GROUNDED

Our poor dear little Hyundai Getz is not well.   She had problems with a couple of her cables so couldn't get herself into gear...just got stuck in reverse so ........ I am grounded.  I wonder if that is my problem as well...I often have trouble getting myself into gear these days!!

This of course is not our car but one very much like it and ours IS yellow (wonder why that is?).

Phil went to Woolworths to do our weekly shop on Thursday evening (he usually shops during the day to keep out of the way of busy shoppers) but it had been a hot day and he was tired so left shopping till the cooler time of day.

Took 4 large bags of groceries out to the car, started it up but had to reverse to get to the exit to Stock Road and just couldn't get the car out of reverse gear.  A couple of helpful fellows managed to get the car to a parking spot and then the RAC was telephoned for help.  Mechanic arrived and immediately knew what the problem was.  I won't try and explain it except to say a couple of cables to do with gear changing are worn.  This apparently is not uncommon with manual cars and our little girl is now over 9 years old so guess it was due to happen.

Next step...arrange for car to be towed but not to RAC service near home but north of the river which was the only one open at night.  Had to accept that 'cos if car towed home and then towed again it would have cost us as only one tow per breakdown is covered which is fair enough.

Little things go awry and they did as the RAC had been told corner of Canning Highway instead of Leach Highway (we are not mobile phone users but I always insist Phil take ours when he is out and so glad I did on this occasion) and then while waiting for the tow truck that driver also phoned to say he couldn't find the car.  Finally everything fell into place and Phil got a taxi home with a really nice Indian driver who helped load and unload the groceries and wouldn't take a tip.  Restored Phil's faith in taxi drivers quite a lot.  (Incidentally for people overseas, tipping is not something that is usual in Australia although with taxis it is sometimes done or in restaurants but it's not compulsory).

Rang RAC next day...they were fully booked doing servicing and the same on Monday but would order parts on Friday afternoon and do their best to start work on Monday (perhaps).  Here it is now Tuesday morning at nearly 11am and I will have Phil ring them at noon to see what progress they've made. Apparently to get to these cables the firewall etc etc etc has to be removed so it is quite a big time consuming job with an end cost of nearly $800.  Just before Christmas is not a good time for this to happen but we do need wheels these days.

We are fortunate in having an IGA store only 2 streets away but there is a particularly steep hill on the way back home and Phil is after all nearly 84 and it has been quite warm weatherwise.  He has manfully put on his backpack and gone down to buy milk (something you can't buy in bulk, or at least we don't) and a couple of other items such as bread.

To make matters worse we both have an appointment with our endocrinologist tomorrow afternoon which we can't miss (we both had excellent blood test results which should make him smile) and appointments with our podiatrist on Thursday afternoon which we can postpone if need be.  On top of that I had a letter from my GP yesterday to see him about my Vitamin B12 blood test so will wait on news of car before I can make appointment with him.  Wonder if that's why I am so tired lately...have to check that out.

I don't go out and about much these days but now being without the car makes me realise how important they are to we oldies when public transport etc is out of the question (for me anyway) so hopefully when I look out our front window in the next day or so our little car will be sitting under the carport ready to take us wherever we want to go.