Pancake Day

[j4]

Not, it's not till next week, but my new car seems to have decided to celebrate it early with a very flat tyre. :-(

So, where in Cambridge would people recommend for a new tyre for a Renault 5? And how much does a new tyre cost?

And do you say "a new tyre" or "a new wheel"? Because people clearly mean the latter but seem to say the former, and you talk about "spare tyre" but "emergency wheel" and they seem to be the same thing, and I know it doesn't really matter but when I go to buy the bloody thing I don't want to do the automobile equivalent of walking into PC world and saying "I'd like to buy an internet please". Not that I'm REALLY NEUROTIC about knowing the script for this sort of interaction, or anything, y'understand.

I don't know how to change a wheel yet, but it looks fairly straightforward in the manual. In fact the most awkward bit looks to be getting the jack out from under the bonnet. Or possibly getting the emergency wheel out from under the car, though I'm not sure I can be arsed to do that, I might as well just buy the new wheel & fit that straight away.

AND, as if the flat wasn't bad enough, I think the speed-camera on Elizabeth Way bridge flashed me as I was doing thirty miles an hour over the bridge. At least, it flashed behind me (I saw the flash in the mirror) -- does that mean it got me or the car behind me? If it got me I'll be gutted. I mean, I'm sure everybody says "But I wasn't speeding", but honestly, my speedo said 30, I check it a lot because I'm still not really used to the acceleration on this car. But because everybody says they're innocent it can't possibly be true, so that'll be points on my licence and a fine I probably can't even afford, for nothing. :-(

The really ironic thing was that on the way back home over the bridge somebody undertook me down the taxi lane doing twice my speed, and did the speed-cam get them? Did it buggery.

Sigh. There goes my Zen-like calm.

Comments

[kaet.livejournal.com]

I usually just go in and do dumb-blonde at car people (in fact in general). Most people seem to like the opportunity to pull out their metaphorical pipe and give me advice from the shed-of-life. Is that a bad thing for me to do? I'm never sure.

Re:

[j4.livejournal.com]

I do that with bike stuff, flutter my eyelashes and Get A Man To Do It, because I'm not interested in bikes. I feel kind of wrong doing it with cars, because I like cars. I want to know the right things to say. It's like, you know, when somebody you fancy tells you all about their hobby and suddenly it seems like the most interesting thing in the world and you want to know about different types of reinforced concrete, or different breeds of guinea-pig, or whatever, just for them. Cars are the ones I fancy, whereas bikes are, I dunno, the boring chap in the pub who tells you all about his collection of beermats, and you're, like, "La la la what-EVER I can't hear you OH IS THAT THE TIME? I have to go and wash the cat now."

Maybe that's just me.

I need sleep.

Re:

[kaet.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see what you mean. I didn't realise you were like that with cars. I'm like that with trains. I know diddly-squat about them that wastn't prsent in Rev Awdrey's fine tomes, but when talking to Mark Waller, or someone, I really don't want to appear completely stupid -- :).