Comfort Zone's

I had a lot to fit in this week, as well as the training, work and the usual things that have to be done to keep a home going I had to fit in a couple of trips to Norwich.  Working from home is great but it does make you ever so slightly reclusive.  Sitting at home every day in your comfy slippers without your face on can very quickly become your 'comfort zone' so a trip out can be a bit traumatic in our house, especially when time is short.  The first trip out with Madi was particularly difficult because there is no car park so, hanging over my head, all the way there, is the possibility, on our arrival of the 'parallel park'.  So hopeless am I at this manoeuvre that the fear of it turns me into some kind of demoniacally possessed lunatic.  I worry about it, have nightmares about it and shout about the stupidity of the lack of proper car parking for a good two or three days before each visit.  So, add to this a cash machine, a petrol station and the need for change for the meter before we left Diss and you will begin to understand just how high my stress levels were .... I don't get out much!.

Anyway, having tackled the first minor hurdles and thinking that there was only one major one potentially left, we set off.  Gradually we began to notice that the heater wasn't performing the one duty it was designed for, it wasn't getting hot.  Now I remember this happening once before, heater stopped, some time later car made a loud noise then, just as I got to the most inconvenient spot along the sea front in Cromer, car stopped!  Terrified history was about to repeat itself we did what I always do in such situations, we called Andrew.  He said to watch the temperature and to put water in the car asap.  I stopped at the co op in Long Stratton, shot out the car and walked straight passed the door into the trolley park!  I get this kind of temporary blindness when I get nervous and we were running late. When I eventually found the way in I raced up and down the isles like a contestant in 'Supermarket Sweep' shouting 'water' every time I passed an assistant.  Eventually I found it, people waved me to the front of the queue at the checkout, and I took the water outside.  Madi was on the phone to Andrew who talked us through 'opening the bonnet' and we went from 'Supermarket Sweep' to the 'Golden Shot'

'up a bit, left a bit, over to the right, the one at the top, no it's at the bottom'
'I'll stick it in here'
'NO, don't put it there'
'I'll put it in this one then'
'NO, that's the wrong one'

It was at this moment that a little face appeared around the side of the car and a lady asked us 'have you got a flat tyre?'  Now I know nothing about cars, absolutely nothing but I do know you don't change a tyre via the engine with a litre of mineral water.  There was a moment when we all just stood and stared at each other, then it all started again

'it's the one at the back, not that one, that's the windscreen wipers'
'it must be this one'
'no, that's brake fluid'
'are you sure, what's this one then'

The woman helpfully dragged her husband over who looked at the engine and muttered 'It's not been looked at for a long time' brilliant I thought, he clearly knows where it goes 'where does it go then?' I asked him 'I don't know' he shrugged as he sloped off - in retrospect I think what he meant was that my engine, unlike his, was not polished!!!!.  I would imaging, when the sales man pointed out what was under the bonnet it would have been the level of shine and not the level of engineering that impressed this man.

Luckily for us a leather clad motor cyclist who I'm sure will regret stopping for that cigarette, stepped into the farce, not that he knew any more than we did but he was braver than we were at unscrewing caps, he took all the tops off so we could peer inside and decide which one looked most like water.  In the end I made a 'kill or cure' decision, 'I'm going to put it in this one' I said to the hushed crowd.  Madi reported on the phone to Andrew 'she's putting it in, it's going in' when I looked up to thank the useless crowd they had all gone!

Anyway, it appeared to work, we got there, I didn't have to parallel park although we could have done without the walk!.  We even got home again and took ourselves off for a relaxing run and it felt very comfortable, not the run but the simplicity of it - there's not a lot that can go wrong provided you keep putting one foot in front of the other, I'm beginning to think this running quite suits me.