Fuel by Annie Try
On Friday, we had an interesting day.
The plan was to meet my son-in-law at Birchanger Green Services and pass over the twins - 11 year olds who had come for a four-day ‘Granny treat’ which ended up with Granny being judge and jury over rather a large number of not-so-loving twin disputes.
I love the twins, but they do tire me out. With mixed feelings, we set off to return them. Not all plans progress with a smooth effect; within half-an-hour of driving we were in trouble. We had stopped for fuel, which I write carefully, because we filled up with petrol. Unfortunately, we were in my car which takes diesel. Oops.
But what a wonderful opportunity for a little grandparent modelling! We could demonstrate to our grandsons that there is no need to argue over whose fault it is when things go wrong. In fact, I didn’t quite think that at the time - but then I didn’t need to. Blessings come in all kinds of disguises and there were several lurking in the background here:
And there’s one more blessing:
In fact, I feel refuelled as a writer and ready to run with my WiP. And all it really took was fifty minutes down-time with my husband and two wonderful grandchildren. Perhaps I’ll be able to go down that route again.
But preferably without the toxic petrol and the ensuing bill.
Annie Try is the pen-name of Angela Hobday, Chair of ACW. Annie has three novels published, another ready and looking for a home and is now rewriting/editing the third Dr Mike Lewis story.
The plan was to meet my son-in-law at Birchanger Green Services and pass over the twins - 11 year olds who had come for a four-day ‘Granny treat’ which ended up with Granny being judge and jury over rather a large number of not-so-loving twin disputes.
I love the twins, but they do tire me out. With mixed feelings, we set off to return them. Not all plans progress with a smooth effect; within half-an-hour of driving we were in trouble. We had stopped for fuel, which I write carefully, because we filled up with petrol. Unfortunately, we were in my car which takes diesel. Oops.
But what a wonderful opportunity for a little grandparent modelling! We could demonstrate to our grandsons that there is no need to argue over whose fault it is when things go wrong. In fact, I didn’t quite think that at the time - but then I didn’t need to. Blessings come in all kinds of disguises and there were several lurking in the background here:
- We were given the number of a specialist firm who would charge £159 plus VAT and not be with us for at least 30 minutes and would take a good hour - bear with me, the blessing is coming. While I was on my mobile a young man came out of the nearby car showroom and offered his garage’s services, straightaway, at £100 including VAT. A bargain!
- We all slowed down on a very over-busy day with an enforced 50 minute wait while the offending toxic fuel was pumped out. We sat on a comfortable sofa, watching television in the smart showroom enjoying the company of a rather pricey but splendidly beautiful classic car.
- The twins were astonishingly well-behaved during our rather expensive crisis, with hardly any moans and only a few repetitions of ‘how long will we have to wait?’ Granny pride was renewed.
And there’s one more blessing:
- I have something to write about on this blog after a very hectic couple of weeks resulting in no brain in gear to write anything.
In fact, I feel refuelled as a writer and ready to run with my WiP. And all it really took was fifty minutes down-time with my husband and two wonderful grandchildren. Perhaps I’ll be able to go down that route again.
But preferably without the toxic petrol and the ensuing bill.
Annie Try is the pen-name of Angela Hobday, Chair of ACW. Annie has three novels published, another ready and looking for a home and is now rewriting/editing the third Dr Mike Lewis story.
Oh poor you! If it's any comfort, I've done that before too. Well done for being so positive about it. Am sure your twins were proud of you :) Really enjoyed reading this :)
ReplyDeleteOh, brilliant, Angela, that you were able to extract something positive from a ghastly experience. Truly, nothing is wasted in God's economy.
ReplyDelete