a wheely good weekend

No this has nothing to do with the much vaunted, and definitley overrated return of Jonathon Woss to our screens. Instead this is a story about things with one black wheel and four silver wheels or in my case at the moment two black wheels and three silver ones. As regular readers will know, last weekend saw Jetski boy buying his first car with his money and my wallet - insurance, road tax, spare parts servicing - all the little things that make owning a car such a delight. Santa, as you would expect drives something large and red and a nasty scratch on the back bumper. "Honest officer, this wall leapt out and hit me". I had been getting itchy accelerator feet for a while, caused by wandering round car showrooms and called to photos on web sites with and by relatively small boys. SMALL - what am I talking about, one weighs a solid 3 stone more than me and the other now tops me by several inches. I think I must be shrinking in direct proportion to my bank balance. Anyway, back to the story. On the basis that Santa's sleigh was being serviced and subjected to the indignities of an MOT I had taken Jetski Boy's vehicle to work, had a bad day and driven home early on the pretext of writing up all the papers in the evening. Talking of MOTs, I bet you never ever thought of the regulations I had to put up with over emissions when it was just the reindeer! Just as I was driving past CWC, a reputable retailer of second hand sleighs something called to me from the back of the forecourt (if you understand what I mean). Just glimpse but it was enough to persuade me to harness up my remaining reindeer Hugh and return to CWC forthwith. To my distress when we arrived outside the little silver sleigh was nowhere to be seen. But wait, here is CW himself, looking gaunt and wan - it is not a good time in the second hand sleigh market. "Did I not see an M3 sleigh here but half an hour ago?" I enquired. CW confirmed that that was indeed the case and it was even now being valeted after its long sojourn from Peterborough. It had had only one previous owner and had recently been acquired from the Royal Bank of Scotland as part of their pre-nationalisation disposal of assets. In the meantime my trusty old red sleigh had returned from its MOT with a full certificate of health with the exception of one of its silver wheels which had been replaced on a temporary basis by an old fashioned steel one until I can obtain a new and legal tyre. So next weekend will see the end of an era as I swap my trustee Euro Sleigh for an bright shiny, silver Nippon Sleigh. This does however represent a considerable downsizing in terms of capacity as it is now only FabAl and Mrs Claus and one elf together with reindeer Hugh.