Expensive Trip to Melton

Another Friday with Lucy and this one turned out to be far more expensive than expected. 

Over the last week or so the brakes on the car have slowly been getting worse to the point that a scrapping noise could be heard from the passenger side of the car. Although it didn't seem to affect the braking to much it was clear that something was rubbing against the break disk. I thought it was probably a stone at first given the pads seemed to have some wear left from what I could see although they needed replacing, but it turned out to be far worse. 

The first part of the morning was spent on the phone getting quote to replace the worn front brake pads. Not my idea of fun but something that had to be done. Melton seemed the logical place to go and given the state of the brakes the closer the garage the better. Surprisingly the quota weren't too bad and I found someone that could do it the same day. I even found the parts to do the job again if only I had the time. 

We set off for Melton just before lunch carefully driving and avoiding using the brakes as much as possible. I was getting rather good at this as I had been doing it all week, leaving larger gaps and using the gears including first were ever possible. It is amazing how little you have to brake if you careful. The idea was to have lunch while the breaks were being fixed in the town. 

We soon arrived in Melton and the careful picking of the garage paid off. We were less than a  five minutes walk from the town centre. We dropped off the car and headed into town in search of some food. Gregs looked like a likely candidate for a sausage roll which Lucy loves and then off somewhere to park our bottoms for a drink while we waited for the call to say the car was all done. Turned out when call came it wasn't the sort of call I wanted. The first bit of bad news was that one of the discs had worn away, the next was that the parts were more expensive due to it being the larger model and finally that they weren't in stock and we would have to spend most of the afternoon in Melton waiting for them to arrive and be fitted. 

There was only one thing to do, go to the park for the afternoon and have some fun. A quick call to the school was made just in case we were late back to let Emily and Catherine know where we were and off we set. 

I hadn't been to Melton park in years and then only once to see Lucy's uncle Paul. It was lovely to go back there again after all this time and take Lucy. I can't even remember if she was born when I was last there. It was that long ago. She saw the park and announced straight away that it was going to be fun. She already eyed up the slide and ran there as soon as we were close. She particularly liked the rocking horse and had me riding it with her. As usual she made new friends by following them around and then order them and about. She had a lovely time playing on all the rides and walking round the park. Thankfully it was lovely weather for the park too and it was a great way of passing the time.

Eventually we got the call the car was ready and shock horror the cost of repairing the brakes. A small matter of £300 most of which were the pair of new double discs at over £100 each. But I guess safety is priceless and it was good to know we where safe and the new breaks were all tested. 

We managed to arrive back home just in time for Emily and Catherine to get home from school. In fact they were just walking down the walk as we arrived back home. Quickly they got changed out of their school clothes and it was out in the garden in the sun with Lucy. Ice lollies all round brought a smile to all of them and the y played beautifully until dinner.

All in all it was a nice day but an expensive one.