That car was doomed I tell you....doomed!

I appreciate that some of the problems which happened during my week with the miniature car may not have been the car's fault - there may or may not have been some human error involved - that human may or may not have been me, but here is the rest of the tale.....

So I left you with our 2 night stay at the Premier Inn, not so bad for the 3 of us....you're very definitely on holiday when you're in a hotel, any kind of hotel, in any place, even if you have to watch some cricket - it's a holiday in my book!

I'd exchanged some Tesco vouchers for a local pub restaurant and we had a huge amount to spend (thanks for the triple value Mr Tesco!) so we ate well for both nights and on the last morning there were just 2 of us in the room as number 1 son had stayed over at the boarding school with his Dad as they'd had an evening out.....to a cricket match!

Little Miss and I packed our bags, enjoyed a good breakfast - kids eat free so stuff as much in as you can, fill your pockets if possible!

We loaded the car and headed to the school for the first match of the final day.

Not a difficult manoeuvre, the car park was next to the pitch our team were playing on. I unloaded the car - chairs, food, drinks, kitchen sink came out of the miniature car with teeny tiny boot (trunk). And we set up camp on the boundary (Boundary - see I do know some cricket terminology!)

After about an hour I needed to collect something from the car, but could I find the key? No sign of the car key, bags were turned out, contents strewn on the floor, steps to the car park were retraced, children were interrogated!

I then had the humiliating task of asking the other parents, who at the best of times I find intimidating! You have the stylish "Boden-esque" mum's, the business men "old school tie" dad's and lots of networking being done and generally being very ambitious on behalf of their children. Not really my kind of thing!

I always seem to do something stupid, or say the wrong thing so the fact that I'd lost the car key didn't appear to surprise anyone! Eventually I realised that if we were ever to make it home I would need to call the garage and "fess up" - after I'd shouted at them, several times a few days before. I called and explained that I had accidently mislaid the key,

 "no problem madam we'll drive a spare out to you, are you at home?" Oh dear!

 " no actually I'm just outside Birmingham, approximately 200 miles from you"
 - mumbles, possibly some swearing on the other end of the line.

She couldn't help other than to advise I phoned the RAC & pretended I'd locked the key in the boot - this apparently gets the best response! I duly called them and they said they'd put me on their list and be with me within 3 hours!

 Oh crikey, 3 hours? I got the withering look from the builder as usual.

 Other parents smiled and tried to be sympathetic while implying they'd never done such a thing themselves.

 

Over an hour later I was still really upset and frantic with worry about possible tellings off and charges from the RAC. They'd also told me that if the key wasn't in the car (I was sure it wasn't) they'd take us all home on the back of a low loader truck - oh the humiliation, not to mention the length of time the journey would take on a pick up truck!

 

So what happened after an hour?
 The builder found the key in his pocket, of course he denies 100% actually putting it there himself! Livid is not the word!

So we got home safely and all in one piece in the teeny tiny car, having put over 1000 miles on it in the short time it lived with us.

 

But the next day, it's last day with us, Little Miss and I decided to take the car to visit a local festival while the boys were at cricket.

 

Off we went on a hot and sunny Sunday, parked in the car park/farmers field and had a great day out. There was entertainment, things to make and do, as well as lots of craft stalls and tents.

Glitter tattoo - which appears to have been photographed 47 times - not by me!

Why hoola hoop with one hoop when you can hoola hoop with three?

And when it was time to leave we were exhausted,
so we staggered back to the field to find......no car!

We walked and walked until our legs were aching, many people left but there was no sign of our little car. I had no idea what to do next, but after an hour of pacing up and down
(yes it actually was 1 hour)
 a nearly empty car park we admitted defeat and decided to re trace our steps back to the festival field to report it stolen.
We thought it a little strange that anyone would steal a teeny tiny car when there were some fabulous cars all around but who knows how a thief's mind works?
 I was already thinking about the call to the garage to say I'd found the key, but sadly lost the car!

As luck would have it on the walk back we bumped into some friends and had a little chat, then they asked WHICH car park we were in?? There were two identical fields for parking.... who knew??
I admitted nothing to no one - so please don't tell!