Hello Ducky!

An early start to get Sophie Too along to the garage...

Drove up to Martin's and I was immediately ushered in, with 4 lads starting work as soon as I'd applied the handbrake. In no time at all, the good (new) spare tyre had been taken off the emergency wheel and transferred to the alloy from the flattie. Then one new tyre purchased and the other wheels moved about to pop one old tyre on the emergency wheel and the other two old ones moved to the rear and the two new moved to the front (are you keeping up with this?). The longest delay was waiting for the electronic card payment of the chap before me to be processed, then I was off and hitting the M3 in 30 minutes.

While there, I took a couple of blips (explaining to the lads working on the car and the chap with the card payment what I was doing and why), although in hindsight I should have used my camera rather than my phone, but that was in the car which was up on jacks by this stage (I ought to have remembered they were fast movers and taken it out before I stepped out of the car)...

Anyway, a fast drive down the motorway to visit my Mum, which made a pleasant change. Bank holiday weekends down there are usually an absolute nightmare, getting stuck behind caravans heading towards the New Forest. So it was lovely to find the traffic was really quite light, which I can only put down to this naff weekend weather?

So, I had a smashing day with Mum, which passed all too quickly. Still, we managed to squeeze in a meal at the Somerford Beefeater (their chicken & bacon salad - absolutely delicious) and a trip to the nearby garden centre, where I found this handsome chap. He seemed totally unfazed by everyone around him, and it was almost as if he was modelling for me!

Then it was time to drive home again. But oh, how I wish I had SatNav or similar, as one road was completely blocked off and I didn't know an easy alternative route, so ended up driving about an extra 30 or so miles to try to get home by aiming for somewhere I did know (Bournemouth), so went via Christchurch and Ringwood in the end. As it turned out, it was again a fast drive (within the speed limits, I'll have you know!) home...just that it took me about 40 mins extra for getting lost!

Well, I was tired after a really stressful week at work, rounded off by a tiring day of driving (aside from the worry of being lost temporarily mislaid), so I was fit to drop by the time I got home!

P.S. I case you hadn't realised, I am one of those drivers who will drive 5 sides of a triangle (work that one out) to traverse what should be a simple journey, if I only know some of the route! Needless to say, Mr A gets very frustrated with me...