As planned, Sophie and I were both working half a day today. My daughter didn't go to the gym, and I left at my usual time. I chatted with Sara when I arrived at work and apologised about not going in yesterday, but I had so much to do, and she understood.
Just as I was finishing my coffee, Sophie called me, which was unusual. She said she'd broken down in Olive on the A43. Looking at "Find My Phone", I could see she was just past the Round Spinney roundabout, and I was horrified! The road is hectically busy during rush hour, and I was terrified that someone would hit her car. I jumped up, told Sara what had happened, and grabbed everything. I rushed out, at least having the sense to pay for my parking before I left!
On the way to the car, I called Sophie again, and she told me the police were with her, which I was immensely relieved about! I sped off, and when I passed the spot where she should have been, I couldn't see her. I then noticed she was calling, so I had no choice but to answer the phone. She said the police had moved her to the slip road leading to Thorplands (a large residential area), which was a relief.
I navigated the busy roundabout and then pulled up behind her. She was a bit emotional but so relieved that the police had spotted her straightaway and had come to her aid. We then had to decide what to do! Sophie said one of the policemen had managed to drive Olive around the corner, so it looked like whatever caused the breakdown may have corrected itself. Sophie said the car had juddered to a halt on the busy dual carriageway, and all the warning lights came on.
We decided to go home, collect Keith and try to drive Olive to the VW dealership on Riverside. We called him, and he said he would be ready to go when we arrived home. Once we were back, Sophie called VW and asked about taking the car down and getting a courtesy vehicle for two weeks. Our holiday had complicated things even further, as Keith was going to use Olive while we were away!
They said the only way they would provide a courtesy car would be if Olive arrived on a recovery truck. Sophie doesn't have breakdown cover, so she called Green Flag, who quoted her £150 to take Olive to VW, but just as she was about to pay, they said they couldn't give her a time; it could be anything up to ten hours! We swiftly abandoned that idea and decided to go down and drive Olive to VW.
Back at the stricken car, Keith followed us, and I gingerly drove Olive down to Riverside. The car seemed absolutely fine, with no problems whatsoever. What on earth was going on? Sophie has now had enough, as this is the latest in a long line of problems with the car. She has had problems with the charging flap, the air conditioning, and the key batteries, and there are always warning signs flashing up on the dashboard. Sometimes, the car refuses to start! Imagine if this had happened when we were on our way to or back from Heathrow the other week?
VW were not at all helpful and said they weren't able to provide a courtesy car until they had established whether Olive was not roadworthy. This wasn't going to happen today, but they could try to sort it out on Monday and deliver a car to Keith if the fault was serious enough. They then said she had an extended warranty on the car and breakdown cover, which included getting the car to a garage! Why hadn't they told her that when she called? She could easily have splashed out on Green Flag recovery! We had already looked at hiring a car for Keith, but he only needed a car to get to the pub and Tesco, so we thought it was a waste of money.
Sophie was prepared to argue with VW, but I could see they weren't going to budge, so we left, with the manager promising to call Sophie at some point today. Sophie said she fancied a McDonald's breakfast, so we went to the one on Riverside, where Keith and I had a tea and coffee while Sophie enjoyed her unexpected breakfast! I certainly didn't think I'd be sitting in McDonald's this morning!
As a family, I like to think we can deal with problems, and we all agreed to leave hiring a car and see if Mike could come down next weekend from Nottingham and help out. Sophie and I would do a Tesco order while in France, and before going home, we popped to Mawsley to stock up with some more things Keith needed, namely McEwan's Champion! He also mentioned his prescription, which he'd left at the surgery yesterday. Sophie and I had a short, sharp argument with him, as he said he would find some way of getting there, and we dropped him off at home, while we drove to Brixworth to talk to the pharmacy.
They said they would try to get his medication prepared this afternoon, which they did! One less thing to worry about!
The long and winding (and narrow!) road...
By 1:00pm, Sophie and I were ready for the off. We had packed up the sausage rolls Keith had finally been able to make for us, and filled the cool bag with frozen bottles of water and our supper for tonight, which was cold meats and salad. We said goodbye to Keith and set off to Northampton. With all the running about this morning, our full tank of petrol had been depleted, so I filled up at the BP garage on the Harborough Road, and we treated ourselves to an ice cream!
Jeeves had recommended the A43, M40 and then the A34 at first. The roads were busy, but at least the weather was an improvement on yesterday, and the sun was shining! We made good progress, but as we neared Winchester, Jeeves suggested an alternative route to shave off sixteen minutes of our journey to Hayling Island, where we were staying overnight before our Brittany Ferries trip tomorrow.
This meant leaving the A34 and taking a winding road to get onto the M3. It was obvious that many other drivers had had the same suggestion, as there was a long convoy of us travelling together. The only problem was that the roads we had been instructed to drive on were narrow... and I mean narrow! The tall hedges on either side made it impossible to pass, so I held my breath as I followed everyone else. Luckily, there was strength in numbers!
It was a nightmare journey, especially when we arrived in the small village of Sparsholt and encountered the school run traffic. At one point, I had a school bus come screaming towards me, and I had to reverse into a driveway. The bus driver didn't slow down at all! Further along, poor oncoming drivers had to stop to let us through, and at times, we had to squeeze past each other, our wheels hitting deep ruts as we inched our way past another car. The last thing we needed was a puncture!
Eventually, after what seemed like ages, and certainly longer than it would have taken, we all emerged onto wider roads and then the M3, which was heaving with traffic. We passed Southampton and took the M27 towards Portsmouth. We carried on to Hayling Island, which looked beautiful, with yachts in the marina and the sun shining on the water.
A disturbing documentary
We had booked an Airbnb in a static caravan on a park, and we were looking forward to something different this evening! We found our caravan, and we were able to park right outside. It was a gorgeous evening, and people were arriving to either spend the weekend at the park or to stay the night before travelling tomorrow.
We unpacked what we needed, and Sophie kindly said she would take a twin room to sleep in, while I had the double. There were three bedrooms, a fully-equipped kitchen, two loos, and an open-plan living/dining room.
We thought it was delightful, and said we could easily spend longer here! We sat and watched Pointless and the news at 6:00pm and opened a bottle of wine. VW hadn't called Sophie, so it looked like we would hear from them on Monday. The events of this morning seemed like a distant, bad dream.
Before eating, we had a little walk around the park as Sophie wanted to see the sea. We thought it was a long way off, though, so we strolled back, had a glass of wine on the outside seating area, and prepared our simple dinner of ham and chicken with salad and one of Keith's sausage rolls. It was perfect!
After we'd eaten and stacked the dishwasher, we decided to watch a Netflix documentary called Maternal Instinct. Keeley, who had obviously stayed in the caravan before us, hadn't logged out, so we used her login!
There really should have been a warning for this documentary, which was very disturbing indeed. I won't go into details, but it was horrific, and we felt so sorry for the families involved, who had the misfortune to get involved with Taylor Parker, who is now on Death Row.
After watching the documentary, it was time for bed. We need to be up at about 5:00am tomorrow, as we have to be at the ferry port for 7:15am at the latest. At least we don't have to travel far!
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