Not the way I'd hoped my holiday would start...

I took off from Harwich at about 1 pm and the GPS said I would arrive after 3 hours. I expected some traffic, so thought 4 hours would be more realistic.

All went well - until 20 minutes before my GPS said I would arrive... Suddenly the ABS warning lamp and my Air Bag warning lamp lit. The the car sort of started feeling very bouncy. Luckily there was a big service only about 200 metres further up and as I turned in there, my brake warning lamp lit too.

I rang Road Recovery in Denmark and they promised to contact their local collaborator. I also rang my friend Kath to let her know I would be late...

After an hour there was still no Road Recovery to be seen. Kath got worried and said she would come out.

After 2 hours of waiting the Road Recovery finally showed up and he was the rudest man I've ever met. He started by saying that he would not take me anywhere as I was not covered! So why did he come, if I was not covered? I ended up ringing Denmark so many times and Denmark rang me back in an attempt to sort it. My phone bill will be huge.

All in all it was just horrid - the dogs were tired, I was tired and felt very alone and recovery man refused to take my car to the garage - he kept saying that he would take it 'back to the base' where ever that is!!!!

Luckily Kath showed up, so I could get the dogs into her van + all my stuff. She also sort of found out where the 'base' was and after several more phone calls to Denmark the recovery man agreed to deliver my car to the garage I had asked for (the one my friend usually take her car to) this morning. I hope he has!

Now I'm home alone in my friend's home. She is out for some job with her dogs. It is nice to have a day alone with my boys to recover from the journey. We are all exhausted.

I do hope to hear some good news about the car some time later. This is very stressful.

This picture is from the service, where we waited for Road Recovery to show up. The dogs had been in the car for about 36 hours (except for our little walk when possible). I just couldn't put them back again. We walked on the green areas around the fuel station/hotel several times, then I fed them and when there was nothing more to do, I found some blankets for us to sit on. It started raining, so I wrapped the dogs in blankets to keep them dry. This is an exhausted and fed up Hero resting on my lap.

Send positive thoughts for a cheap and pain free car recovery, please!
Emmy and the Hazyland boys (in Derbyshire)