Friday, 24th August, 2007

Tyred And Useless

car

Gah. What is wrong with me that I can't seem to convey to other people what it is that I actually want, and always end up getting midly stressed and feeling disappointed?

At the risk of inducing a ton of "Oh, FFS Curran" feedback, I have to confess that I've been driving around for the past month on the spare trye of my car. Ever since I whacked an enormous pothole on the way home from work one night, I've had the inconvenience of a pissy 'space-saver' tyre, and the inevitable clunky drive that they bring.

I know I should have sorted it out earlier, I just couldn't afford it is all.

Today though, a rather unexpected (well, unexpected about a week ago) windfall has landed in my bank, and so I booked Ffr in to have a complete set of new tyres.

Excessive, perhaps, but to be totally frank, I seem to keep having to inflate the other three every week or so — I'm convinced they've all got slow punctures.

I was quite excited, actually, driving over to the tyre place earlier on this morning. When I got there I could see the four brand spanking new Michelins sitting out, and I expected to have about an hour's worth of thumb-twiddling time while they brought my car back up to scratch, and potentially had a look at the shock absorbers as well.

"Just leave the flat with us", said the guy, tutting at the big dent in the rim (that I hadn't spotted before), "and if you give us a call in an hour, I'll tell you if we can fix it, or if you'll need a new one."

Which is very noble of him, of course — offering to fix a puncture for a fraction of the cost of a replacement.

But.

That's not what I want. I want them to replace all four tyres, regardless of whether they can be fixed or not. Like I said, it might seem excessive, but if I don't do it now — when I can afford it — they'll probably give up the ghost when I can't afford it, and I'll be screwed.

The Empowered Consumer Of The Twenty First Century™ would, no doubt, have said something like "Thanks, but actually what I'd rather you do is...". I, being a complete useless cretin in any situation which involves dealing with other people said "OK", and scuttled back to the house in a furious mood with myself.

I really hate that aspect of my personality. I dunno where it comes from, but I seem to totally fall to pieces whenever something like that happens. Instead of explaining (and asserting) what I want to happen, I just let people walk all over me — even when they're trying to be nice and helpful.

...

Anyway. Whatever. On the way home I bought some Frontline. The kittens are not going to be happy with me...

Currantly

photo gin sunshine currantly

Oh man, I could get used to this

How did the tire thing work out?

Tyre! The word is tyre!

It kinda worked out well. I surprised myself by repeating the words "I want four new tyres" over and over again on the phone, and then spent three hours wandering along the Lune as they put them on for me.

Except their depot had sent one that wasn't the right size, and I have to take the car in this morning to get the last one.

Which is tricky, seeing as I'm hideously hungover.