If anybody had noticed that I haven’t posted a new blog for the last week or so, it’s because I’ve been preparing to depart this grey and snowy land for a bit of a holiday.

I’m not a big fan of snow at the best of times, and particularly when the entire country grinds to a halt as soon as it starts. Sure, if you’re a kid and you haven’t got a business to run or a mortgage to pay, I can see the pleasure in throwing snowballs, building a snowman, or sledging down a hill. When you’re nearly 40 though and are trying to reverse a laden car trailer with a 200 BHP rear wheel drive van arouind a series of snow-covered obstacles, it can certainly seem less of a joy!

Apart from the fact that a decent covering of white stuff on the ground renders many people incapable of leaving their houses, and their cars stuck on the driveway, customers were a bit thin on the ground earlier this week. Although all of our staff managed to make their way into work eventually, many of our customers didn’t and had to re-book for later in the week. Those that did manage to make it to their MOT apointments on time presented us with an entirely different problem. Have you ever tried examining the underneath of a car whilst it’s covered in a thick coating of sludge and ice, most of which melts in the warmth of the workshop, leaving the poor MOT tester and the floor soaking wet.

The service and repair jobs that we did have took far longer than normal due to the lack of parts deliveries, and some of the main dealers we buy parts from didn’t even bother to open due to lack of staff, so we saw no bits at all! Still, sales of antifreeze and new batteries were fairly brisk, so that partly made up for it.

Anyway, enough of the moaning as it’s showing signs of clearing-up now. Besides, as I write this, I’m only 3 days away from my trip to Paraguay, in South America. All being well, I shan’t be back until the middle of March, by which time the recent snow should be but a faint memory.

Naturally, I shall continue my blogging from the 35 degree heat of Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital, and will have fascinating tales and pictures of life in a faraway land.

I doubt that I’ll have a holiday that’s completely free of car repairs as I’ll be driving around the rutted streets of Asuncion in a lovely 1999 Toyota Rav 4 that I bought off eBay from a chap in Scotland, and shipped to Paraguay in a container back in October. It arrived safely in early December and my wife (who’s already there) has had it converted to Left Hand Drive already! After 2 months, it finally has its new Paraguayan registration number allocated (who said the DVLA were slow?) and I’ll be taking some sticky pads with to fit the plates to the car and remove the old UK ‘T’ registration.

I just hope the air conditioning still works OK in ther car as if there’s one thing I hate more than snow, it’s extreme heat!

You just can’t please some people, eh?

 

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