How funfun

Category: Life & Me | 6 Comments | Posted 16:17

So I went into town to get RAM for my Tommy. There's a Sony store on Western Road so I decided to park my unregistered therefore non-existent Lara as close to it as possible even if it meant double yellow line.

There's this very narrow cul-de-sac and I found a disabled spot there. It's very hard to park cuz so narrow and I was in a hurry.... so smash into the curb and OOPS, flat tire.

I'd never had a flat tire before but in my current spirit of "I can work out how to do things" (you know I changed the light bulb of my headlights myself? *hehe*) I decided to give it a go. So I opened the boot and had one look at the jack and thought "where the fuck does THAT go??" Also I didn't know how to get it out of its... thing that it was screwed into.

OK change of plans. You know how they say as a woman you just have to smile and you'll find a guy to help you... well I just started accosting random people (there were loads of them - this was town centre on a Sunday afternoon not long before Xmas... you can imagine) - I got one guy to explain to me how to do it but he had a stand to look after so couldn't come and help. I got a woman to tell me where to apply the jack, but she had a bad back... then finally I got a lovely guy who was on his way to the pub for a pint to help me.

So we moved Lara out of the hill (I parked her in the Woolworth driveway) and started... only to find out there was no jack handle. Sweet guy went home and came back with a can opener LOL. So we used that as a handle until we figured that really wouldn't work once we had to lift Lara's actual weight... so he went to bother a neighbour and came back with more appropriate tools... bringing along the neighbour who was also very sweet.

So they alternately worked the jack... they wouldn't let me help. I undid the screws tho! And then we pulled off the tire... except it wouldn't come off. It just wouldn't budge! LOL. Sweet neighbour went to get some anti-rust stuff to lubricate it... nothing. Seriously, the whole car jerked but the tire didn't move.

Sooo... I ended up calling the AA (which I'd wanted to avoid obviously cuz takes long). Spoke to sweet French guy for ages and he said he'd send someone round. He went "you have replacement tire?" me: "yeah we have ALL we need. TIRE WON'T COME OFF!! " *giggle*

Didn't take that long at all (about 30mins). In the meantime I went to the T-Mobile shop to top up my mobile. Me: "don't look at my hands" - guy: "what you done, cleaned a chimney?" *lol* Then rang mum and laughed with her about my luck.

Then sweet AA guy came. I explained our problem. He took one look at the wheel, nodded knowingly and said: "Big hammer." Seriously, just those two words! *g* I was like " but we pulled like mad." But well, he went to his van, got big hammer, crawled under Lara, hit tire a few times... and off it came.

So ja, alloy wheels have some sort of reaction with steel car which has a similar effect to rust, i.e. sticky (lol). AA guy was very very sweet too and told me many interesting things, and we laughed muchly. So he replaced tire, checked pressure, said it needed a bit of air and went to get (manual) pump and started pumping. So I said "ooh while I've got you here... one of the others looks kinda flat too" and he laughed and went "you realise if they are flat I will lie" so I said I'd do the pumping if he wanted... so he checked them... and front left was also a little flat, so he made me pump.

And rear left was very flat. So he went to get his electric pump cuz easier. And while we filled it we wondered why it was so flat... and found a MASSIVE nail stuck in it!

So ja. It may well have been there for ages (obviously if I pulled it out the tire would be flat in 10secs lol) but I'mma have to replace it anyway. Of course the one that I wrecked today will have to be replaced too. *lol* But the AA guy was cute. As were the two guys who helped me (I'll have to get them a bottle of wine or sth). And I learned a lot of stuff (how to change a tire for instance. and that it's useful to have a big hammer in the boot.)

Oh and btw the RAM I went to get from the Sony store.... I have to order it over the phone.