Grumble. (Or There's a recession on. HELLO?)

Now, I'm not cross, I'm just having a grumble. And, perhaps, having a grumble is, in fact, a good way of pre-emptively avoiding getting cross. Wevs.

Five years ago, I leased a car through a local chap. Let's call him Malcolm as that is his name and so it would be rude not to. After three years the lease came to an end and I expected to hear from Malcolm, keen to set me up with a new car.

But I didn't hear anything, so I rang him and he told me a convoluted story about selling part of his business which precluded him from contacting me. OK, I thought, that's fair enough and, because he's a nice chap, I leased another car through him, this time for two years.

As that lease comes to an end, I've been expecting to hear from him but there has been no call.

More excitingly, the garage that provided the car - Simpsons in Preston - rang me a couple of weeks ago. "We understand your lease is coming to an end" they said. "Oh yes" I replied. "Can we send you details of some replacement vehicles?" they cried. "OH YES!".

But I haven't heard from them, either.

Today I took my car in for a service at Hadwins in Lindale. I mentioned to the chap who took my keys that my lease was nearly up and that I'd be interested in getting a new car. He proceeded to present me with a load of obstacles, like HAVING TO GO TO MORECAMBE. (That rings a bell: was it one of the labours of Hercules?)

When I returned later, nobody mentioned it to me.

So, here we are in a recession and I'm trying to make a purchase. Is no one interested? Really?!