We were both out early this morning.
Scamp had to catch the bus to get to FitSteps and I was driving to Glasgow at the same time to drop the blue car off for its annual service.
I left the car at the garage almost exactly at 10am and was told that it would be ready by 5pm. That’s seven hours for a three hour service! This appears to be normal practise for Macklin Motors, but not anywhere else I’ve ever used. When I asked the service technician why it would take that long, he said I should have been told that it was an “Open Booking” and would be worked on as soon as was possible, but there were two people off ill today. That sounded a bit familiar, because when I booked the same car in at the same garage a month ago for its MOT it did in fact take seven hours before I got to take it home and the reason was … there was only one MOT tester available that day. Sounds suspicious! I agreed and signed away my afternoon then went for a walk round the city. First port of call was Nero for a coffee and a chance to plan the rest of the day. Foolishly I took the option of their new blend Honduras and it was pretty awful. So a bad start to the day.
When I texted Scamp to tell her the news, she asked if I wanted her to come in to town, but I told her not to bother and that I’d phone the garage about two to see what progress had been made.
I walked down to St Enoch Square and got a couple of photos there, one of which became the PoD, but there was very little directional light and the milky white sky didn’t help. I know he looks as if he’s talking to his hand, but he’s posing with his new phone, I think. I took some more photos of new graffiti being sprayed on the wall of the Clyde Walkway and admired the vision of these guys being able to visualise their finished artwork. Haven’t seen any girl graffiti artists, but I’m sure there are some.
I got another message from Scamp saying she was now free to come in to Glasgow for lunch. That sounded a good idea. I met her in the bus station about an hour later and we went to an Italian place we’d looked at last Friday. Just as we were heading there I got the call from the garage to say the car was ready. The time was almost exactly 2pm. For once they were right on time. I said I’d be along to pick up the car as soon as possible.
The food in the restaurant was good, but my Spaghetti a la Polpette wasn’t very hot and the meatballs had the feel of ‘Ping’ (microwaved) about them. Scamp said her Risotto was fine. So we decided to give them another chance. A bit like Macklin Motors!
On the way back to the garage I got a new book by Chris Brookmyre. I’d heard about it in the Great Scottish Book Club and it sounded interesting. The book is The Cracked Mirror. It should have been £18, but I had a tenner in my Waterstones card, so I got it for £8! I’m almost finished a Peter May book Lockdown which started so well, but has descended into farce in the final 150 pages.
I got another surprise when I went to pick up the car. There were two advisories. Thankfully nothing needing done immediately, but just another expense that will need to be looked at early in the new year. I’m talking about New Year already and it’s not even Halloween yet!
Prompt for today was Exotic and my sketch was of a Bird of Paradise flower which fitted the bill perfectly.
Tomorrow we are expecting to be dancing Paso la Paz, It’s all about stamping our little feet and wiping the blood from our shoes. If you don’t understand, re-read the blog from 28th September.