Easy Peasy, it’s just so easy…

I have not written edited or researched, anything to do with writing in the last week. This is very unusual as I do have a set routine when I’m writing a novel.

My day goes something like this.

Up in the morning, trying very hard to be bright and bushy tailed when making a coffee for myself, and a morning cup of tea for my partner Hilda.

Hilda, besides being my partner is essential to me when I’m writing, she views my days written output and is, sometimes, brutally honest causing me to rewrite, or scrap, a day’s output. Happily, that is fairly rare, and I can generally tell how well the plot of the book is going when she complains that I haven’t written enough, and wants to know what happens next… Also, an anguished cry when she’s reading the output, “Oh no… you can’t kill him/her… can be a good sign that I’m on the right track, the reaction being what I’m looking for…

So, what caused the interruption to my normal schedule? Alas it was my car…

I’ve been driving the same car for fourteen years, and it’s been very good to me, except when it comes to the MOT, particularly over the last few years… Year upon year obtaining a MOT has become increasingly expensive, my last one costing over three hundred and fifty pounds… Not only that, the examiner told me the car had no chance of passing an MOT the next year (this year), as it would be far too expensive… Reluctantly I accepted when the MOT came around that I would have to get another car, and this is what has caused me considerable heartache and research… The last time I replaced a car was… Can’t remember, too far in the past…

I studied the adverts, and Facebook and Facebay, looking for a car that would fit into my very meagre budget. Many days and nights were spent in (what appeared to be) looking for a wheeled needle in a haystack… Eventually, after another adventure I struck a deal to replace my noble workhorse… (sob)

Anyway, stage one was now complete and all I had to do now was scrap the old car…

Then the trouble started! My old car had a DAB radio in it, and this was worth far more than the car and I was determined it would not go to the great, rusting, recycling heaven on the coast. So, a wee bit research on the internet and YouTube, learning just how simple it was to take the radio out!

“You get these two pins, push them in at either side of the unit and gently pull the radio from its housing…” Easy Peasy, it’s just so easy…

Several hours later in the sweltering heat and believe me the weather in Fife has been sweltering for a long time, I gave up and sought assistance. Another fruitless three hours…

I decided I’d have to get the professionals in the next day.

He looked at the car and the radio and shook his head, “It’ll cost you thirty quid, are you sure the radio’s worth it?” Having only put it in the car about a year earlier, and the cost being over two hundred pounds I agreed to the fee.

As the uninstaller told me later, the Halfords fitter where I purchased the radio, had not installed the radio properly and had actually screwed the unit to the car… So, no… ‘Stick two pins either side and ease the unit out, easy peasy then?  Thank you Halfords… Not!

Hopefully I’ll get back to work over the next few days. However that is dependent on me managing to find places, or consign to the recycling bin, the detritus excavated from the old car… May be a few days yet…