Day Tripping in the Family Car

Setting off with my family, I was looking forward to the day ahead. I mean, what could be better than spending the day chilling at Shakespeare’s house, then popping to a 14th century pub for a pint of ale and a burger. Heaven!

The town of Stratford-Upon-Avon is only an hour away from where we live, so I figured it would be the perfect way to end the school holidays. Not too much driving for me, thankfully. All very nice and relaxed …

WRONG!

On approach to the car park at Stratford, there was a bit of a queue and some roadworks to negotiate. Typical of my luck, the last mile of my journey always seems to take ten times longer than it should. But I remained calm (by holding my breath then breathing out slowly like my therapist told me) then thought about all the amazing history (and ale) I was about to digest. Then …

PING!

An orange light appeared on my dashboard to tell me the breaking news that my left-rear tyre pressure was lower than it should be. More deep breaths!

But all seemed fine. The car felt stable and just few moments later, I managed to park up. It was time to start a wonderful family day out with the bard (and my ale of course!) That was, until I got out of the car …

HISSSSSSSSSS …..

More deep breaths! Then a desperate attempt to create a positive falsehood; The hissing was obviously coming from nearby tress, or perhaps an escaped python. But deep down, I knew the truth …

There’s nothing more reliable than Volkswagen, and my bastard car is right every time!

While I had no proper spare (because it would just get nicked again!), I did have one of those space saver wheels that could get us slowly home. But due to the risk of doing my back in for the umpteenth time, I decided to phone my breakdown cover to come and assist.

They gave me a time frame of one hour, so I told my wife and kids to go and enjoy Shakespeare’s house.

“Don’t worry,” I said with a wide smile that was covering up my inner torture, “I’ll catch up with you soon!”

I received a text message to say there was a 30 min delay. Then twenty minutes passed and I got another, saying the driver was stuck in roadworks and there was another 30 min delay. More deep breaths (and still no fecking ale!)

Four hours later, while manically scrolling for my therapist’s number, the rescue guy appeared and fitted my wheel. I tried my best to make conversation with him, but I think he was having a bad day too. As he struggled to get my wheel off, I told him all about my deep breathing technique. But as he didn’t seem interested, so I thought about my ale instead.

Finally, setting off to meet my family, I was determined ‘THAT BLOODY CAR!’ wasn’t going to spoil my day. Even the freak thunderstorm and my badly leaking trainers wouldn’t do it.

“Oh, you’re here then. I’m really sorry love, but I’m afraid Shakespeare's house is booked up for the day now. But the kids loved it!” my wife said.

‘Oh well. To be or not to be I suppose.’ I thought to myself. Then squelched off to the pub for my Ale!

Thanks for reading 🚗

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Originally published at https://medium.com/never-stop-writing/just-another-typical-car-day-a883d1165732