My car is in the workshop, and I took it there all by myself! I phoned up and arranged for the work to be done, dropped it off yesterday afternoon on my way home from work and picked up a courtesy car. All by myself.
The operative phrase here is 'all by myself' (in case you didn't pick that up all by yourself). How grown up am I organising car things? Normally I make Al do it, or else I ignore it and hope that the red flashing warning light(s) will miraculously go away. Or, I pretend that it's not a warning light at all, but rather it's just that my indicator light has changed colour and fallen down my dashboard a bit.
But, it had to be done. I was getting pissed off, which is very motivating. My central locking has had a nervous breakdown (I know how it feels). Sometimes it locks, sometimes doesn't, sometimes it unlocks, sometimes it doesn't. Usually (98% of the time) the drivers door lock doesn't work at all (although, my car being a complete hussy, it works almost every time if Al does it), so I have to run around to the passenger door and hope that whatever happens will happen universally eg. that all the doors (and most importantly the drivers door) will unlock, not just the passenger door. So far, holding my breath pays off about 60% of the time, although for some reason that seems to be least effective if it's raining. Interesting. You know, it's very hard to keep an encouraging tone whilst trying to convince your car to let you in, please, please, please, if it's pouring with rain.
But, nevermind all that! Because I am sooo brave, as we speak, it's all getting fixed! And, even better, I have mechanical breakdown insurance, so it's getting fixed for the grand total of $100.00 (excess charge). Well, in theory. You know what insurance companies are like ...
Ahhhhyyessss Mrs Walmsley ...I see that you bought our super dooper flash mechanical breakdown insurance, what a clever girl, and that you've had a mechanical breakdown. Oh dear, that's no good at all. Hmmm. Well! we've been contacted by your repairer who has informed us that you'll need five hundred really expensive parts to fix the problem, and we're pleased to inform you that we're are going to cover you for ....three of them! Three! Isn't that great?! Are you alright there Mrs Walmsley? You appear to be choking ... Oh, you'd like to know how we assessed your claim? Certainly. Now, you see there in paragraph 55 on page 693 of the policy how there are 12 lines in the paragraph? Well, if you times twelve by six and then do a little twirl, add two hundred and sixteen and then go and make yourself a coffee, divide by ninety six and then factor in how much we hate parting with our money ...and, oh yes, we musn't forget how many full stops there are in the sentence. That's very important! And, in the end, using our special assessment system, and taking into account my annual bonus too mind, it comes out at three! It's really very simple, and all there in the fine print that we didn't include in the policy...
I probably should refrain from bagging the insurance company before they do their assessment though, shouldn't I? Bad karma and all that. OK, we'll strike the above imaginary conversation with the insurance company from the record temporarily and see how we get on.
Everything crossed everyone please! I'll be [beside myself with joy] quite happy if I only have to pay the $100.00 excess. I mean, obviously I'd prefer to spend $100.00 on something other than car stuff (not a tablecloth though because they're very expensive), but you get that on the big jobs. Plus, only having to pay the excess on the claim will make up for having to listen to Paul Holmes on talk back this morning because the radio in the courtesy car was crap.
Have a loverly day!
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