Jetta the Devil you know

Well it's that time of year again, go take the car in for it's MOT test and see which major organs I need to sell in order to be allowed to continue pumping CO₂ into the atmosphere.

Except this year I decided to forgo the official Subaru garage prices and the luxury of being given a courtesy car in the guise of a spanking new Subaru Forester, which I was seriously owed after they gave me that stupid 1.0 Automatic Toyota Starlet last year. Instead I simply organised taking the Legacy down to my friend's garage for it's annual test.

Now the first issue was getting up: after biking 10 miles through the dark woods the night before, with 10 other friends and ending up in the pub, getting up at 7am, when my usual time is about 8:50am, was not easy.

Then there was "the commute" - something I've not done in about 3 years... getting petrol, waiting behind a guy who took more than 5 minutes in the shop to pay and watching some weird Emo kid walk like a contorted stick-insect across the garage forecourt ("You'd be non-conforming too if you looked just like me" )

Driving to my friend's house to follow him to his garage was the next task and I hate being late for people, especially when I could potentially make them late too. So to be stuck behind people doing 69 in the fast lane to overtake 68ers... *big 'go with it' sigh*

It was OK, I got to Aldershot just in time, then drove to Liss in Hampshire for which we'd allocated a 45 minute drive but did it in 30. Not bad!

The car failed its test. I knew it would. And no, that's not pessimistic it's realistic. One of the brakes was seized. And that was it! My friend said that if I left the car with him he could check it out and maybe have it fixed for this evening.

And in the meantime he leant me a 1987 VW Jetta 1.3 4 speed manual. Man, is this better than last year's motor? LOL

He actually told me to thrash it. I don't like doing that, I always treat other people's property with respect. But he said again to thrash it, please! I drove home and, hey it is gutless, so I just had to thrash it otherwise it wasn't going anywhere.

So 5 hours later I get a call - and the car has passed. All fixed and, with a new battery too (didn't wanna lend the car to the Mrs and worry about her ever being stranded) it came to less than a oner. Nice one, cheers J. When can I have my turbo 4x4 back please?

20:57 UPDATE: I was gonna go get the Subaru back tonight but had to wait until all the blood was washed off the windscreen & bonnet - apparently there was a bird strike on the way home :o