For those not in the know, we had a light smattering of snow last night here in the South East of England.
Unfortunately for me during the two hours when it actually precipitated – as opposed to the two days afterwards the country will take getting back to normal – I was marooned in deepest, darkest, East London.
Why? Very good question. Last week a random motorist drove too close to our car when it was parked outside the house and ruined the driver’s side wing mirror. Regardless of the amount of sellotape we used it needed to be fixed.
After phoning around it transpired that we needed to get a whole new wing mirror (ouch) and that no one would order the part in so I had to get it myself. Which was tricky because Alfa Romeo dealers aren’t exactly thick on the ground in South London. According to the web site the nearest dealer was in Welling, which with my shaky grasp of geography I mistakenly assumed wasn’t too far from home. Silly me, its practically Dartford, which is as far East as you can get before you have to stop calling it London.
So I sloped off from work early yesterday afternoon to take a train to Welling and then walk the three miles from the station to the dealer, pick up our new wing mirror, walk the three miles back to Welling station and then take three trains to get home. Which was fine. Until I left Welling station. Which was when it started snowing.
I’ll save you from the expletives I uttered along the way to Ancaster Welling (bless ’em) or the human snowman I resembled as I stumbled through their door. Suffice it to say that when I did make it back to Welling station the rail network was doing its usual bang up job of coping with adverse weather conditions. I had to wait an hour in the freezing cold before a train turned up.
It took me until about ten o’clock (and half a bottle of red wine) to warm up. SWMBO is taking the motor to our friendly mechanic this morning. I’m just waiting for the phone call to tell me that we’ve got the wrong part and that I need to repeat the whole experience.
By the by, this is the 500th entry for What’s Doing. Who would of thought it.