Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Franks back on the road... yippee!

Well after 25 long miserable days we finally have ole Frank back on the road again.  After breaking down en route home from zumba he sat patiently waiting to be made better, outside our house.  We had to consider the option of taking him to a local garage and risk it being hugely expensive, or even not touched, which is what happened a few years ago. Back then we eventually had to get him towed down to the coast and have a new reconditioned engine (if that makes sense).  The other option was  to have Frank towed home and searching out the part on ebay and waiting for good samaritan Ken to be available to fit it.  We chose the second option, we will never know if this was best option, but at least Frank is mobile once again!

It was a tough 25 days and we relied heavily on friends to help us out.  Our great friends Kev and Sue were absolute stars, picking us up from home, twice a week to take us into Montoro.  I would take my zumba classes and Alan would do the shopping, they would then drop us back home again, miles out of their way, in the pitch black too.  It was great to have their company and have a chat over a cuppa, which gave Alan a break from just listening to me moaning of course!  Alan ordered the long thing that had dropped off on the motorway, when it arrived the long thing was 10 cms to short, bugger!  So he re ordered the correct sized long thing on a 24 hour delivery..... errr this arrived 7 days later. It had gone via Germany and also spent a long weekend in Jaen too.  Apparently having arrived in the capital someone decided that although the address was correct it should have had  the fact that it was being delevered to a pharmacy on it too.  So it sat for 48 hours whilst we were contacted about this and typed the words Guttierez Pharamcy with the same bloomin' address still.  Of course this being done on a Friday meant it would not leave the depot in Jaen until the Monday.  I swore quite a lot, I believe I cried a bit too.  It is ridiculous just how much we rely on ole Frank.

At the end of the 3rd Frankless week, Kev and Sue were about to travel back to the UK, so we had to hire a car.  This meant a trip into town thanks to Good Samaritan Ken, and a bus journey to Cordoba to pick up a little Polo, of the driving kind, not the eating kind.  Wooo hooo we were mobile again.  We took the opportunity to do a little shopping and just be out and about which was fab.  G.S. Ken came when we had long part, and low and behold the thingys that attach it to whatever they attached to DIDN'T FIT!!! Ken hammered and bashed, but to no avail.  A trip was needed to the ferriteria (local hardware store) for new attachy things then lo and behold Frank was back on the road.  Sadly his first outing was to take Saturday and Sunday to Cordoba!

Good ole Frank

1 comment:

Daphne said...

It seems that you are having a great time back on the road. I would love to try it also. Cordoba is a great place to stay and to do shopping. My next trip, Cordoba xD