So Near

A dashboard warning 10 miles from home was a concern, but not a disaster; 'Electrical fault'. 7 miles from home; 'anti skid off'. 5 miles; 'brake failure-stop safely'.

I now had worked out this was an alternator failure and from past experience, no charge means all power from battery, but for how long?

My instinct was to keep going, with my heart in my mouth I just kept going. To save power switched off air con.

4 miles to go and now no speedo, no fuel gauge, no trip meter. The dashboard was now like a Christmas tree with yellow, orange and red warning lights.

1 mile to go and traffic lights at red, instinctively knew now driving in serious injury time. Thoughts of embarrassment and what do I do if; conk out at lights, block main road, stop suddenly with no brake lights.

Fortunately next set of lights at green accelerated not to miss, took right turn at junction with no indicators, I could see annoyance in eyes of oncoming motorist but had to keep going.

Now on home straight, 100m to go and the engine not responding to accelerator. Turned into drive, almost there , then nothing.

Enough momentum to turn into home drive, 2 metres to go then stopped. Car diagonal on drive with tail sticking out on road! So near and greatly relieved, the alternative scenarios do not bear thinking about.

With the help of Derek, my neighbour, we towed the car up the final 6 feet.