What a day!!

Yesterday morning we had to be up bright and breezy to go and collect our eldest (he's 18 now) from the airport. He'd spent New Year's week in England. I always find the longer the children are off school, the more comfy my bed seems in the mornings.

He's well trained don't you think, look what he brought me home, Country Living magazine and a bar of chocolate - bless him!! The little tealight holder he bought me for Christmas which I was very pleased with. You can't see in the photo but it's like a chocolate brown ceramic pebble.

Did bits around the house, got lunch and planned to leave at 1.45 to take some rubbish to the skip, drop Holly at her friend's house to play and take the eldest to his girlfriend's. BUT, I didn't get there. About 15 mins out of town in the country, suddenly there was a funny noise, I said "what's that funny noise, is it a bird, is it a plane - we stopped and pulled over - no IT'S A FLAT TYRE". Why do these things always happen when I'm driving? We emptied the rubbish out of the boot (as we hadn't been to the skip) and proceeded to try and find the jack and the spare wheel. Got the instruction book out of the glove box. Did as it said, but the spare wheel which is held in a sort of basket under the back of the car wouldn't drop down as it should. Olly (the eldest) was under the car and I was turning the thingy but nothing was happening. Could this get any worse - oh yes!!

Lovely spot to be stranded don't you think? After about 20mins decided it would be best to ring home and ask himself for some manly advice. To make a long story slightly shorter, we still had no success and had to ring a friend to collect himself and bring him to us - himself being very practical in these matters. He arrived, studied the situation and the car. He couldn't release the basket thing either, (breathed a slight sigh of relief - it wasn't just me!) and asked friend and I to go back into town to see if the garage was open. It's a Renault and the Renault garage in town were the last to do something with the spare wheel thing, we think it must have been overtightened so the thread had gone - something like that anyway - don't want to bore you too much with detail. Renault garage closed, Friday after New Year, obviously taking opportunity for a long weekend. French do New Year's Eve in a big way, don't get me wrong they do Christmas in a big way too, but the 31st is an all night feast.

So we were now stuck, tyre flat as a pancake, Renault garage closed, couldn't get the spare out to replace it. Oh and did I mention, it was absolutely freezing yesterday. So next step, I went back to town with friend to buy a hacksaw so himself could cut through offending bolt and release the basket thing. He managed after lying on his back under the car for I don't know how long to cut through it. The actual changing of the tyre took ooh all of five minutes.

Three hours later, with the rubbish and a flat tyre in the car, as well as Holly, it was too late to go to her friend's, we arrived home, without Olly, we had dropped him at his girlfriend's on the way. Just thought I would add this photo of eldest in his yellow jacket, obligatory in France now to have a yellow jacket and a warning triangle in the car for just such an occasion.

When I finally got home I rang Holly's friend to explain and made a cup of tea. We sat in front of the fire with a box of Shortbread biscuits. That made us feel better.

Nickyx