Car struggling through MOT

I knew my MOT was due in July. I hadn't memorised when in July. But when I checked, it turned out to be quite early on. I just popped by the garage to ask if I could book it in, and I could; I could bring it in the Tuesday before the visit of my friend Monique. She would arrive Thursday early evening. Surely that would be enough time! And it had had a service not too long ago.

It wasn't ready when she arrived. When I phoned on Wednesday to ask what the situation was, the garage rattled off a big list of things that were wrong with it. Spring broken, the exhaust broken, all sorts of stuff broken. Oh dear! They figured it would be ready by Friday. I quickly booked the EV so I could at least pick Monique up from the railway station. Fortunately it was available!

Before I went to pick Monique up, I dropped by the garage to see if they still thought it was going to be finished on Friday, and fortunately they said yes. They said they would be done by lunchtime. I figured we could accommodate that.

Work in progress 

The next day lunchtime came, but no message arrived. They had said they would text me! So I decided to just go there again. Fortunately, it was done by then. But it was an expensive joke. I paid marginally less for this MOT then I had paid for the entire car when I bought it! But that's how old cars go. And we have had quite some steep inflation.

One year it just went through MOT without issue. I hope I have now let them sort a lot of problems that had been in the making for a while, and that now a period of calm starts. But I will see next summer! And for now I have a car again, with which I can ferry Monique around…