The week started off pretty well with Adrian and Julie’s annual barbecue on Saturday night; the barbecue was great, the weather was perfect and one of Ade’s bands played. Everyone had a great time, sitting out till the wee small hours. Once we’d finished cleaning up the following morning, it seemed like a good idea to meet up in the Pyrenees on Monday for another barbecue; this one to use up some of the huge quantity of leftovers. But the disposable barbecues weren’t great, most people were tired and Izzy was being super-whingey, so the high point of the day was the location, on top of the col d’Aubisque, which was pretty stunning.
We were about to leave when the car made a clunking sound; the steering wasn’t working properly. Not ideal for descending 18km of hairpin bends. It’s amazing how fast 5 men can get under the bonnet of a car, well, under the bonnet, under the engine, inside the engine….. not to mention how knowledgeable they are! A nailbiting hour ensued; would we be able to get back down the mountain or would we have to call out the car rescue services, involving what is still my nightmare scenario – having to make a phone call in French. The conclusion was that we were going nowhere; I had to make that call; and worst of all, I was expected to explain what was wrong with the car! Well, being an old-fashioned type of a gal, I hadn’t a clue in English, never mind in French! So I gave the phone to Nick, who used lots of technical-type words before handing the phone back to me for the “who, where, when and how” type stuff.
The end result was that an hour and a half later the car was winched onto the back of a tow truck big enough to seat 5 passengers and we set off down the hill. The hairpins are tight on a bike and tighter in a car, but positively scary in a big lorry, but eventually we reached the garage, where they booked some transport to take us home (fortunately a rescue package is part of car insurance in France).
We wondered about how we’d pick Alex and Graham up from the airport the following day, or take Gemma and Johnny to the airport today, but the cavalry came to the rescue; Adrian and Julie lent us their car for the next two days.
All seemed to be settling down, though we still don’t know when the car will be ready, until I noticed that the shower wasn’t draining properly this morning. The drains to the septic tank had backed up, so nothing was moving. Nick and Kieran have spent the afternoon with drain rods doing whatever it takes to clear that sort of thing; I haven’t asked and I’d rather not know. One of the (few) advantages of being a woman is that we’re not expected to do such “blue” jobs. Well there have to be some perks, don’t there!
They say things happen in threes; I’m waiting….
