A Day I would rather forget

Well this was a day that was sent to test my sanity.

After the snow last night, I was a bit dubious about my travel to the Midlands today.  There was chaos around Baverstocks on the Heads of the Valley road, but nothing then until Rassau.  I lost the total of an hour sat waiting for the traffic to move.  

I eventually arrived 3 and a half hours after setting off, but that wasn't the end.

We then had to do a presentation to a Tier One contractor.  According to them we should be measuring everything because you never know when you might need the data.  I'm sure there's some logic behind that.

And then the nightmare went into overdrive.  Back at my car which I parked at the multi-storey in Birmingham International Rail Station, I noticed the back tyre was completely flat.  I phoned the AA to assist me at 16:10, the initial estimate was that they would be with me by around 18:00, that time came and went, and then I had an estimate of 22:20.  I phoned them up and explained my situation as a transplant patient and the critical need to have my medication at set times, and not to miss a time at all.  It didn't seem to make any difference.

By this time I was panicking, it's a scary thought knowing that your future health is dependent on a breakdown recovery coming to your help.  They did arrived eventually around 19:35, he tried to help but as I had no spare he couldn't do much.  Cue panic again.  He got back in touch with the control centre and they said they were going to send a recovery vehicle out to me, to take me and the car back home to South Wales.  Initial assessment time was now around midnight, this was reported to me at 20:31.

I then got a message to say that they would be with me within 15 minutes, at 22:35.  He turned up on time, but this time it wasn't a recovery vehicle as I was told, but an ordinary breakdown assistance vehicle.  He had a look, couldn't find anything wrong but suggested he should follow me home, all 2.5 hours and keep pumping up the tyre as we went along.  Ridiculous!  

He then said we could arrange a recovery vehicle, how long would this take, probably another 2 or 3 hours.  This was getting insane.  After going back and fore, we had another suggestion, travel an hour and get a new tyre in Wolverhampton.  Not a great option but at least I could get home.

So we set off, me following him along the M6.  Most of the time in the fast lane pushing 70mph, me of course with a tyre that could go flat any second.  I dread to think what would have happened if something had gone wrong.  When we arrived you could see my tyre was going down quickly.  I eventually had a new tyre at 00:15 and made my way home, arriving at 2:20am.

What a day!