Car troubles!

Sophie's car was booked in for an MOT today so I drove her to work in my car and then met Keith at the garage in Broughton. It was a foggy, really horrible morning and I hated the grey and miserable weather after the last two days of sunshine and blue skies.

We returned home for breakfast and I got ready to go and have a contact lens check at Boots in Weston Favell. Before I went to my appointment, though, Keith and I did some shopping in the Weston Favell Centre and had a quick coffee in Costa.

My check went very well and I was out within half an hour. The optician said my eyes were healthy and the contact lens I was using were fine, so that was a relief. Next year I'll have a proper eye test which always takes a lot longer!

We drove home and I had an hour at home before I had to go and have my three yearly smear test at the doctor's surgery in Guilsborough. After this one, the interval will be five years and I'm not complaining about that! I took a bit of a dislike to the nurse who saw me, to be honest. She strode off ahead to the consulting room leaving me trailing in her wake and was a bit officious in my opinion!

As I had feared, she wanted to take my blood pressure after the smear test and of course it was high, as it always is now (not because of my health, I don't think, but because of the phobia I have developed). She then weighed me and I could see disapproval emanating out of her every pore. She told me to check my blood pressure at home and asked me to make an appointment for some blood tests.

I left feeling thoroughly disheartened and felt even worse when I called Keith to say I was leaving - he had heard from the garage and ET needed two new front tyres and new brake pads. One thing was for certain... it wouldn't be passing its MOT!

I picked him up and we went over to Broughton to check the measurements of the tyres so we could arrange to have them replaced tomorrow with a mobile tyre-fitting service. I knew this would happen last week when we had tried to book it in on the Friday to have the dashboard lights looked at. If we'd been forewarned then we could have had all of this sorted out for today.

As we couldn't pick up the car until 4.30pm (they have another garage in Kettering where they were all working), we popped to see Mum and Dad and I sorted their car insurance out for them. Before we left I'd managed to halve the quote they'd received but we'd had to go to another insurer to get the better price.

At the garage we said we had arranged for the tyres to be done on Thursday and said we'd drop ET back off on Friday morning. The mechanic was a bit off with us and said that if the car wasn't dropped off early then there would be no-one there to complete the MOT. Both of us were annoyed at his attitude and I think that unless we speak to Rob himself and let him know what's been going on, we'll be looking for another garage in the future.

I sped off to pick up Sophie from work while Keith returned home in ET. Back home I tried my best to relax - not easy after a poopy day!