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Wednesday 24 April 2013

Starting the holiday with a bang!


Bang!

Has something hit the bottom of the car? We are doing 75 mph on the M6. Hugh slows down. A sign for the services comes into view - half a mile to go. We will pull in and check for damage. The sound was definitely passenger side. Hugh slows the car down and we coast into the services.  He gets out and walks round to the back of the passenger side; throws his arms up in the air and swears. We have had a blow out. 

And Volvos don't have spares.

And the can of 'inflator' stuff won't work as the hole is too big. I can hear the air rushing out as I lean out of my door and see the tyre rapidly deflate. We were lucky it didn't go down that quickly whilst we were driving.

Now to phone the breakdown people and see what they can do.


It is now an hour later. Penny and I sit at a table in the services by the window, watching the traffic whizz past.  Hugh and the wheel have been recovered by the AA and taken to Coventry to Quickfit to get a replacement tyre. We were due to be at our holiday cottage at 4pm, it is now 3.21pm so don't think that is going to happen. I have nursed a cup of peppermint tea for 40 minutes, but don't think I can manage another. Hopefully Hugh won't be too much longer. 
I wrote the piece above whilst we were sitting in the services! Fortunately Hugh wasn't much longer and we eventually arrived at our holiday cottage at 5pm - not too much later! A big thank you to the AA who provided us with excellent service and so the beginning of our holiday was not a wash out!

7 comments:

scrappyjacky said...

And I never knew Volvos didn't have spares!! Glad you got there safely.

Missus Wookie said...

I didn't know Volvos didn't have spares either. Glad you could get the AA to help you out and it was just a blow out - nothing serious.

Sian said...

Wow, you were so lucky. Blow outs are scary!

Anonymous said...

Wow - you are so lucky going that speed that it wasn't worse. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Sandra said...

You were so lucky that a service station was so close. But now that bits done and out of the way .... You can enjoy your holiday

Lou said...

..and now you can relax and enjoy your holiday x have fun x

Karen said...

Not the kind of bang I anticipated when I read the title of your post! It's not often you see folks with blow-outs any more; it used to be very common. Glad you weren't too late getting to the cottage. Have fun!