At the end of August 2013, Her Ladyship went to France in Miss Daisy, accompanied by another seven cars. Over the next few blogs, she relates her experiences.
Tuesday 20th
August
Why did she have to bring him along? I mean, it’s me exclusively for this sort of
trip. You know what she says, “Hello Old
Girl. Guess what? We’re going back to France with some of your
relatives. How about that then?”
That’s what she said to me when she raised the matter of
a trip to Normandy back in May. No
mention of him though. Oh no, no, no, no, no.
No mention whatsoever that the Grey One was coming along too.
So there we were, Wee Fergus, The Grey One and myself,
sitting in the sunshine waiting for our drivers and passengers to load us
up. Her Ladyship me, The Nice Mister
Tony and his daughter Danielle had chosen to travel in the Grey One – poor
fools. Then in Wee Fergus were The Nice
Missus Debbie and the nice Missus Jane.
“It’s going to be a glorious week,” announced Her
Ladyship. “Checked the forecast for Caen
and it’s going to be thirty four degrees on Thursday. Lots and lots of bright sunshine are
promised, how about that then?” There
were nods of acquiescence as everyone climbed aboard us and we were off to
Cardiff. I was worried about my brakes
and par for the course, Madam had not done anything about them and every time
she applied the pedal, my rear brakes snatched and I really didn’t like
it. I think that somehow she thought the
problem would go away. Of course it
didn’t.
Wednesday 21st
August
We’d stopped at a Travelodge just outside Cardiff and
first out the next morning was the Nice
Mister Tony who tended to Wee Fergus’s and the Grey One’s needs. A while later, Her Ladyship materialised,
she’d not had a good night.
“Bloody Travelodge...
Bloody bed... I hardly slept a
wink.” She continued grumbling as she
checked me over. “Now Old Girl, your
brakes, let’s see what we can do to stop you snatching at your rear end.” She dived underneath me. No that’s wrong, she gingerly lowered herself
to the ground armed with a spanner and some pliers and proceeded to loosen my
rear nearside brake cable.
“Right, let’s see how that works,” she said as she got in
and started me up. We proceeded around
the car park and every now and again pressing my brake pedal. Each time my rear wheels would lock causing
me to skid.
“It’s no good,” Her Ladyship announced to the assembled
drivers and passengers on our return.
“She’s still having her brakes lock.”
“We’ll take a look at her at the services at coffee
time,” The Nice Mister Tony said. “Now
let’s get on.”
We finally made it to Portsmouth at 5.00pm. We made it because my rear brakes had been
loosened right off and I was only able to rely on my front brakes to stop. This meant that Her Ladyship had to really
anticipate every time she wanted me to stop.
If she didn’t we would sail on, straight over a road junction. Joining us at Portsmouth were the Nice Mister
and Missus Bob and Ann and the Nice Mister and Missus Richard and Susan. Also joining us were Her Ladyship’s friends
from Cardiff, who for some strange reason had decided to come this far by
train. I can’t think why.
