Broken Down Blues

Last Wednesday night after work i made my way to the airport to farewell Dr. Michael Wong on his two month work related Ireland adventure. I was there with his girlfriend Beth and after he went through the departure gates, Beth and i said bye to each other and i made my way home. So far this blog has some exciting images doesnt it?

The happy couple just before Mike makes his way to Galway..hehe have fun buddy!

Well after driving to my local supermarket to pick up some stuff for lunch the day after. I got back on the car and started it up when in the process i high pitched wheezing sound came out of the engine. I thought to myself "ohh that doesnt sound good" so i tried to start the car again still with no success. Now the car is a 1990 Nissan Skyline that has been the family stalward for over 15 years and its a great car that has done many thousands of kilometers but why was it the night before i was going to see "Casino Royale?" that the car had to konk it? I was shattered not for the car but for the fact that i would have to wait one more night to finally see the first Bond film in 4 years.

I called dad who came down and lambasted me for not having petrol in the car even though i told him the gauge was between a quarter tank and empty. The roadside assistance man came finally and was gone in two minutes. He looked like an Indian version of "Cigar Man" from the X-Files and did what all guys do when trting to look impressive with cars and thats just fiddle with a few bits and then he just said "Compression, you need a tow truck." Then he left!



Dad and I were shocked that he didn't really have a good look at this so he called the RACV and complained and said can they send another guy out. The RACV sent the same guy out again.

So Cigar Man was back and this time he had a really good look and then explained that the injectors were ok but it wasn't kicking over because the part that does the compressing of the fuel was broken so we weren't going anywhere. Between the visits from the RACV dad wanted me to get some petrol for the car so i went to the service station which was about 50 meters away and picked up a can and filled it with 6 bucks worth of gas. I gave the guy behind he counter and he gave me no change. When i asked why he said "the can is worth 14 dollars!" So with this i went back to dad and the car cheesed off and now with another problem of getting the petrol in the can to the car we needed a hose and a funnel. I went inside the supermarket and after finding a cheap funnel and a pet shower head with hose i came back out of the supermarket proud of my Macguyver idea.

Funnel $1.50,Pet Shower Hose $3.50, Idea...well you know the rest

So fter getting the petrol in the car thanks to the above contraption the tow truck finally came and then it was on the way to the garage that the car has now become a hall of famer. I rode in the tow truck and all the driver was talking about was how he hated hotted up Skylines as they are a bitch to tow and how he was glad that our Skyline was just a plain old sedan. Oh that and how many hot chicks he saw that day. Well after a bumpy 10 minute ride we made it to Ultra Tune and the car was locked up and that's when dad called. "Mark the indicators are stuffed on the Astra. Can you beleive it two cars breaking down on the same night!" Luckily the nearest Astra dealer was just down the road and still open and dad was able to get the last spare part needed for the indicators.

Meanwhile my canneloni frozen dinner had thawed out and it was 2 and a half hours since this all started. I got home at about 11 and just went to bed. The problem with the car is that one of the bolts in the engine sheared off! But EDY (thats the cars name and letters on the number plate) is back where he belongs and that's spick and span in our driveway.