So I finally got round to taking Ollie to the shop last Thursday re the draining battery problem. Cute old Hugh Gilbraith out at Haruru Falls was kind enough to book the car in at short notice as I was going to Auckland on Monday for a night to see Liz for her birthday and obviously the car had to be in a fit state for a long drive there and back.

He had the car sorted out in no time (it was the alternator) and rang me on Friday afternoon to say I could go and get it, it would be $50 and it was cash only. No probs except I was off to work and couldn't get there till tomorrow. He said he didn't open the garage on a Saturday but he would meet me there specially at 1pm so I could get my car back. Aaah, how kind, I thought. What a lovely man and cheap to boot.

One o'clock on Saturday comes but there's no-one around to give me a lift up. Nightmare. I don't want to keep him waiting when he's been kind enough to open the shop on his day off. Left with no option, I call a taxi and 12 bucks later am standing at the garage, five minutes early. One hour later I am still standing at the garage and there's no sign of anyone. He can't have forgotten. I can't imagine what's happened to him and wonder if he was on his way but called out to some emergency or was maybe hit by lightening or a bus. The garage is 4km out of town and not entirely in the middle of nowhere but enough to be inconvenient. The "What Should I Do?" discussion continues in my head and despite feeling a bit inconvenienced nay ABANDONED, the challenge of it feels quite fun. I could easliy call the taxi back and just go home but that's more unneccessary expense that I can ill afford. There must be some satisfactory resolution to this!

I rang Jake who looked up Mr Gilbraith in the book but there was no answer at his home number. "Hitch back" Jake said - a sensible suggestion from a man who couldn't come to pick me up because he's been drinking beers since 11am? I wondered. Well there was nothing for it. I had to hitch back. Scarey but perfectly normal round here. I wouldn't do it in any other country bare in mind. Still in my cleaning clothes, stinking of wet rubber gloves and with that wild frizz of hair that you get in humid weather, I walked down to the main road. A truck stopped straight away and the old tanned dude in the cab, eyed me curiously. I explained the situation but was not expecting "Oh I know Hugh, I'll take you to his house" as a response! We drove into a residential area not half a mile from the garage and pulled up on Hugh's drive to find him quietly gardening. As he looked up from his hoeing, he had the unmistakeable look of someone thinking "Oh yeah...now I remember".

Bruce, my saviour, explained how he found me and with a cheeky wink went off to carry on with whatever he was doing and Hugh drove me back to the garage to get Ollie, who purred like a kitten! I paid him his 50 bucks thinking, I was gonna give you 60 for the inconvenience of opening the shop on your day off but you can swing for it, old man! x