Unexpected Stop

I had a huge shopping list for my mother this morning, with trips to the post office, supermarket, bank and chemist.
So I drove to the post office, got her the requested stamps, walked back to my car and started it. But no. It produced a sound like an asthmatic, rattling cough, blinked some lights at me, and refused to start.
I don't know much about cars, but it was obvious that the battery had just died.
A phonecall to the garage and 45 minutes later, the aptly named (and very friendly) mechanic Herr Buff appeared, and confirmed my suspicions. He used a clever, portable battery kit to start my car, so that I could drive to the garage myself to get a new battery built  in at once.

So, I got to blip the Christmas decoration in the garage. It's in my mother's village, and I really like the fact that they know their customers by name and are pretty well organized. I even got a big mug of hot coffee to get warm again, while the car was repaired.

Then it was back to the shopping and to work - only  two hours later than planned...