Sunday, March 18, 2007

Plans

I managed to get on Timbo's insurance for a week, starting yesterday, as he has chicken pox and is house bound. Naturally I made some plans to maximise the freedom and headed up to Loughborough yesterday to watch Ian play rugby and see Megan. The plan was to come home late, (like after 12 at least), so that Ian would be home for Mothers day (happy mothers day mum!! I know its not the Aussie one but I don't actually know when that is and will almost certainly miss it so I am capitalising on the opportunity) and so I could run sunday morning youth at church. That was the plan anyway. Halfway out of Oxford I noticed the heat guage was very high. A quick call to Tim put my mind at ease, apparently it stays hot till you get out on the motorway and then she cools down. So I headed up the motorway and got most of the way to the M1, just under halfway to Loughborough, when the engine light came on. I pulled into a service station and checked the water (had checked this AND the oil before I left and they had both been fine) both were still ok but I topped up the water and let it cool down for twenty mins before deciding to give it another go. The car seemed fine again, except that the heat climbed very quickly, and it was driving fine, not doing anything that it should not have been. About 5mins later however the car started losing power, the engine light came back on and I started hearing worrying noises, I just managed to get it to the next BP station where it promptly died and refused to come back to life. Steam from under the bonnet suggested a blown head gasket. Not good. I called Tim and he said it sounded like a head gasket, told me he'd make some calls and then see about getting me home.
3 hours later. I had finished my book, beaten my own high score at solataire three times (now stands at 119 seconds, 6573 points. Heck Yeah!!) listened to my cd five times, paid an exorbitant amount for a sandwich and muffin, and written half of a letter. Stu and Tim rocked up with the dirtiest, most pathetic piece of rope I've ever seen (about as tick as my finger) to tow me home with. We quadruple layered it to stop it snapping and being to big a gap between the cars and twisted it into a half decent rope which I double locked off in both directions and then some, basically I made it up as I went along but it worked. We worked out a series of army style hand signals to communicate what Stu was about to do in the car in front, and after a couple of missunderstandings and close calls worked it out so that we could drive almost as one. Cruising down the motorway at 50(miles) we were a sight to behold, so impressed were the other drivers they drove past with mouths agape, clearly speechless at our genius and daring. The Police however would not have been speechless on the topic and so we kept a sharp eye out and made it all the way to Oxford before not one but two police cars pulled out directly in front of us. We quickly pulled off the side of the road and I called Tim to say "Shizzer!! The bullen commen!!" (Something we picked up off the Germans last week that seemed appropriate to the situation) We made it home without further incident and had only snapped one strand of the make shift rope, we'd done well. Even better, there's a pub directly across from Tims house and I walked in just in time to see England score a spectacular first try against Wales (who, in fairness, beat them in style by the end of the match). France won the six nations, should have been Ireland... gutted.
So that the day was not a complete mess, Heth came to get me and we headed to Emma's to chill. Halfway there I realised that Heths lights weren't on. Spent the other half of the journey giving her stick about it. Watched the last half of Bridget Jones Diary, a thoroughly girly movie, before discovering Fight Club was on another channel, a thoroughly un-girly movie.
There were two up points to the weekend. Friday nite, the boys from last week showed up, I took them aside for a quick word and they were absolutely fine, they came in and played volleyball with us and there was not a hint of the anger and so on from last week. Grace and Mercy seemed to have a powerful effect. The whole nite was fantastic, a great four a side football thing got going and there was laughter and good natured banter in the other room all nite. Amazing stuff. The other thing was that I got given a bunch of clothes the pators son was throwing out, he's pretty much my size exactly and he has stupidly good taste in clothes as he is a designer. I quite literally doubled my wardrobe over nite.
Now feeling very much like I need to sleep so I think I'll go have a kip before church tonite. Im open to this becoming a kip instead of church tonite, but James is doing his first talk so I want to go support him.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok first of all thanks for disclosing that piece of information on your very public blog so that everyone can now give me stick about it and second of all a) they were not off they just werent on enough and b) I am ill and was not with it at all last night but had dragged myself out to pick u up to try and lift your understandably low spirits. Some would say that gratitude would be a preferable choice to taunting and public ridicule! Lol, its all good fun anyway and hey it gave you something to write about!Roll on the end of the month when you can drive me around!

Jacqui said...

Hi Zac,
we had a similar incident at beach mission this year and once again grace and mercy paid off, wouldn't it be wonderful if more people tried it. I.m very proud of you and the work you are doing,
luv nan

Zaac said...

heth; "you made your bed, now lie in it"
nan; thankyou =] love you too

Zaac said...

heth; "you made your bed, now lie in it"
nan; thankyou =] love you too

Anonymous said...

1: obviously heth is a very tidy person and made her bed twice, just to be sure she had done it right.

2: 'they just weren't on enough' so that would be off then?!

3: i like the way you have written it with your Dad's questioning in mind: 'I pulled into a service station and checked the water (had checked this AND the oil before I left and they had both been fine)'
obviously the brackets are added to answer the immediate questioning that you know is coming from you Dad.

Zaac said...

not on enough = off. she made some vague argument that they were on park lights, which we all know is the same as being off. dads old car, my first car, had a cracked head gasket which lasted far longer than it should have before dying, checking water and oil was a regular thing, was expecting the question and defending my blokieness against any accusation i had done the female thing and gone on a road trip without checking water, oil, fuel, that kind of thing.

Anonymous said...

1) Andy ssshhhhhhh i can honestly say they were on dim they were not off and Zac you should really try harder to be nice! Especially since i actually have a solid excuse now- labarynthsitus - actually not making it up that everything is spinning and could hardly see straight on saturday night! Not to mention the fcat you actuallyw atched me drive up the road with the lights like that and asaid nothing, not so innocent yourself eh!!!!

Zaac said...

heth i hardly watched your driving at all, i only looked out the windscreen and noticed randomly halfway down the highway, dont even try and shoft the blame and you know i never would have let you come and get me if id known how ill you were.

Anonymous said...

Was actually referring to when you and Stu were stood outside the house for me to pick you up and you concluded that you should have realsied that it was strange that you could see my face as i drove up, lol. Not shifting the blame, simply claiming extenuating circumstances in the desperate hope that micky taking will desist. tehehe. Hope you feel better today.x