Introducing...

Alan's New Blue Car!

It arrived a day early.  Yay!  We've only been patiently waiting months!

We've had the most hilarious of days.  Farcical even.   It started with the workmen coming to carry on the additional work we've asked them to do.  Two of them got to work replacing the wood above the garage and Johnny and Lewis continued fitting the new radiator covers they've made.

I went into the living room and was hit by a heatwave.  The radiator they'd been working on was blasting out masses of heat, despite it being set to the defrost setting.  We left them investigating the problem as we were meeting with Rosie (who manages Alan's support team) to go over the job advert and specification we're about to use to advertise for new support workers now that Ed has retired and Karen has left.

Rosie arrived at 3pm and we had just started our discussions when David's mobile rang.  It was the third time this number had rang him today but no message was left.  There is a fault on David's phone at the moment.  The microphone isn't working so when he answers a call, he can hear the caller but the caller can't hear him.  So he had not answered these calls presuming the caller would leave a message if it was a genuine caller.  

When his phone rang again another two times, I suggested he use my phone to return the call and find out who it was.  He did and it was the man delivering Alan's car (he'd come from Liverpool with it)  to say he was in the area and could hand the car over today instead of tomorrow if that suited us.   David explained we were in a meeting and had another meeting at 4.00pm, so 6.00pm would be the earliest we could take delivery of the car.  The man (Gordon) said that was fine and he would see us at 6.00pm.

Our meeting with Rosie finished at 4.00pm just in time for Kenny from the hoist company to arrive with a specialist seat for us to look at as an alternative means of getting Alan in and out of the pool.  As Rosie is also an OT, she was taking part in this meeting too.  Rosie, David and Kenny disappeared to the pool room and I went to the kitchen to prepare Alan's dinner as I wanted him fed and out the kitchen before my Tesco delivery arrived.  

By 5.20pm David, Rosie and Kenny had finished their meeting in the pool room (apparently Kenny had been hoisted, fully clothed over the pool as part of a demo of this equipment.  I wish I'd gone with them as that would have been a great blip!  :-)) and we were having a chat (turns out this Kenny was in the BB's with our brother in law Kenny and both their mother's are very close friends (Scotland really is a village!) when the door bell rang and yes, you've guessed it, it was Gordon the car man half an hour early!!!

Kenny and Rosie bid hasty goodbyes and if I was in any doubt the car had  arrived, I could have guessed by the squeals of excitement coming from Alan's living room as Christine broke the news that his new car had arrived early.  Oh heavens, he was beside himself!  

His potatoes were almost ready but they were completely forgotten about as he was desperate to get outside and give his car the once over.  I think you can see from my blip and the extras that the car met with his approval.

David then ran Gordon back to his hotel, 20 minutes away and I had the great job of getting a very hyper Alan to settle down long enough to eat his dinner.  He was extra excited as we'd been promising him that when his new car came, we would take him a run to see our old house and visit some of his old haunts in Cumbernauld.  Of course we were expecting to do this tomorrow afternoon but no, the car was here so according to Alan, we had to do it this evening!  

I had just finished giving him his dinner when my mobile rang and it was the Tesco delivery driver to ask if it was ok to bring my shopping 20 minutes early.  Where are you I asked.  Outside he said.  Okay I said.

Shopping delivered, David arrived back, we grabbed a fish supper for tea and then the three of us and Christine piled out and into the New Blue Car (it will forever be known as this :-) and headed for the grand metropolis that is Cumbernauld :-) 

We visited the Craighalbert Centre (just the entrance as obviously it was closed but we will be going back for a proper visit after the Easter holidays. Yay) then drove to our old street and past our old house.  Alan was so excited.   Thankfully the house was in darkness or the poor people might have wondered why this car was kerb crawling past! 

We then visited the street we lived in when we first got married and our first house and the house we moved to and lived in when Alan was born.  We moved when he was a year old so he didn't remember it.  All three houses are within spitting distance of each other.

Then we had a final drive into our last street again and another look at the house Alan called home for the first 15 years of his life, before turning north and heading home.  

I was a bit worried he would be sad leaving it behind as I know he still misses living there, but nope, he was full of the joys, laughing, giggling and blethering all the way home.

We have promised him that we will go back and visit all these places in day light.  By the cars in the drives I think most of our neighbours are still there so we might even bump into a couple of them.  That would be nice.

So, a hectic but happy day and I can say that having been in Alan's old car yesterday and the new one today, we have definitely made the right decision.  

And most importantly, Alan agrees.  Phew!