A day that ought to be enjoyable got off to a very inauspicious start. Joseph was up (for what seemed like half the night - but the reality was probably only an hour or so) meaning that we were knackered before the day had even begun. We were running late even before the series of disasters which were about to unfold....Today was the day that we swapped our 4 year old VW Passat for a shiny new minibus (aka VW Sharan). Our Passat has been a faithful servant for 4 years but clearly knew that something was up by making funny noises recently and having a puncture as I was going to play golf on saturday morning - resulting in a new £65 tyre only 3 days before trade-in, and 9 rather than 18 holes of golf.
Today was its final 2 finger salute to me. Catrin was told not to bother filling up the car as it would be petrol that we wouldn't be using - but I took issue to that when I got in it this morning and there were "0" miles left in the tank. I'm not kidding. I think the worst I've ever been at is 25 miles left - but we must have been driving on the sniff of petrol. Thinking we wouldn't make it to VW - we pulled in to a garage and put a whopping £3.50 in (it was still telling me to refuel immediately) - but I then discovered that the new tyre we'd put on just 3 days earlier was now flat as a pancake. After much swearing (and some air from the garage) - we limped to VW - a journey which should take 10 minutes in about 45 - a journey which shows why morons shouldn't run Edinburgh Council as their incompetence at sequencing traffic lights, road works (why do they call them "works" - I've never seen anyone working at a hole in the ground in Edinburgh - all they do is dig up the place then bugger off) was plain to see.
We finally made it to the garage only to discover that I had the "wrong" V5 form - and that they were unable to take my old car off me as the DVLA (God bless them) should have sent me a newer. shinier version, some time ago. Upon phoning the DVLA I was told to phone them back as "the system has crashed" and they didn't know when it would be back up again. (you couldn't make this up) - and I was told to call back before 8.30pm. I guess they expected me to sit in the showroom for that long..... After more swearing, tears and begging - the dealership finally allowed me to drive off with my shiny new car - in good faith that I'd return the newer form to them (for which they'd need to sell my old car) as soon as it arrived. This momentarily restored my faith in humanity. And I hadn't even got to the office yet.....
