as suspected the cambelt had broken - ouch!! He loaded me on and must have been quite relieved at my general joviality despite the long wait and ultimate terminal news. He must have been especially pleased when it also transpired the reason why he was so long at his previous job was the police had to be called out help him recover the vehicle. 

Apparently, rumour has it, he went to recover a car that had been put in a ditch. The owner had seemingly got the car out and was able to park in a nearby pull-in while awaiting recovery. However, the story has it a woman living in the house told him he couldn't park it there and whatever he'd told her elicited a call to her relatives who appeared mob handed and started to smash the car up! This happened just as the recovery vehicle arrived and apparently had to call the police so he could recover the vehicle. All very bizarre and whether true or not is quite an elaborate tale!

After he'd dropped the vehicle off at the car hospital, I was able to persuade him to act as a taxi and drop me off at the venue I was supposed to be eating in only half an hour late and in time to get my order in.

As this is a posthumous post, the cost for getting the car back on the road was not quite as expensive as feared. The bill was more of a redshank rather than a snipe. I prefer goldcrests, but in the light of things, one mustn't complain - redshanks are quite nice too.