Confiteor … quia peccavi nimis … mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
(For the benefit of those whose education has been sadly neglected: “I confess … that I have sinned exceedingly … through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”)
My sin is not that I have failed to blog for almost a week, but that the reason for not keeping up to date in my cyber persona is mortal shame at what I have done.
You will know, if you read my blog (not that I think anyone does!), that The Five has been off the road for a week or two. When she originally failed to take me for a day’s outing to Oulton Park on 24th February ( see blog entry for that day) I thought I had figured out a possible reason. But now I have learned the awful truth – I have poisoned her!
For the last three weeks, the car has been marooned in the garage, jacked up on axle stands, while I attended to one or two known problems, including the exhaust leak that I thought was the cause of the misfiring etc. Tuesday was the day that I finally expected to have her put back together and ready to fire up and go.
Then on Tuesday morning I got my credit card statement. To my dismay, I found that on my last visit to the petrol station with the Five, I purchased “15 litres DIESEL” !!! [shock, horror, shame]
Well, that certainly explains the horrendous misfire and the clouds of black smoke 😦
So Wednesday, I drained off the 40-odd litres of lethal cocktail and refilled with pure and wholesome V-Power. After some coughing and spluttering, she was restored to life. Hopefully, no lasting damage.
The AA estimates that “at least 150,000 drivers put the wrong fuel in their car each year – one every three and a half minutes!” (link)
Like most people, I guess, I always thought “What a load of plonkers!” – well, now I know how easily it’s done, and I’ve learned once again that one should always react to plonkerness with a charitable “There but for the grace of God …” 😉