That was one seriously expensive burger.
So, it's been one big joy ride this past week or so.
Saturday night I decided to nip out and grab a burger for dinner, as a change. Y'know, a little trip down to the local Hungry Jacks. (That'd be Burger King to you NorAm folks.)
Except that as I was about to arrive at the burger joint, the car starts surging and charging, and ultimately stalls right at the entrance to the HJ's driveway.*
Roll eyes, start car and pull into burger place.
Wait five minutes or so while listening to the radio, start car again and run it for awhile, noting that it still wants to stall out if I don't keep my foot on the accelerator.
Go inside, get food, come back, car will not start at all. (Note: At this point, engine turns over but will not catch.)
Call for roadside assistance, eat food, wait an hour or so. Literally less than five (5) minutes before the guy shows up, two cars full of retards pull up either side of me, into the bays that have been utterly empty until then.
RA guy shows up, peers under the bonnet, listens to the sounds car does and does not make, decides that the ignition module has crapped out for some reason.** Replaces it ($100, thank you very much, and no I don't take plastic, can you get some cash?), car starts.
Get most of the way out of the car-park, car still spluttering and surging, still wants to stall if I take my foot off the accelerator. RA guys sees problems I'm having, has me pull into another bay to work out what else is wrong with car. After a while, he gives up and calls for a tow truck. Cue another hour-ish wait, and then I get towed home, making my 20 minute trip for a burger last 3 1/2 hours and cost me over a hundred bucks directly.
But, of course, given that I'd been fighting off a cold for the previous week or so, and those 3+ hours lurking about in a cold car-park has great encouraged my lurking lurgy.
Sunday I'm crook as a dog. Coughing and firmly in the grip of Mucor the Slime God™.
Monday morning when I wake up for work I have to call in sick, finding myself sans voice make a serious dent in my plans for working a shift of phone tech support. Call in sick, (croakingly,) go back to sleep and then drag myself in to see the local doctor later in the day. Doc pokes, prods and listens to my lungs, declares it an URTI. (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, they do seem to rather like me.) Prescribed bed rest and roxithromycin 300mg/day for 10 days. Also gave me a medical certificate stating I was not fit for work until Friday.
Which means I cannot go back to work until Friday, as HR have this annoying policy that says if you have a medical certificate for a day then you will not be permitted to work that day, unless you get another certificate stating that you are in fact fit for work.
So, I needed Monday off, as I could barely talk and ended up sleeping for most of the day, Tuesday I probably needed off to recover a bit, Today, I could have been back at work, and would have preferred to be. I would have really liked to go back Thursday.
'Cept it turns out that Rosters have been stuffing me about, have messed up my hours. (0630 starts? I don't think so, my contract says I work from 0800-2000.) And they took away the shift I should have been working on Friday. (Which was only a 6 hour shift, but still. Manager has it partially sorted, now I have a shift on Friday, but I'm still rostered to start at 0630. Which ain't gonna happen, as A: contract!; and B: Kinda impossible for me to get into the CBD by 0620 without a working car. Arrange with manager to start at 8am instead. He'll be calling tomorrow to give me some info on just which hours I'm working, and hopefully some idea of just when I'm meant to be working next week.
So, conservatively guestimating, that burger has already cost me ~$600, and I haven't even had a mechanic around to look at it yet.
(*) Cue Lowlife Retard #1 for the night: "Hay! Ur out of fuel ya F*** C***! Hur, ur goin' F*** nowhere! Hur! Hur!" *zooms off with car full of lowlife retard friends*
(**) Cue Lowlife Retard #2 for the night: *roars past on the road and yells* "Get a F*** Holden!" I mutter "No thanks, I'd rather have a car." RA guy laughs and opines "Y'know 90% of the problems we have are Holdens".
Turns out this coming weekend is a double XP weekend in my MMO of choice, starts tomorrow afternoon my time and runs until Monday afternoon. And I'm hoping I'm going to be busy working Friday and Monday. Life's funny sometimes.
Saturday night I decided to nip out and grab a burger for dinner, as a change. Y'know, a little trip down to the local Hungry Jacks. (That'd be Burger King to you NorAm folks.)
Except that as I was about to arrive at the burger joint, the car starts surging and charging, and ultimately stalls right at the entrance to the HJ's driveway.*
Roll eyes, start car and pull into burger place.
Wait five minutes or so while listening to the radio, start car again and run it for awhile, noting that it still wants to stall out if I don't keep my foot on the accelerator.
Go inside, get food, come back, car will not start at all. (Note: At this point, engine turns over but will not catch.)
Call for roadside assistance, eat food, wait an hour or so. Literally less than five (5) minutes before the guy shows up, two cars full of retards pull up either side of me, into the bays that have been utterly empty until then.
RA guy shows up, peers under the bonnet, listens to the sounds car does and does not make, decides that the ignition module has crapped out for some reason.** Replaces it ($100, thank you very much, and no I don't take plastic, can you get some cash?), car starts.
Get most of the way out of the car-park, car still spluttering and surging, still wants to stall if I take my foot off the accelerator. RA guys sees problems I'm having, has me pull into another bay to work out what else is wrong with car. After a while, he gives up and calls for a tow truck. Cue another hour-ish wait, and then I get towed home, making my 20 minute trip for a burger last 3 1/2 hours and cost me over a hundred bucks directly.
But, of course, given that I'd been fighting off a cold for the previous week or so, and those 3+ hours lurking about in a cold car-park has great encouraged my lurking lurgy.
Sunday I'm crook as a dog. Coughing and firmly in the grip of Mucor the Slime God™.
Monday morning when I wake up for work I have to call in sick, finding myself sans voice make a serious dent in my plans for working a shift of phone tech support. Call in sick, (croakingly,) go back to sleep and then drag myself in to see the local doctor later in the day. Doc pokes, prods and listens to my lungs, declares it an URTI. (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, they do seem to rather like me.) Prescribed bed rest and roxithromycin 300mg/day for 10 days. Also gave me a medical certificate stating I was not fit for work until Friday.
Which means I cannot go back to work until Friday, as HR have this annoying policy that says if you have a medical certificate for a day then you will not be permitted to work that day, unless you get another certificate stating that you are in fact fit for work.
So, I needed Monday off, as I could barely talk and ended up sleeping for most of the day, Tuesday I probably needed off to recover a bit, Today, I could have been back at work, and would have preferred to be. I would have really liked to go back Thursday.
'Cept it turns out that Rosters have been stuffing me about, have messed up my hours. (0630 starts? I don't think so, my contract says I work from 0800-2000.) And they took away the shift I should have been working on Friday. (Which was only a 6 hour shift, but still. Manager has it partially sorted, now I have a shift on Friday, but I'm still rostered to start at 0630. Which ain't gonna happen, as A: contract!; and B: Kinda impossible for me to get into the CBD by 0620 without a working car. Arrange with manager to start at 8am instead. He'll be calling tomorrow to give me some info on just which hours I'm working, and hopefully some idea of just when I'm meant to be working next week.
So, conservatively guestimating, that burger has already cost me ~$600, and I haven't even had a mechanic around to look at it yet.
(*) Cue Lowlife Retard #1 for the night: "Hay! Ur out of fuel ya F*** C***! Hur, ur goin' F*** nowhere! Hur! Hur!" *zooms off with car full of lowlife retard friends*
(**) Cue Lowlife Retard #2 for the night: *roars past on the road and yells* "Get a F*** Holden!" I mutter "No thanks, I'd rather have a car." RA guy laughs and opines "Y'know 90% of the problems we have are Holdens".
Turns out this coming weekend is a double XP weekend in my MMO of choice, starts tomorrow afternoon my time and runs until Monday afternoon. And I'm hoping I'm going to be busy working Friday and Monday. Life's funny sometimes.