“I think we should take the Honda out today, just to give her a run” Janine decided.
We had arranged to have lunch with 2 of our good friends in a local restaurant. Our little old Honda Civic was pampered during the week, cleaned, all fluids checked, windscreen wash added and rested, all to prepare for her next trip to the UK. Now with over 320,000kms, she certainly has had an active life and we rely on her totally.
We jumped in the car and off we set. Within minutes, the engine fault warning light came on…..”NOOOO” we both said at the same time! Not today Hilda!
Now bearing in mind we were setting off to the UK in less than 24h, it was a Saturday afternoon and the French don’t seem to work on a Saturday, we messaged our friends to say we had broken down at the top of their lane and didn’t think we’d make lunch unfortunately. We tried a few tricks, swearing, looking at the engine, ummmmd and arrrrrd a bit. Nothing happened obviously. We turned the car on and off a few times, nope.
So off we went home in ‘limp home’ mode.
Now what? Do we try to find a garage? Our regular mechanic doesn’t open on a Saturday afternoon and didn’t fancy helping two damsels in distress.
There was only one thing for it, Vera our Volvo would have to step up and make her first trip to Hull!
We do wonder if it was a conspiracy between the pair of them! Maybe Hilda didn’t fancy the trip so decided to give her mate the chance, we can only imagine that conversation.
Vera the Volvo is a 2012 C30 we picked up in Toulouse. She’s a great little mover but being 3 door, and with a small boot, she’s pretty hopeless when it comes to shopping never mind a 3 week trip with a silly amount of baggage!
‘Let’s get the seats down and see how much space we have’
‘Ohhhhh that’s not bad!’
With the seats down and the parcel shelf unclipped and removed, we suddenly had an OK space for bags.
‘Lets do it, we’ll take Vera!’
So, we prepared Vera for her maiden voyage to East Yorkshire.
Oil….check
Water/coolant…..check
Windscreen wash…..check
Off we went to the petrol station to check tyres and fill up, all good so far.
The next challenge was to get 5 suitcases, pillows, an airbed, memory foam mattress topper, cool bags and us in to the car.
Janine’s main suitcase weighed in at 32kg…..behave, that’s far too heavy! So another case was commissioned for shoes! Along with Alison’s monster pink suitcase, our shoecase, 2 cabin sized cases, a bag full of topper, jackets, coats, a foot pump, more shoes (you can never have too many shoes) and our pillows, we slid in!
Everything fitted! Vera, you’re a hero!
Quickly all our bookings were changed.
The first to be changed was Le Shuttle. Very simple by their website and no charge to amend the booking.
Our return trip is with Brittany Ferries and again, easy to change via the website and no charge.
We left the car packed up ready for the start of her long trip the following day.
What a day it had been but we’d got through it and had a plan.
We didn’t make it to lunch.
