Winter Puncture Blues

What a week I had over the festive period. I worked all seven days to try and fit in all my customers. On my way to Redgrave, which is near Diss, my trusty van starting squirming about. It dawned on me in the middle of nowhere, on this freezing cold day, that I had got a puncture. To top it all off it was half way up a hill which was a little less than flat.

I pulled over and contacted my next customer and explained I would be a bit late and they were ok with it. So I got the jack out and started to attempt to get the van up off the ground to change the wheel, but the problem was I was on a slope and the van was going up on the jack at an angle. So I spent ages looking round for a stone or slab on the verge of the right shape to place under the jack to keep it upright.

Now here is a bit of free advice for all motorists, if you see someone on the side of a road in a less than safe position obviously changing a wheel, slow down and give them some space. I had many cars fly past as though they were at an air show, at least 70mph I estimate and I would also like to send out a special New Years thank you for the 18 ton truck that came down the hill flat out. The whole van and I shook and the jack creaked and moaned as the air from the flying lorry shook everything about. I had to jump out of the way as I honestly thought the whole thing was going to collapse on me. I shook a fist in disgust.

Anyway I decided to press on to my customer and worry about the puncture later, as I was not far away and would rather get out of the dangerous position I was in, I would like to see in 2016 I thought to myself. I got to my customer about 30 minutes late. My customer who was very reasonable about the whole thing was Sean Rourke and he runs Sean Rourke Carpentry Services of Redgrave. If you are after professional carpentry services give him a ring on 01379 890463.

Kindly Sean phoned a Mr Lister of Lister Motor Engineers, who are based in Rickinghall and sent me down to see him. He checked my puncture but advised me that the tyre was at the end of its life. He looked around for some tyres to see if he had one in stock, but he didn’t and as it was a Saturday it was too late to order another. He advised me to head to Diss and see the lads at Tread First as he had phoned and they had one on the shelf. Ten minutes later I was back in action and on the way back to Sean’s at Redgrave to finally clean his cooking range. Thanks to the guys at Tread First, to Sean and Mr Lister I was back and able to work again. If you are after a tyre you can ring Tread First on 01379 651976. Lister Motor Engineers can be reached on 01379 898549

While I was cleaning Sean’s range I rang my next customer to tell them I would be late, by this point I was two hours late, Steve Cripps, who runs Steve Cripps Domestic Appliance Repairs in Scole could not have been nicer and eventually I arrived two and a half hours late to clean his oven. You can call Steve on 01379 852002 if you need an appliance repaired.

A big thank you to all the guys who helped me on the day and sorry I was late for all your oven cleans but we got there in the end. I appreciated you all made my day a bit more bearable.