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It’s time for another car related story…
This happened a few weeks ago, about a week after I’d passed my test.
I’d gone to Kathryn’s for dinner and she wanted me to pick up some wine and other bits from Tesco, so I drove down there – got the wine, got the other bits and went to pay. I got ID’d for the booze… Apparently they got caught selling alcohol to a minor recently and the bloke got fired and the shop had a massive fine etc.. That was when I realised I’d left my passport at Kat’s house and hadn’t yet got my new driving license back from the DSA so had no ID on me. Ugh! Typical.
I drove back to her place to pick up my passport and went all the way back to the shop, it’s not that far but it was a wasted journey – went back to the till, showed my passport which proves I am infact 21 years old and thus got the wine. Fantastic. Bit frustrating having to to and fro though. Got back in my car, turned the key in a bit of a hurry and…. *snap*. Argh. The key had broken off in the ignition.
I panicked about for a bit and wondered what the hell I was going to do. After sitting around for a while I calmed down and actually tried to turn the key – the broken bit still connected to the bit lodged inside and it still started the car. Luckily. I was able to drive back to Kat’s place with the rest of the key on the passenger seat.
In the end I had to drive all the way back to my house, get my spare key so I could lock the car door for the night. Went over to Kat’s parents place the following morning and her Dad being the genius he is managed to get the bit of the key out of the ignition slot with some tiny screwdrivers… And the above photo was taken after he’d managed to shift it out slightly. Got a new key cut for £7 and it’s been fine so far!
This is the story as told by me to countless people.. Sorry if you’ve already heard it, but it’s now immortalised forever on the web.
It was Thursday 12th February 2009, the day after I passed my driving test. I was driving home from the pub after closing time and surprise surprise there were no parking spaces down my road. There never are any in the evenings. I turned at the end and went down the next road, no spaces there either… So I went down the other road near my place and a car pulled in behind me. There was a space there but I figured I’d loop back round and let this other car go past. I turned left at the bottom and took off towards the city centre, went onto the main road and the other car followed me and kept following me for the next 5 minutes or so. I thought I’d just go for a random drive around, why not – I wasn’t doing anything wrong. But the car was still behind me all the way to the ring road and back round.
Now I was getting worried. I didn’t know what to do in this situation when you’re being followed by a car; was it friends from the pub playing a joke? Was it a car full of chavs waiting to jump me when I parked up and steal my car? The true reality didn’t cross my mind for even a second…
Just as I was getting back to my road I saw flashing blue lights in my rear view mirror and the car behind me pulled over. So did I to let them past, except they didn’t go past. One police car pulled in front of me, one behind. About half a dozen police officers got out. I was extremely freaked out at this point.
I got out of my car, left the engine running… It turns out the car following me was an unmarked police car who weren’t allowed to pull me over so had to call the cavalry. They asked if I’d been drinking, of course I hadn’t – I’d only had two diet cokes at the pub. I took a road-side breath test which confirmed this and they also said I’d been driving erratically which personally I didn’t think I was but that was what lead them to follow me. I explained how I’d just passed my test the previous day, which was also the reason why I didn’t have my license on me at the time. They then explained that because I was driving slowly around the roads at this time of night they thought I was looking for a “lady of the night” and once I’d explained that I was just looking for a parking space they realised their error and let me go.
The moral of the story? Don’t drive too slowly when looking for a parking in my area of Norwich…? Well it makes for a good anecdote anyway.
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