My evening pupil cancelled his lesson earlier today (stuck at work). Yesterday, another pupil had moved his evening lesson tomorrow into a cancellation slot I’d just acquired earlier in the day. So I sensed a free afternoon today when my two o’clock pupil jumped at the chance to move her lesson to 6pm tomorrow. I needed to go to the bank anyway.
I’d driven about a quarter of a mile when I heard a rumbling sound. It rapidly got louder – and I knew what it was. A puncture. This was at 2.05pm.
I’m in the AA, and there is no way I am getting my hands dirty and stripping my knuckles (as well as destroying my trousers and shirt) arseing about with that tiny socket wrench and scissor jack to get the wheel off. The guy on the phone said they’d have someone there before 3pm – well, that’s OK. I could still go to the bank then nip to Kwik Fit and get the tyre fixed.
I got an almost immediate text telling me the AA man was on his way. He arrived less than 10 minutes later – the wheel was replaced by 2.25pm. I nipped to the bank, then made off for Kwik Fit on Huntingdon Street.
I arrived at 3.05pm. It turned out that one of my other tyres was down to 3mm, so I ended up having to have two of them replaced. But Kwik Fit, too, gave good service, and it was all sorted by 3.50pm.
I wish all breakdowns went like this. No lost lessons, and fixed almost immediately.