Car trouble... and catching up with friends

A few weeks ago I'd arranged an evening's golf at Hindley Hall Golf Club, not far from work, with some work colleagues. With the planned date looming next Tuesday, I'd hoped to have the chance to practice my swing at the driving range before making a fool of myself on the course. However, these plans were scuppered when, as Carole backed her car off the drive, the car began making a strange squealing sound and promptly dropped what looked like a horseshoe on the drive. Being due for a hair appointment, Carole took the big car instead and left me with the problem of working out what had fallen off and what to do about it - and no time for golf or the means to get there.

After some intensive research (ie phoning Dad), we established that it must be part of the suspension which had collapsed, so I rang the local Ford main dealer to arrange for them to collect the car and fix it. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hello, can you help please, my car's suspension has just collapsed as we tried to move it just now. Can I arrange for you to fix it for me?"

Ford Garage: "Certainly, sir, we can fit you in next Tuesday, but if you'd like to bring it down now you can leave it with us now."

Me: "No, I don't think you understand; it's not driveable at the moment - you'll need to collect it on your recovery vehicle."

Ford Garage: "Are you a member of the AA sir, or the RAC?"

Me: "Why are you asking me that?"

Ford Garage: "Well, we don't have a recovery vehicle any more, so if you're in the AA, they will bring it here for you!"

Me: "Are you seriously telling me that the local main Ford dealership doesn't have a recovery vehicle?

Ford Garage: "As I say, are you in the AA?"

Needless to say, they didn't get our business; instead I rang a local independant garage, who, when he found out that we live just round the corner from his own house, suggested we put the keys through his letterbox so that he could collect the car from our driveway without us needing to be there. Guess who'll be getting our business when the car next needs a service?

Anyway, by the evening, we'd arranged to visit Gail and Barry, who made us a fantastic chinese meal (all home made), and we caught up with Ruth as well for the first time this year. An excellent evening to round off a frustrating day.

Fathers' Day

Happy Fathers' Day to Brian and Kevan - there was plenty of laughs along the way as they enjoyed their day!



PS - I've finally managed to catch up and write a blog covering Beryl and Terry's 40th Anniversary celebration.

Painting for charity

Today was a day of work with a difference - rather than a day at the office, I joined several of my colleagues to spend the day helping the Manchester-based charity NEARIS paint two rooms in their centre on Swan Street.

NEARIS was established 1992 to provide education, resettlement and rehabilitation services for adults experiencing problems with drugs, alcohol, mental ill-health, homelessness and / or offending behaviour. Their centre in Manchester is also known by the acronym MERC (Manchester Educational Resettlement Centre), which previously existed as an educational project in its own right going back to 1977.

This was the second time we'd supplied a team of volunteers to help NEARIS brighten up their training and educational rooms, and today's challenge was to re-paint their training room / kitchen area and their art room. I was part of the team concentrating on the art room, a large, airy, bright space ideally suited for teaching art.

We achieved more than we expected to; not only repainting the walls but also painting the skirting boards, doors and door frames too - to the delight of the regular staff and volunteers.

For me the day was not only motivating, uplifting and perhaps a little humbling, but also sad and a little anguished too. I reflected about past times, good and bad, with my late cousin Ian, before alcohol and drugs took over his world and eventually, after a long and painful decline, and despite the best efforts of his family, led to his death at just 35. Maybe had he sought help from NEARIS he could have turned things round, so if they can change the lives of others faced with similar turmoil then I for one applaud them.

4x4xExcess at Wibs' stag weekend

The head has finally cleared and the body has eventually recovered following a weekend of excess at Wibble's stag do in Leeds. Of course I have a duty to keep silence over the weekend's events although its good to know some of us did our bit for the Australian economy.

One event that can be reported on was a visit to Thirsk on the Friday where we tested our skills at off-road Land Rover driving. None of us had done this before and so even though we all left with our heads held high, there were a few moments along the way where things didn't go according to plan: Wibs had difficulty finding the gears, I managed to find reverse when forward would have been a better option and Craig couldn't understand the difference between first and third which isn't much fun when you're going down a near vertical slope and there's a tree at the bottom.

Wibs heads down one of the severe slopes on the course (at least he's in the right gear, Craig).

Fortunately we all survived to enjoy the rest of the weekend, despite becoming much poorer as a result. Thanks guys for a great weekend!

I'm still here!

Life has been hectic over the past few weeks which has meant the blogs have had to take a back seat for a while. There's still been plenty of opportunities for photos though, just no time to process and publish them!

In the meantime I managed to squeeze in a birthday, and here's a picture to celebrate:



I hope to post some more updates shortly,
Iain