For Want Of A Wiper in Scottish Meanderings

OMG it was sooooo nice to see the sun this week for a change! Sun and snowdrops - what could be better? I caught the last of the rays walking through a park in town this afternoon and the place was absolutely heaving - I don't actually think I've seen that many folk in it at any time before. Everyone had apparently come out of the woodwork at the first sign of spring and I can tell you there wasn't much hint of social distancing going on!



I actually used to work in this park - in that house you can see through the big trees on the left.

This was the view out of my window.


Can you imagine just how nice that was? The old house used to belong to a local publisher and had been taken over by the council for a couple of projects, one of which I worked in (a music charity). Sadly the house is now a complete ruin - it used to be café and also a nursery before we were up there and after we moved out, there were all sorts of plans for it but none of them came to fruition and it was left to rot.

Such a shame.

A couple of weeks ago I was explaining to Lily the concept of the poem For Want Of A Nail. Little did I know I was then about to give a practical demonstration of the whole scenario with my trusty little Nissan Micra whose windscreen wipers packed in a few days after that.

Not a problem thought I I've got Homestart with the AA - I'll just give them a ring. I knew broken windscreen wipers were considered a breakdown but before I phoned I got out my policy just to make sure I definitely had home recovery. Nope. I definitely had it added in 2019 but it hadn't been carried forward to the following year.

And the problem with that was we were then knee deep in thick snow so the AA, not being fools, had added 100 quid onto the price of it (literally - I got it for £22 last year - they quoted me £125 when I phoned) knowing full well loads of folk will be needing it in that weather. So I said thanks but no thanks and re-donned the thinking cap.

Phoned a local (small) garage the next day which was the Saturday and he said they were a bit snowed under - could I leave it until Monday afternoon and phone back then - he was sure he could look at it though. I was convinced it was the fuse which had blown because the noise it had made when I tried to put the wipers on kinda sounded like that - however when I got it there, he said no the fuses were fine - it was most likely the motor, given the age of the car. He couldn't look at it until well into the following week though so as I needed it for the weekend, I decided to try a local branch of Halfords.

I thought it might be feasible to drive it down there on a sunny day as it was only 3.5 miles from the house - however coming back from the first garage (only 2.5 miles away), a drizzle started up and by the time I was three-quarters home, I could barely see out the windscreen so clearly that wasn't happening.

Dilemma! My windscreen wipers were broken but I couldn't get the car to a garage because ..... MY WINDSCREEN WIPERS WERE BROKEN! (You also have to factor in the fact we're talking about Scotland in winter here :)

Then I remembered when I'd booked the car in for its MOT, I'd taken advantage of Halfords collection and delivery service - ideal for my circumstances - so I phoned and asked if I could use it for a repair situation? The guy I spoke to said he'd have to speak to the driver to find out to see if he was ok with it (why? BECAUSE THE WINDSCREEN WIPERS WERE BROKEN) - he'd phone me back.

So we're now at Monday at this point.

He didn't phone so on Tuesday I phoned again. Same guy - clearly very stressed - one guy off sick and the receptionist hadn't turned up so he was doing three jobs - but very apologetic - admitted he'd forgotten so he would definitely do it that day and phone me back.

No phone call.

By now the tally of stuff I'd missed stood at a blood test, my grocery shopping from TESCO and my usual trip out to Pitmedden at the weekend. Nikki and the kids were in to get her ASDA shop on the Saturday so they popped round and stayed for tea so I didn't miss out on seeing them. The blood test was supposed to happen the morning the wipers broke and the weather was cloudy but dry - rain was forecast later though so I cancelled it. Then decided to chance it (the surgery's not that far away although too far to walk) so phoned to ask if the appointment was still available - was on hold for a whole twenty minutes and when I finally got through, I was told it had literally gone in the last five minutes!

Sod's Law.

I made another one for the Thursday afternoon at 3.45 thinking the car would be fixed by then and if not I could get the bus.

On Wednesday I was supposed to be out in Pitmedden because Nikki has got a new job at the school nursery on Wednesdays and Thursdays - she started on the 24th so wanted to do a trial run of childminders/childcare etc. on the 17th just to let everyone meet each other and get the kids used to what was happening. I'm going to be going out at 2 p.m. on Wednesday afternoons to pick up Ruari from his childminder and Lilah from school at 3 then Lily's going to walk home herself and Nikki finishes work at 4.30 p.m. After April it'll get a bit more stressful as drama classes will start up again for the girls so I'll need to get them into their drama clothes and have them all jacketed and booted, ready to go out the door with Nikki when she gets to the house. I'll then have to hang around till about sixish I think while she swaps kids as they have classes at different times.

So I thought I was going to miss that as well but Nikki wanted it to happen so she came in for me and took me back home later. While I was there, Halfords finally left a message to say the driver had given the ok so just phone back to book it in. Nikki had decided to treat the girls to a McDonalds when she took me back into Aberdeen but there was a huge queue at the drive-in so I decided to phone and book the car in while we waited.

Good job I did.

Coming off the call I said "ugh they can't do it until Tuesday now - can you believe that?" and turned to see a mouth hanging open and horrified eyes staring at me. Took me a few seconds to twig what was wrong then I realised that was the day before she started work and I was on childcare duty in the afternoon! Oops. Let's just say the stress levels in that car were off the Richter Scale by the time I got home.

I couldn't ask anyone to give me a lift because we're not supposed to be in a car with anyone (not in our bubble) just now so it wouldn't be fair - I did ask my best friend in desperation but she's being careful around her Dad who's in his eighties so said no. So there I was out in the snow and ice with a Heath Robinson contraption - a wire from an old webcam, tied to both wipers and fed through the driver's window. When pulled it worked wonderfully - until I realised I had nothing to get them back down again!

Back to the drawing board.

Nikki remembered her new Line Manager's Dad had just started up a taxi service in the neighbouring town to Pitmedden and was doing special flat rates to attract customers. So I messaged him and he was thankfully free at the right time and said he'd do it for £30. That wasn't bad - last time I checked the going rate was nearer £45.

So I texted Nikki to say we could breathe again and her response was "So does that mean I'll have to give you a lift back home after work?". No no it's fine Nikki - no problem - I'll just walk the 15 miles back home. Don’t worry about it🙄

When Thursday came, I realised there was no way I could get to the doctor's surgery in time for the second blood test as I didn't finish Italian until 3 p.m. and there were no buses going anywhere near there so that was cancelled as well. And of course I missed the weekend outing to Pitmedden that weekend - Nikki was actually in Aberdeen with Ruari on the Saturday morning (the girls were at their Dad's) and was going to come round as she had to wait an hour for a parcel from ASDA to be ready but it arrived early so she changed her mind.

Only one problem left now. The forecast for Tuesday was rain! I phoned Halfords to let them know and ask if they could come for it on Monday (sunny all day) and the (same) guy said oh let me look that up - oh it says it's not going to start raining until 11 a.m. so we should be okay. I don't know what weather app he uses but it's sure as hell not my one! It's also not very reliable because at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning the rain was drizzling down great style. I was doomed! However to my great surprise at quarter to 9, a cheery old guy who must have been around 70 if he was a day, rang the doorbell to ask for the key and seeing the shock on my face, asked what was wrong with the car?

My heart sank. Clearly none of the messages had reached him (one of which was that I'd put the key under an ornament on the garden wall to save contact) but undaunted he assured me "don't worry darling we'll get her there ok!" and I watched my wee Micra disappear into the drizzly distance and crossed my fingers.

And of course it was ready on Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.!! So I had to cancel the poor taxi guy although offered to pay a cancellation fee because it was such short notice but he was very nice about it and refused - just wanted recommendations. But if I'd had a crystal ball I could have saved myself a whole boatload of stress and a couple of sleepless nights!

I had to shell out £431 for all that stress as well - the wiper mechanism/linkage, replacement of two tyres which were measuring under 2mm (to be fair they've been in my MOT advisories for the last two years so that wasn't a shock) and he said something like the battery was showing at 57% so would be better replaced. That made no sense to me but I was told it could go in days or months, impossible to say - and I was so stressed that if I didn't do it, that would the thing to go wrong on the way out to Pitmedden so I said go ahead.

They probably saw me coming. (Or they would have had I been able to get the bloody thing there).

So Wednesday went fine and I had the absolute joy of hearing all about Lilah’s day at school first hand as we walked home - Grannies all over the world will know what I mean by this. Usually Mums get the first (very excited) recounted version - Grannies get the summarised, watered down version later on when the excitement's all passed :) She literally didn’t stop yapping all the way home - I got everything in fascinating detail complete with guess what’s, exclamation marks, facial expressions, the whole shebang - and poor Nikki just got a few summing up sentences when she got home!

Will leave you with Nikki's claim to fame 3 weeks ago - the local TV station asked her for her opinion on homeschooling and the kids' returning to school so she got a few seconds on the news that night :)