Further Frustration! 17.10.07

AOL seems to be suffering from disappearing posts, the post I left yesterday and the message left on a previous post mysteriously vanished. My post yesterday was about my frustration with my car. As most readers will know by now my Ford Galaxy is the curse of my life. It is only four years old but in that time I have practically rebuilt it, in fact I have almost spent the equivalent of the purchase price on repairs to the car. This time it was at the garage because of a horrible vibrating noise when making sharp turns (especially when reversing on to the drive). Having already spent a fortune replacing everything related to the power steering, I was disappointed that the problem still persisted. On close investigation the garage found a problem with the only original bit of the drive shaft, as well as several other problems. After a week at the garage the drive shaft was done and the car should have been ready to collect on Monday, but a rusted bolt got stuck half in and half out and it had gone smooth so that the allen key could not grasp it. It was in such an awkward position and so badly designed that everyone was stumped; after sleeping on the problem the mechanic felt a drastic, destructive and dangerous solution seemed the only way forward and by the end of Tuesday the car was finally ready. I was full of hope and felt sure that after this much time and expense (it cost £700 this time) the car would be perfect. I drove home, reversed on to the drive and there was the same horrible noise, every bit as bad as before. I feel totally defeated by it.

In the Driving Seat 24.09.2007

The car is in full working order again, that's more than I can say for my bank balance, the car cost nearer to £500 than £400!! It was the power steering and several associated parts. The mechanic saved the old parts to show me, I can't believe such insignificant little bits can cost so much. At least I now have a garage that treats me like a human being and gets the work done quickly so I mustn't moan too much.

We had a lovely day at my mum's yesterday, we had a family day to say goodbye to Emily before she goes off to university. As always my mum thought she was catering for a multitude and there was far too much food. Even Robbie left food on his plate at lunch time and that is very rare indeed. Robbie has been a bit out of sorts over the weekend, he fell over on Friday and as well as hurting himself it made him very cross with himself. Just to make matters worse I have been continuing with the reorganisation of the kitchen cupboards and Robbie hates change - unless it is him doing the changing! My greatest transgression was apparently to buy a new tea towel that cost the huge sum of £1 and is slightly different to our usual ones. He claims not to like it, but it does the job and I suspect his real objection is that he didn't choose it. I guess you have to be a bit obsessive to do the sort of job that Robbie does, but this is ridiculous!

Responding to Richard 18.09.2007

In response to my last post Richard wrote
I reckon you must have a bad one 'cos I've had a few Fords in my time and they've all done me proud. I currently drive a three-year old 2.0 ltr Mondeo automatic and it's great. It's my second Ford on the trot; my previous one was a ten-year old Mondeo auto and that, while being a bit long in the tooth, was just as good. Unless it's a Galaxy thing you're suffering from; I've never owned one of those so I can't really comment on them.

Richard you are going to have to send me a photo because over time I have conjured up a rather worrying image of you, and your very odd opinions about cars just reinforce that image. First you stick up for the dreaded Volvo, then you eulogise about the Ford Mondeo! We had a Mondeo a few years ago and I hated it with a passion, in particular I strongly objected to the seat controls, it was without doubt the worse car we ever had - except the Freelander which turned up it's toes within the warranty period! Just to cement this troublesome image in my mind you have said that you drive an automatic - how adventurous! I imagine that you must be nearer 60 than 50 and rather like Martin from Ever Decreasing Circles. Possibly too boring to have had a mid life crisis, but you keep people guessing because there is just a vague possibility that this whole thing is all irony and somewhere beneath that boring facade there is a sense of humour ready to burst out.

Crazy Ideas 18.09.2007

As if my previous entry about coping with Robbie in retirement wasn't enough for me to worry about, I now have something else to cope with. One of his colleagues has been putting silly ideas into his head. He suggested that Robbie should buy an old station to live in so that all his railway junk could be displayed in the right setting. Robbie is more than capable of thinking up his own crazy ideas, he doesn't need any help! When we were in Norfolk he spotted an old station building in an estate agent's window, thankfully the magic words 'sale agreed' were emblazoned across the picture. To me it looked like a dilapidated old shed, but it cost almost as much as the value of our house! That really isn't my vision of the future, but from the sparkle in his eyes when he was talking about it, I suspect it is Robbie's idea of heaven.

Now from one disturbing thought to another, sadly I have to mention the 'F' word yet again. Ford, I detest Ford! Last week I had the wiper blade stolen from my Galaxy. Frustrating, but not the end of the world - or so you would have thought. We drove to Halfords to get a replacement and stay legal, but the wipers that claimed to fit didn't, typical! Next I contacted my garage and he arranged to have some wipers by the following day (Friday), I popped in to have the wiper fitted and these were also the wrong fitting! I waited while the garage man phoned several suppliers and eventually after providing my full registration number and loads of other info he found the right blades. They were delivered by courier later in the day and I had to go back again to have the blade fitted. Just another device by Ford to complicate what should be simple and squeeze extra money out of the poor fools who drive their cars.

By Sunday the car had a warning message saying 'Alternator Workshop' and as the car has had a history of battery charge problems it was booked in to have the problem checked. By Monday it had developed another fault which I feel sure must be clutch related so I am feeling totally frustrated. I dread to think how much this little lot is going to cost!