Today

Today was one of THOSE days ...

I was working from home today, and got caught up in a spreadsheet I was working on and then realised I was running late to take the girls to their holiday activity (a day of basketball).

Quickly did their hair and rushed them out the door.  Drove a kilometre up the road and the car died!!!  It basically just lost power.

I pulled over, and put my hazard lights on and took stock.  I was parked on the edge of a major road (90km zone), a kilometre from home and a long way to basketball with a car that didn't want to go.

My first challenge was to get the girls to basketball.  I rang another mother who I thought might be going - no answer.  I rang my BIL who lives locally to see if he could take them - no answer.  I rang hubby to see if he could contact BIL.  Hubby couldn't, however he did get through to another neighbour who was happy to transport the girls.

Challenge 1 overcome.

The second challenge was to figure out what was going on and how to fix it.  I rang Shooting Buddy to talk to him (he is down in Perth this week).  He was 1/2hr away so said he would come over.

Shooting Buddy arrived and tried to start the car.  It wouldn't start.  We had a bit of a chat about what might be wrong - my car has never broken down before, I knew it wasn't the battery because that was pretty new.  Then it dawned on Shooting Buddy and I that he had put some fuel into my car from a jerry can we had at home a couple of days before and maybe it wasn't unleaded.

You see, we were driving back from the range on Sunday and my car needed fuel, I suggested we stop at the local service station - but the fuel was SO EXPENSIVE - luckily hubby had bought some the previous day at a good price and had them stored in jerry cans at home.  Shooting Buddy said he knew where they were and offered to fill the car up for me when we got home. Which he did.

So anyway another call to hubby and yep, it wasn't unleaded in the can he used it was vegetable oil.  Ooops.

So now we knew what was wrong!  Now to fix it ...

Luckily I belong to the RAC which offer roadside assistance and towing.  They were happy to tow it back home for me and said there would be a 90min wait.  I had a phone conference in a bit so Shooting Buddy offered to stay with the car and wait for the tow truck and my neighbour (who was returning back from dropping the girls off) offered me a lift back home.

I made it with 5 mins to spare for my phone conference.  Unfortunately for Shooting Buddy the 90mins turned into about 2.5hrs :(  But eventually he and the car turned up.  A cup of tea and lunch later he had recuperated.

We decided to wait until hubby got home for the actual fixing part (Shooting Buddy headed off to do some errands and get the girls later).

So at about 3.30pm Shooting Buddy and the girls had arrived back and hubby (who picked up my Dad who is here for a visit) also arrived and while I struggled with work and phone calls they fixed my car.  I did venture out and see what they were up to at one stage, but decided I really didn't want to know!

It is now all okay!