Chrystal got a new stereo for her car a while back (a pink one of course), but the shop had to order a special part in to fit it.   Over the last couple of weeks Jayne has had several increasingly disputatious¹ phone calls to the shop about why it was taking so long.  Today she had a phone call to say they found the part and if we brought the car in today they would fit the stereo.

Chrystal was at work so I was roped in to take her car across town to Halfords on one of the busiest days of the year – there is a Next sale and an endless stream of people lugging huge TVs out of Comet and Currys, a queue on the A23 to even get into the road County Oak is on and then queues within the car park for a space.  Fortunately the Daewoo Matiz is a tiny car so I had more chance of parking and ended up in nearly the same postcode as Halfords.

The young chap there was very helpful, and it all went in nicely, even though you have to take the whole dashboard off to change a stereo in a Matiz and it turned out there was a blown fuse and a bit of a hunt for the fusebox.

The worst thing was not all the sitting in traffic, not was it standing around in the freezing cold while the work was done.  The worst thing was having to drive across to the other side of town, and back, in a car whose every (pink) accessory proclaims it to be ‘powered by fairydust’ – a proud boast also on the rear window sticker.

1. I don’t car whether it is a real word or not [↩]