Well, today didn't go to plan. Very cold start (just a fraction under 0°C and no heating on made the house very cold this morning).
The plan, shopping, food, plus some bits needed from the hardware store, collect the dry cleaning and pick up a new mattress from IKEA. Leave at 8am home by 12pm. Usual, practiced, routine.
The reality. Wheel wobble on the way to Canberra bad enough that we had to ring the garage and take vehicle straight in. 1hr later, transpires that when the vehicle was serviced at the main dealer the SUV was washed, only they didn't completely wash it, just to bits that show and unfortunately disturbed some of the build-up of dirt on the insides of the alloy wheels... this caused the balancing to go out badly. Only solution is to take all the wheels off and clean them periodically. We didn't get charged thankfully. We've had periodic issues with wheel balancing on this vehicle, usually caused by the tyre garage and fixed but the main dealer. Today it way the other way around.
Next stop collect dry cleaning, a couple of bits from the shopping centre, not everything was available and so on. Time is now well passed 11am (left home at 8am and would normally be heaving home by now) so head over to a restaurant we know does a decent vegan meal and it is packed. Unusually so... long wait for the meal, don't mind given the time, so we started with the dessert... great meal though couldn't eat it all...
Then head to IKEA to select a new mattress for hubby to sleep on after his operation. Couldn't get the one we really wanted, not in stock until after his discharge and so on... so picked up the next best option. Long queues for checkout but got lucky as they penned up the 2nd self serve checkout as we walked passed and we were 'motioned' to enter and use it.
Head over to the hardware store across the road, but they didn't have what we wanted. Un(?)fortunately hubby spotted a large (15mm head) nail in the driver's front tyre tread right at the top of the wheel as he walked back to the vehicle. Managed to stop him pulling it out to see what would happen
. He genuinely would have driven home on it if it hadn't have gone flat. Not me. I refused point blank to even let him remove it but the parking space we were in was the very end of the row in front of the shop entrance with the side needing access exposed to all the traffic in the car park, so we moved the vehicle to the supermarket car park about 1km away and parked at the very far end where we could stop someone parking alongside us. We failed to change the tyre. not a single nut would come loose. The garage this morning had done every single nut (presumably on all 4 wheels) up way too tight.
I sent hubby in to do the last shop before his operation (so stocking up on non-perishables) whilst I rang our breakdown cover. 15 minutes to answer the phone! Eeks they are not normally that busy.... I was told 60-90 minutes for someone to get out to us, no guarantees because they don't have power tools and so on. Yeah right. Luckily the exceptionally helpful mechanic arrived with a battery operated drill with a socket set adapter for wheel nuts... no guessing what he thought of driving on that tyre! Tyre changed and we're both exhausted, thirsty, needing the bathroom and so on.... back in to the shopping center...
Finally got home at 4pm. We hadn't planned lunch out, but 2 unexpected tyre problems meant hours of delays and I've now got a flat tyre instead of a spare to deal with after I drop hubby off on Monday lunchtime... grr vehicles.
