Lockdown outing

[callmemadam]

First thing this morning i.e. eight o’clock, I spent half an hour feeding all my pots. Then, because I think I’m still sixty, I decided to take the car out. I went down to the petrol station, which is also a Co-op. There were notices up asking customers to use the disposable gloves provided, or paper when using the pumps. Not a single person used gloves except me, and I’d taken my own disposable ones with me. I paid my bill and got a couple of things I needed; no one in the shop was wearing a mask. Then I drove home a longer way round than I needed to, for the sake of my battery. This was a route I would normally take at least once a week but it was so long since I’d done it that I drove even more carefully than usual. I saw a group of people waiting for a bus, all wearing masks. On the village green (not ours, we don’t have one), there was bunting and one of those black silhouetted soldiers, probably put up for VE day. When I got back, I wiped down the door handle, steering wheel, gear stick and parking handle, to use a technical term. Was this excessive caution?

Because I now go out so seldom (I don’t mind this), I find even a short outing like that very tiring. A word about my car and its battery because it’s really annoying. I had a new Skoda Fabia. Admittedly, my journeys are mostly short but in no time it started giving me nasty warnings: ‘12V battery almost flat. Please drive to charge. Infotainment (sic) system will be switched off’ (it wasn’t on). When the battery gave up, the chap who came to get me going again said that although the car was still under warranty, I hadn’t driven enough to allow a free battery and I had to pay. I phoned the dealers about it and they were furious but after a few phone calls on my behalf, said it was out of their hands. Grr. When I’d had that car three years, I bought another new one. I drove about the same amount as before and then, with lockdown, very little, although I did run the car and move it around once a week. The car has never failed to start first time, which convinces me there was something wrong with the battery in that first car.

Comments

[gwendraith]

Well done on getting out. I also went to fill up the car the other night. I wore my mask, took hand gel with me and wiped down everything after filling up then did my hands....and washed them once back indoors. You are not using excessive caution any more than I am. I sometimes feel a bit paranoid but to be honest I don't care, what matters is that we stay as safe as we can.

Bugger about the battery. That all sounds a bit suspicious. If it stopped working within the warranty then you should have been entitled to a new one. I have a Skoda Fabia and the battery lasts well. It's 13 years old and it's had two batteries. I sometimes don't move it for a month!

[callmemadam]

Not just me, then. It seems only common sense.

I can still fume about that battery. At the dealers, they said a battery shouldn't run down if the car is used regularly, even if it for short journeys. The warranty people were really mean, I think.