Vocal Voices

I finally got my MRI last night, I'd had tea the last time (stupid) and they had to reschedule it.

They were late, they could not get the adenosine into me and I left nearly 2 hours after I expected to. I had to get to Southampton to get stuff from Ikea and then head to Newhaven for a ferry. I'd been up almost all Wednesday night trying to fix a problem that my Indian colleague called me up at 01:30 for and I was shattered.

Needless to say I was rushing, left Southampton at 21:15 and my ferry left Newhaven was at 11pm. I was going pretty quickly. Just outside Chichister I was trying to get past a car which had just moved in, I was doing 70mph and put my foot down to "whoosh" and no power.

Fortunately I was just before the 285 junction and was able to get it part way up the slip road.

called the AA. I had a good idea what he was going to say. When we got the cover off, the cam belt was slack...

Recovered back to work at 1am, into the hotel at 2am. Back to work at 10:30 in the morning after talking to scrap yards for an hour.

Short version is I've found a replacement engine, a fitter to fit it and I'm going to be £2000 lighter in the wallet. What annoys me most is the car is only supposed to have done 39,000 miles. I've only done 3,000 miles in it since I bought it in May. The bike has done £6,000 miles. I'm now seriously beginning to doubt the mileage reading.

I'm assuming I wronged someone in a previous life. I should have bought another Ford Galaxy. They are more expensive but they last a very long time...

You have wronged me so many times......... but I am so forgiving I would never ask the Universe to intervene.

These things happen mate: the late call, the break down, the leak when we are away. Sod's and Murphy's working in conjunction. What can we mere mortals do?

On the other hand they do sometimes give us a break - we can do no wrong.

You must be due one of those periods soon. Keep on keeping on.

What, so you 'had' to go to Ikea in Southampton?
You then 'had' to go from there to Newhaven for a ferry? Despite perfectly good ferries running from Southampton, Poole, or Portsmouth, all much closer?
Cars break down, it happens to all of us, always at the least convenient times.
You will have excuses I know, but these are choices, not 'have to's'.
Yes Suff I am sounding harsh, but you know apart from being absolutely wonderful on the computers board, you only ever come on here for a whinge and sympathy. You'd get a lot more if you showed the slightest interest in other peoples' lives once in a while.
It's a good thing I like you

Diflower wrote:Yes Suff I am sounding harsh, but you know apart from being absolutely wonderful on the computers board, you only ever come on here for a whinge and sympathy. You'd get a lot more if you showed the slightest interest in other peoples' lives once in a while.

Hmmm, yes harsh but I can see the point.

If you recall I have been on the café quite time to time. I am interested in other people's lives and experiences, but I have so very little time in my life right now that tracking anyone else's life is a long way more than I can cope with right now.

But, point taken, I shall refrain from regaling you with the more poignant parts of my life.

BTW if you can find a ferry which runs from any other port, leaves late in the evening and which allows me some sleep and gets me in France in time for me to be at home in time to work from 9am UK time, then I'll be extremely interested. I haven't been able to find one.

Right now I've been blocked from working from home for more than two months. Something which is taking a massive toll on my life and my health as I try to get my home ready for Christmas and work and travel every weekend. This is something I resolved to deal with after the catastrophe of last night. Work will be told to live up to their commitment to me or lose me.


This is more of an explanation that I had intended. If I did spend time here you would have much more in the "whinge" category and not a lot in the "contribution" category. I'm averaging 60 hours a week working, 18 hours a weekend working in the house and 12-18 hours a weekend travelling.

This weekend I shall sleep!

Suff - I'm sure Diflower means well, and I understand what she means.

Never-the-less, I understand why you tell us about your misfortunes.
No doubt your lifestyle does not provide you with the opportunities to
do so in ways that some of us have.

Personally I always find your posts interesting and informative.

suff why do you push yourself so hard
you are a workachollic throu choice
my husband was the same work came first
he retired he was fine was enjoying retirement
until one day he had a heart attack and died within hours
why did he have a heart attack because he spent his life working long hours
and it took its toil
its a hard fact to face but there is always somebody to take your place in the work place
saying that i hope your life becomes a bit easier but i very much doubt it
i do like aggers enjoy reading about your travels tho
ps aggers is the party still on for sat night /////

saundra wrote:ps aggers is the party still on for sat night /////

I haven't decided yet.

To be honest, I'm missing my wife much more than I thought I would.
The dog doesn't seem too bothered yet - as long as he gets his food, his walks, and his sleeps he's OK.

I've just been looking at the photos I took at our VV Meet in Birmingham, and that's cheered me up.

Suff wrote:Short version is I've found a replacement engine, a fitter to fit it and I'm going to be £2000 lighter in the wallet.

Owwwwwww!
Get a Honda mate, or a Suzuki. They last. We've got a Honda Civic 1.6 auto. It's was my mum's car before me and it's been in the family for 8 years and never gone wrong.
(watch it blow up next week now!)

Aggers wrote:

Personally I always find your posts interesting and informative.

So do I.

Suff wrote:
When we got the cover off, the cam belt was slack...

Oh Suff, that happened to me driving down the M3......well I wasn't driving , other half was, in the fast lane, Saturday afternoon, really busy, engine died. Called the RAC, they couldn't help because we were still in the outside lane so we had to call the police. We were right by a road sign so we knew exactly where we were but the police went to the wrong place because some bright spark had also called them and given them the wrong location!!! We caused a really bad tailback but there was no way I was going to push the car to the hard shoulder when people kept whizzing by and shouting horrid things out of their car windows. You would not believe some of the thing people were shouting at us!! They seemed to think we were parked half on the central reservation and half on the outside lane because we wanted to do a bit of sightseeing!! That cost us £1500 but that was just to replace the cam belt, luckily we stopped so quickly that no damage was caused to the engine. Mind you my car had done over 100,000 miles by that time.

However, the most important thing........when do you get the MRI results?

Tough luck, Suff - these things happen.

It's when they come in spades that we think the Universe is against us. In our case, after a period of relative calm, the kitchen mixer tap sprung a leak, the microwave went "bang", the BT phone handset developed a volume fault, the kettle spout started leaking in sympathy with the tap, and all that in just three weeks.

When we replaced the white goods, we also decided to buy a new toaster on the grounds that, with our existing (8 year old) one, it was only a matter of time and Fate ...

..... its a hard fact to face but there is always somebody to take your place in the work place
saying that i hope your life becomes a bit easier

Wise words from Saundra. We may like to think we're indispensable, but we aren't .....