Mmm mm mm mm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

G left for work early, since it was his birthday, so he could get home early too.  His Mum and Dad came at 8.30am to drop off his birthday card and present - luckily I was up and ready to receive visitors!  8.30 - who goes visiting at that hour? Nutters!
They went away, and then Jim from down the road, who has a wee garage nearbye, took my car away to see if he could locate the squeak which has apparently defied the best efforts of Perth's finest mechanics. 

Car-less, I was confined to barracks except for a short walk with Rocky, who just can't cope with high temperatures.  We came home and both had a dish of ice-cream too cool down.  It was very very hot, too hot for gardening, no matter how much I needed to do it. 

I flirted with the hose, but couldn't persuade it to work properly - think it has a leak or twenty, so had to get busy with the watering can.  Then I had a little seat on the patio with a large glass of cold tonic water and a big packet of Pringles Tortilla Chips - the Nacho flavour ones.  Mmmmm they are very good indeed.

Jim brought my car back, telling me it was my brakes all along (as I had told the garage, but they had obviously not listened), and he said that they were actually in the worst state of corrosion he had ever seen.  He had worked magic on them, sanded down the disks (or drums, some part of the braking system anyway), and put on new pads, and done many many things to make them more efficient and less noisy. 

G came home, and we sat out for a bit, discussing his birthday presents and planning for the barbecue, then I made a special birthday tea of sirloin steak, baked potato and mixed salad followed by chocolate profiteroles and cream.  We are totally old school when it comes to birthday teas!

His friends came round, and they all disappeared into the newly tidied garage to play cards and talk man-talk. I nipped into town in my non-squeaky car to say goodbye to nephew Taylor who is off to Canada for 15 days, on a school rugby trip. 

It was delightful not to have to turn the radio up loud to drown out the annoying screech from the brakes. 

Wish the hand-brake was still working. 

Is it just me?