Rain again

Had a bonus surprise when I took the car after work to get - I thought - a new tyre. The nice man told me I wouldn't need a new one they could just fix the old one. Bonus. I hadn't thought about fixing a puncture before but clearly it's something they do plenty of. So instead of a significant bill it turned out to be just the equivalent of a few cups of coffee. And all completed in super-quick time too :)

Off down the road then to get some replacement windscreen wipers.....

Never having changed wipers before I asked whether they could be fitted for me.

"Ah, no, sorry. We used to do that but we've been stopped from doing it now."

"Really?! Why?"

"Some young-gun at a store fitted a woman's incorrectly and they scratched her windscreen. Head office have now told us we're not to do any more fittings."

"Oh my goodness! Well, are you allowed to tell me how to fit them then as I have no idea?"

"Sure. You squeeze these bits together then slide the old ones out. Then you slide the new ones in through the guides making sure the clips 'snap' into place at the end. You'll need to cut off anything that's too long once they're fitted."

"OK. So do you have anything I could use to cut them with?"

"Sure" he said, giving me a pair of pliers.

So out I went into the spotting rain. The first one was easy and I had it done in no time. For some reason though the second one didn't want to play ball. After watching me struggle with it for a few minutes he came out to me and asked what the problem was. I showed him where I was having difficulty whereupon he asked for the pliers, prised the housing a little then slid the new blade on effortlessly.

I thanked him for helping, promising not to tell his bosses he'd done so!

It struck me that something was more than a little wrong about the company's approach to customer service.

By the time I got home the wipers had been christened (and did a very good job) though this image is after having allowed a few drops to fall and collect together on the windscreen. It was going to be a wiperblade swoosh shot but I liked this effect better.

Friday tomorrow. Yay.


PS - Just found out that one of my images has been selected as one of the 80 that will represent the Photographic Society of New Zealand in the Annual Four Nations Photographic Competition between Australia, South Africa, Canada and NZ. It's the closest I'll ever get to representing my country at anything! I feel very honoured :)