Wiggly's car breakdowns dominated the day but gave us the opportunity to me the chance to watch the closing conference speech by Jim Wallace MP , the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland, and to meet her brother.
Home early in the morning and very tired.
I got us up early again and we packed our things ready to leave after having an even lighter breakfast at the hotel.
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Some difficulty getting all of our things down three flights of stairs and into the small car but we accomplished this and got down to the conference in time to hear the latter part of the debate on the Liberal Democrat Guarantee.
We left the hall early intending to have a good start for another long journey but this was not to be. First a section of Wiggly's exhaust system fell of the car so we had to divert to a nearby exhaust centre but sadly they did not have the parts.
The drive through the city with a noisy car before we eventually found somewhere able to do it for us. I left Wiggly to organise it whilst I walked off to buy some sandwiches for lunch and we hoped they would be finished the job in half an hour or so.
This was not to be as they had problems connecting the new exhaust to the engine exhaust manifold and we were staked out far too long in the waiting room.
At least we got a chance to watch the closing conference speech by Jim Wallace MP , the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland, and this was well written and despatched. A succession of senior LibDem MPs were interviewed by the broadcasters who came to the conclusion that this had been a good conference, if dull for its lack of controversy and disagreement.
The exhaust repairs had to be bodged for the journey, the car apparently needing a new exhaust manifold, the threads on the old one having been worn.
We nevertheless felt confident in setting off down south to England to make our appointment in Haydock with our retail computer software people, RSA.
We made reasonable time and, having telephoned ahead to warn them of our arrival time, were well received with mugs of tea for a good meeting.
We were left in little doubt that this was the right organisation to go with but we noted that their costs were rising all the time.
hey ported across a copy of their main software package Retail Controller so we could work on our stock files in the meantime and we took the opportunity to chat further with them about administrating news agencies and the video hire.
Upon leaving we had our first warning of things to come when we could not get the car into gear. We made it to a local filling station on the M6 intersection but it was apparent by now that something fairly drastic had happened to the clutch.
We renewed our acquaintance with the RAC and a very helpful inspector escorted us to a 24 hour repair garage on the outskirts of Warrington who were able to undertake the repairs to our clutch for us.
This took a very long time and meant we could only arrive back in Eynesbury around 2.30am in the morning which was a fitting end to a very tiring and disrupted week.
Fortunately the 24 hour garage was a very short drive from the Warrington home of Malcolm Busby and his wife Michelle, and so it was my first opportunity to meet Wiggly's brother.
He drove down and collected us from the other side of the service area barrier and took us to his home for drinks and good company.
When it became apparent just how long the repairs were going to take he also took us out to his local chippy which gave us an opportunity to look at the Spar next door.
It was eventually 10pm when the car was ready for us to resume that very late and exhausting journey.