I felt a wee bit guilty this morning as I'd booked an extra day off work, thinking we wouldn't get home until late last night. At one point, I had even thought about going in, but I still had so much to do and we will have a long day tomorrow travelling north for Val's funeral, so I kept quiet!
I was up at 6.30am and stuffing the washing machine with another wash when Keith came down already dressed and said he was heading to Tesco early to get some shopping. He left, and Sophie woke up, saying she had changed her mind about going to the gym this morning.
That decision was a good one, as Keith called just after 8am to say the VW wouldn't start... He had tried several times and could smell petrol, but the car refused to start. Sophie and I went racing over to Kettering and agreed with Keith about the smell of petrol. I called Green Flag and they said they'd send a mechanic out, with him arriving at about 10am. We transferred the shopping into Olive and decided to call into the Enterprise Car Hire office just off the A14 on the way home to see how much it would be to hire a car to take us north for the funeral tomorrow. We spoke to a lovely man who quoted us £250 for a Nissan Qashqai (or something similar) for one day! We said we'd think about it and get back to him!
At home, I was dying for another coffee and some toast, and just as I was about to take a sip from my mug, the phone rang. The mechanic was ten minutes away!
Keith and I raced back and met a very nice fellow in his smart Green Flag van. He had a good look for about half an hour, and pronounced his verdict - the VW had a fuel leak and had to be transported to a garage to be repaired. He arranged this for us and wrote out his report. We asked what had caused it as there'd been no warning, and he mentioned that the part may have been faulty for a while, but with the heat on the continent and the miles we'd covered - 2300 in total - it was probably the final straw.
Although it was a problem, having the car break down in France would have been far worse. Imagine if it had broken down while we were in Montreuil-sur-Mer (in the short stay space), calling for assistance and then getting the car towed to a garage that wouldn't have been able to do anything until today or later, having to find somewhere to sleep on Sunday, and possibly Monday night? As well as the ignominy of going back to the concierge at the apartment and asking for the key cards back? It doesn't bear thinking about!
We had to wait for over an hour for the tow truck to arrive, and I treated myself to a sandwich and coffee from the handy Costa within Tesco! A huge bear of a man arrived and expertly pushed the VW out of the space it was in, positioning his truck in front so he could winch it on.
Keith went in the cab with him to Glen's garage in Moulton, and I followed behind. It means we have no option but to take Olive to the north-east tomorrow and try and find an ultra-fast charger on the way, as the range is about 200 miles.
Back at home, I discovered that Sophie had finished all the washing, had done some ironing and made a chilli for tonight's dinner. We went over to see my parents in the afternoon and chatted about the holiday, mentioning how hot it was and all the little adventures we'd had!
It was a relief to finally get home and relax with the cats!
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