I’ve discovered the full story of the tyres.
The two sets of wheels are not the same size. The winter ones (that have summer tyres on at present and are on the car) are 17 inch wheels and the ones in storage (that also have summer tyres on, which need replacing) are 18 inch. So they hadn’t been planning to put the summer tyres over, which had been our understanding – I can see how that came about, but things are complicated enough already, so I won’t explain unless you really, really want me to. What they had wanted to do was put new winter tyres on the 18″ wheels. However, those tyres are no longer made.
I asked about all-weather tyres. They are available, but not as run-flat ones – if you get a puncture, you can keep going as far as home or a garage. I can, however, get whatever I want for the 17″ wheels, but the present tyres are nearly new, so there’s not much point in replacing them. So never mind. I’ve still got my Focus, so will only drive the BMW if the weather isn’t wintry. I don’t plan to drive it short distances anyway. When the tyres finally need replacing, I’ll get all-weather ones if I can, or else winter ones for them. and replacement summer ones for the others. I’ve brought the 18″ wheels back with me – two in the boot and two on the back seat – and will store them for now.
The staff at the BMW garage in Reading are unfailingly helpful and charming. it wasn’t their fault that they didn’t know the full situation at the start and they went to a lot of trouble to find out the information.
On the way back, I filled the car with petrol and bought a rather nice rice and bean salad with falafels for lunch from Tesco. The falafels were nothing special but the rest was good. It would probably have been a microwaved jacket potato otherwise, I’ve used up most of the food I’ve bought. I’ve still got some cheese, but only one slice of bread. I have a pheasant casserole for dinner, that I took out of the freezer at home to bring. I have fruit and vegetables and only have dinner and breakfast to go. Then I’ll set off for home in the morning.
Jacket potatoes have saved our lives in the past couple of weeks.
I really feel the effects of having to eat so many carbs.
Those tyres and their associated wheels seem to be giving you far too much grief!
Keep going… I know you will get through it.
I don’t usually have a lot of carbs unless I have a Twiglet day. After rather a lot of sandwiches in September, because I couldn’t be bothered with food, I really craved vegetables and fruit.
Now I know what the situation is, which neither Tim nor I did, it’s fine. The car has also had its winter service and I’m not going to worry about it any more. Not until I’ve changed the Focus for a smaller car, anyway – but I’ll think about that when the time comes.
Thank goodness we need only “summer” tyres all year round. I would NOT be able to handle all the complications with 2 different types of tyres! Unfortunately I love carbs and it is so difficult to give it up. I think jacket potatoes are delicious, all warm from the oven and I can eat loads of bread rolls with butter. I find salads difficult to eat though I have been training myself. Once my neighbour shared a huge bowl of salad with me over dinner and i had a “huger” tummy ache the whole night. It was like too much fibre in my poor tummy! We also have falafel (goggled it) here but ours seem a lot less dense.
We do here as well, Kestrel. But when Tim bought this car, nearly 14 years ago, he didn’t realise that the summer tyres were standard. That winter, he went north to visit a friend and found he was slipping about, then he couldn’t get back up the slope of his drive, so he was persuaded that two sets of wheels was a good idea. Bless him.
I had a fabulous falafel with beetroot the other day. It can be dry, but not that time. Yesterday’s was from a very basic supermarket, it really wasn’t very good. The accompanying salad was, though.