Do you always follow your instincts? Do you ‘go with the flow’?

Do you always follow your instincts? Do you ‘go with the flow’?

I didn’t yesterday and I really wished I had.

It all started out when the g/f said she wanted to go out shopping and said 'you don't have to come if you don't want to,' but she really gave me that look which said 'and so do you'. I wasn't really into the idea, and I felt a little harassed into going.
We set off in the car and firstly, it's 'Oh! Let us go and get some tyres for the car’ a task which I said, I would do this week; I thought it was a good idea and off we go, round to a local tyre shop.

Now my g/f is a lovely woman and she likes to be as helpful as she can. One of her habits is to tell me, when we are pulling out a road junction, if it is clear of traffic and is safe to pull out. Now I must admit that this does wind me up a bit.
It is my responsibility as the driver of the car, to look and check that it is safe, but she likes to sit forward and look, obscuring my view. I have tried to mention this to her but she takes it a bit personal so I have learnt to just shut up.

I guess it is a survival technique most men are equipped with.

Anyway, we pulled out and drove down to the local industrial estate, parked up and the guy came out had a look and announced that we needed two new tyres.

Er? Yes? That’s why we are here.

So while he is fitting them we go and have a look round a couple of large furniture and carpeting stores nearby followed by a nice a hot cup of tea a lay-by cafe.

After half an hour, we head back to the tyre fitters. It cost £70 for the tyres and fitting. Not too bad, I guess, but we could have done without the expense just before Christmas, though, having said that, we do have a long journey up to my hometown coming up and it is better to have the car nice and safe.

Next we are off into the town to do some shopping at the local outdoor market and managed to find a good parking spot just near the vegetable stall, just were my g/f wanted to go. Having bought a few items, I took them back to the car, and then, for the next couple of hours we went round the local charity shops to see if we can find a few bargains.

By the end of this, I had had enough. I am not a mass consumer, I don't like wandering around shops much, particularly at this time of year as the shops have their heating on full and I find it just too hot. So I was glad to be making our way back to the car, but, oh no, just one more shop she need to go in.

I decided to wait outside and watched to stall holders dismantling their stalls and packing them into trailers.

A driver pulled out of a parking spot just in front of the store I was outside of and I toyed with the idea of moving the car up and parking it there. I couldn't see my g/f from were I was stood to tell her that is what I was going to do so I didn’t bother walking the short distance to the car. Finally, she emerged and we wandered down and got into the car.

I backed out and drove along the route we had walked to the junction ahead and I stopped. On my left, one of the stallholders I had been watching had pulled his vehicle right across the road to hook up his trailer and had block access from the left so I slowly pulled away over the junction, checking that no vehicles were going to pull out on me from the right. My g/f was chatting like a parrot on speed about going from there to see a friend when bang!

What I hadn't noticed was that at that same instant, the stall holder had backed up his vehicle and trailer back on to the pavement, (side walk to my US friends), and a car had come round and hit the car in my g/f's passenger door.

So we have gone from my g/f's total obsession for checking that things are safe to a situation were she didn't, and I had got used to her telling me that it was clear and keeping my mouth shut to keep the peace and wasn't as cautious as I normally am.

So the police arrive, take statements from all parties involved and passed around the breath analyser to check that it wasn't all due to alcohol consumption, which it wasn't, I NEVER drink and drive.

So, now we have a car with two brand new tyres and one very bent door.






The car isn't worth very much and so the insurance will probably write it off and we have the hassle of sorting out a vehicle before the weekend as her sister is due to arrive and I am the nominated driver to ferry them all around. We also need a vehicle to drive the 250 miles to my family and we cannot do that in a car that the door doesn’t open.

Just wish I had followed my instincts and just said what I wanted to say, no, I don't want to go shopping.

Sphere: Related Content