Thursday

Good afternoon peeps,

Well I have had a vote of confidence on renaming this blog 'The journey home'.
I will have to have a note reading 'formerly life after the diocese' though.

This morning started with disaster again.
Someone on twitter said 'It never rains, it pours' about my situation, and that means that everything goes wrong at once.

I woke up to the alarms, and the sound of water running, I didn't like the sound of water running, especially not after a night of wind and rain. But it was too dark to see anything.
To my surprise, my new bite guard, which fits snug and firm and more comfy than any previous, was not in my mouth but had wandered off.
I really have to wonder just what I am doing in my sleep now, because removing a firm bite guard is not normally possible in your sleep.

Anyway, I sprang the lights on, and water was coming through the ceiling onto my computer!

Thankfully it is a tough shell computer and was fine. I moved all the electrics off the table and put a bucket there, the water had slowed to a drip. And seeing as it was 6am I decided to let my landlady know later, and I went to do the papers.

The papers were on time. However, as I headed through the lanes, I met a big fat huge flood that was right busy flooding the road.
I stopped and wondered what to do, as there was no other route through that would get me to the rural distributor and onto my first round.
My boss had told me not to take risks with the floods but to be honest, as the road was open and I could see the other side of the flood, I would proceed with caution, and so I did, and warned the rural distributor that the road was flooded, but she goes the other route to work.

Anyway, I had to go carefully back through the floods to the next round, and was OK, but sadly Florence wasn't.

I stopped her to scamper up a driveway. But Florence wouldn't start again.
She sat there, her starter had failed and she was sitting at the bottom of this rural driveway in the dark and the rain.
 I tried to start her but the engine didn't even turn.
I haven't been able to afford AA or RAC this time around, although Anna was always under the AA or was it RAC?
So, I was at a loss. I phoned my boss, and pushed Florence off the driveway so she wasn't blocking it. It was still dark and and the rain was pelting in the galeforce winds.

My boss turned up and helped me to push the car along the road to a wider part of the road and we rested her close in to the verge out of the way, enough room for a lorry to pass her, I know because one did.
The boss went to do the papers, telling me to phone him back if I couldn't get anything sorted.

I sat there and wondered what to do. It was 7.15am.
I sat in the car with the hazards on.
I texted my friend who likes texts and hates phones, same as me. He also is always up early and often texts me.
I texted my landlady, who was up, told her about the leak and the car. She sent me the number for the garage but they were closed and their number no longer also accommodates the 24 hour breakdown service, so I was stumped.
My friend didn't hear the text coming through so it was some hours later he replied, by which time things had been resolved.

Anyway, I had texted the car's best friend, who has been aiming to replace Florence's starter this weekend. It took some time before he saw my text and replied in horror about the breakdown.
He phoned me and asked if I knew how to bump start a car.
No, I didn't and he told me how to, so now I have a magical new skill.

A bump start involved getting the car on a slope, ignition on, second gear, clutch up and down as soon as you have picked up speed. Very simple but it is a knack, and he was not sure if I could do it, but I said I would try.
Florence cheerfully decided she would try and run backwards, but a man came out of a cottage to put his bins out and I shouted him over.
The man kindly pushed Florence out onto the slope while I got the ignition, gear and clutch right, Florence shuddered, her engine turned and she was off! The man is a neighbour of one of my papers customers so I will send him a thank you note. There are just those two houses out there where Florence broke down.

Florence behaved very well as I drove her home, which is good because had she stalled as she sometimes enjoys doing, we would have been in real trouble crossing the towns.
I got her home and she is sitting on the drive, she has no ignition but she is home and it cost me nothing apart from a few days wages and my last two days on the rural routes. Awesome.
As a tweep pointed out, I also get to sleep in for two days now before starting the later local papers.

We hope to get the new starter in on Saturday, which means I miss Saturday tutorials, yes I am back at university believe it or not! My Mum would have liked me to go to tutorials as she and I need to meet up and natter.

My landlady has had a look at the leak, and there are several possible causes, in the meantime I will keep my electrical stuff away from the leak site until they isolate it and repair.

It is a cold, clear and smoky day, yesterday was cold and smoky, an afterthought winter.