When I drove my boyfriend home last Thursday I thought I could smell fresh diesel fumes, but as he keeps teasing me that my car Petra runs on crystals and Reiki, I decided not to say anything to give him extra fuel to wind me up. Once I arrived at Llandaff Fields, I opened the bonnet and sure enough, the thin rubber pipe had split on the same end as all the other times in the past. I think its because of all the potholes and speed-bumps everywhere, jolting the engine?!? Luckily, I had spare parts and the necessary tools, so just needed some handy bloke to sort her for me please. Two plasterers working on the house opposite offered to do it last Friday in exchange for a free holistic massage session each and as I love bartering, I agreed. Unfortunately, they took the split pipe off but then couldnt fit the new one, so I was stranded! Mind you, the Peugeot 406 design seems to make the simplest jobs difficult, perhaps to keep mechanics in tons of work? I rang my mechanic and begged him to come up to Highlands and he said hed try, but was up to his eyes in bigger jobs. Knowing that hed do his best to rescue me, I waited patiently until Sunday afternoon, then rang my sister-in-law to ask my ex what I needed to do. His snide reply that I needed a NEW car irked, especially as I actually bought Petra from him years ago!!! I cant afford a new car and anyway, regard Petra as a personification of myself, as were both old models with tons of dents, scratches and other war wounds, which we wear with pride...and I can push into gridlock traffic now because other posher vehicles tend to back away, as being survivors we care not now if we get a few more knocks! LOL! So, Sunday night I spent ages searching for the Haynes manual amongst my hundreds of books and decided that I had nothing to lose by trying to fix Petra myself. Her engine looks nothing like the ones in the book after all the tinkering done upon her by my ex, but I asked Archangels Michael and Raphael to please help me. I decided to take some photographs in case I forgot how the parts fitted back together then took a deep breath and started loosening jubilee clips on something to do with the air filter, pulled the tube thingy off and then fitted the new rubber hose. The job was completed in less than ten minutes! Erring on the side of caution, I left the dogs home in case I broke down en-route to Bessemer to get my mechanic to check that Id done it properly. He apologised and hugged me, saying that hes taking the business over from his boss this week, but was impressed that Id overcome my fear and tackled the problem head-on. Two other mechanics also checked her and congratulated me. I had to pay £27.50 for a catering box of eggs as there were none going cheap after the recent festive period, but I didnt mind as I want them for myself and animals, plus reckoned I was STILL in profit because I hadnt needed to spend a fortune on a call-out charge and mechanic fees. The tube only cost about £3.00 and Ive enough left to do two more repairs in the future, which tend to be averaging every six months and now I KNOW how easy it is to accomplish, Ive stopped stressing! The plasterers were impressed when I drove home with a massive grin on my face, yet Im still going to give them a free massage because they did actually try to aid me. It might seem like Im boasting but Im not, just relieved that after all the recent panic attacks Ive suffered that this is one less thing to trigger future ones! I think theres a lesson to be learned, that no matter how afraid I might be of something, Ill never realise my full potential unless I attempt to have a go! Onwards and upwards!!! xxxxxx
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 09:14:29 +0000
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