Masculinity Aplenty!

You know that lesson everyone tries to teach you, when you buy your first car? That one where they think it's SO important that you know how to change your own tyres, should anything ever happen, and you sort of stand there thinking "Surely SOMEONE will do that for me, right??" Yeah, turns out thats one of those things it helps to pay attention to. I know, right! I'm as shocked as you are.

So I discovered this life lesson, as I always tend to, the hard way, when the other day, I was driving to work, and someone in the car next to me felt the need to point out my rear tyre was flat. At first I assumed his attempts to get me to wind my window down were to critique my choice in music (you'd be suprised how often that happens), and I actually would have preferred that. At least I have a standard response to that situation. As it was, I had nothing. I knew I had to get to a service station, which fortunately, wasn't difficult, but from that point on, I no longer had the situation under control.

First, I had to attempt to pump up the tyre. Despite the fairly obvious flatness that was apparent, even to other motorists. In my mind, this was pretty much going to solve everything. Stick the pump thingy on and continue on my way. Sadly, and as is a repeated theme in my life, it wasn't that simple. Because no sooner did I pump it up than the stupid wheel deflated again, before my very eyes. Just like in a cartoon. I didn't even know tyres WORKED like that.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I decided to drive somewhere to buy a new tyre. In hindsight, this plan may have been slightly flawed, but it seemed solid at the time. Of course, it took about five minutes for me to realise my wheel was about to fall off, and I'd need to take matters into my own hands. By changing my own tyre. Sigh.

Now, heading to work, I was dressed pretty well. New jacket, hair done, fancy rainbow cons... none of these things are conducive to manual labour in the rain, especially when you don't actually know the first thing about what you're doing.

Suprising EVERYONE, I actually managed to change the tyre. Successfully. With a minimum of fuss. But lord it was a trying half an hour. I was struck with the ridiculousness of the situation when I finally managed to locate my car jack thingy (who knew the boot had a false bottom! Ingenious!) only to find it was covered in glitter. I'm fairly sure that's not a common complaint amongst most car-minded people. Seems appropriate in mine though...