Eva went all rock and roll and trashed our front room. She was having a 'toddler' tantrum (haven't exactly got to the bottom of what it was about-  She's not happy with the seating arrangements in her class and wanted me to contact the teacher about it. I said no and this apparently means I don't care about her etc etc but she's had an emotional week and seems to have had a few squabbles with some of the other girls in her class. 

So today has been pretty rubbish. I had a great schooling session on Buddy then on the way home, looking forward to lunch, I got a phonecall from Fiona to say the van had broken down. 

It's not been starting well the past few weeks so it went to the garage on Monday and they said it was the battery. I was surprised as it's not just been doing it first thing in the morning- it's been awkward to start in the middle of the day when it's been running a while so suspected it was the starter motor. Plus we had a new battery last summer. 

All this has obviously coincided with Mike being in London for two days. 

We tried jump leads without success and couldn't bump start it. Priority was to get the dogs Fiona had with her home then get to the other dogs waiting for their walk. So I dashed about doing that in the car. Fiona did a walk in Quorn where the van had broken down and I raced over to Rothley to walk another dog. Then I went back to the van and contacted the AA. 2 HR wait but didn't end up being that long. I took Fiona home as she had to collect her son from nursery then sat in the cold waiting for them.

As suspected it was the starter motor. We had to jump start it which involved towing me in reverse round a corner off the drive into a busy road. I got a bit flustered as trying to steer and we'd swung out wide into the road then bumped into the kerb as I tried to correct it and it just felt like went too fast! There were cars zooming everywhere and beeping and I was trying to get it started then I realised the beeping was Mr AA man telling me he'd stopped but it was too late and i went slam into the back of his van. I felt like such an idiot but because it didn't feel like I was driving the car I forgot I needed to brake. No harm to his car but big dent in my bumper. But at least the van had started. He obviously doubted my driving ability as he asked me if I wanted him to follow me to the garage as if I stalled it then it wouldn't start again! And then I'd have to do another call out and wait as he'd be on his next job. Never felt so much pressure not to stall! 

So van is at garage and I've had to ask Fiona to work tomorrow and use her car as well as mine so we can get round everyone. And the thing is I said this was going to happen when Mike was away. And it did! 

In amongst the chaos I had to get Neil to collect Eva from school, then had to ask for a lift from the garage all the way back to Quorn to pick up my stranded car. So we owe him several beers. 

Then after my awful afternoon I just had to do the horses, walk our dogs, collect Toby from his friends, cook dinner, sort washing as Eva had not put any pants in the wash basket and Mike didn't notice when he did the washing on  Saturday when I was out so no clean underwear for tomorrow and also tidy up from her tantrum. Whilst I was washing up Eva was meant to be getting ready for bed but she managed to spill a whole bottle of mouthwash all over the bathroom floor which caused an arguement between her and Toby then I found out she'd been sloshing my expensive Gucci perfume about on her hairbrush to make her hair smell nice. Argghhh! 

Hats off to an the single parents. I definitely needed another pair of hands today. Start again tomorrow!!