Out with the old

And so the day came when we said goodbye to our cars and took possession of the hire car that will carry us to Italy. Hence the reason why Stephen and I were stuck in various traffic queues at 9 am, thinking that it was fortunate we set off in plenty of time and what were all these people doing clogging up the streets of Manchesterfordshire when they should have been at work. Just as well Stephen used a cunning plan to bypass the logjams by taking a circuitous route rather than taking a direct path as it might have taken us even longer...

We duly arrived at the car hire place in Trafford Park 15 minutes ahead of schedule and the efficient young girl at the desk dealt with us quickly, even more so because we found out that Chris did not have to present himself in person. This was contrary to the instructions on the web site - again, a blessing as he too was stuck in traffic and running late so a quick call told him to stand easy and get on with what he had to do.

It should, therefore, have been an easy job to drive home, had Stephen been able to actually start the car. I was just about to back out in my car when I saw him gesticulating from inside the Citroen Picasso. I went over and tried my best by looking intelligently at the controls and pushing a button that said (P), but this did little to help. I don't know if you are familiar with this model, but it's one of those whose control panel looks more like the SS Enterprise, especially to automobile luddites such as us. It didn't make it any easier, though, that the screens were all in German.

"Do you think I should ask the girl?' said Stephen. Seemed like a good idea to me, but I was not the one that was going to look stupid. However, he plucked up courage and she duly arrived, with reinforcements. She talked Stephen through the starting procedure while her colleague reset the language to English. All seemed to be going well so I set off home to get on with other stuff. It was only later that I found out further difficulties had ensued, until Stephen realised he had to push the starter key all the way in and the gear lever (it's an automatic car) had to click into place not just be slid up and down. All set he headed off home, via a detour in Chorlton - oh, and Tesco as well when he mistook the entrance for a left turn.

In the afternoon, the assessor from the car buying web site came to value our cars against the online offer. An hour at most, we thought, but it took all afternoon - and a significant reduction in money. All right, so Stephen has been a bit cavalier with bushes and branches but £1400 off for quality of paintwork seemed a bit steep, as did £400 off mine because they have to change the personal number plate - had that fact not been given away by the registration? Still, by 4 pm the money was in my bank account so one should not complain too much.

And finally, another new for old transaction was carried out when we took delivery of our wedding rings - three days late - but we do now have matching rings again, mine in white gold and Stephen's in red gold. As it says inside them: 'i carry your heart i carry it in my heart'.