Sunday was a Sunday roast for lunch/dinner in the mid afternoon, as is the English custom. Toby Carvery was packed and I expect like us, most people had booked. You paid for a small, medium or large plate and the appropriate amounts of meat would be served to you. No restrictions on anything else. I was lacking in vegetables so I had a small plate with lots of vegetables. Doesn't seem much else was done that day.
We had booked a hire car for Monday. We saw the price and it seemed reasonable for five days. We began the booking process. Australian! £40 extra. Automatic! £80 extra. We can't help being Australian but we settled on the manual car. While I've never owned a manual car, I have driven plenty and so has R. We made a mistake. We were out of practice and we'd not had to deal with six gears before.
We were upgraded to a brand new Citroen C4, which was very nice. In spite of filling in all the details online, there was still huge administrative matters to go through as we picked up the vehicle.
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R kangaroo hopped out of the car park and moved the motor car along for the drive to The South on the A1/M1.
I suggested we stop to set the sat nav. R nosed the car into a fence intending to reverse into a space, but he couldn't find reverse. Nor could I. We pulled the gear stick up, pushed it down, pushed it sideways, searched for buttons. Nothing. I got out of the car in exasperation. It can't be that hard! We are going to have to depend on the kindness of a stranger and ask. How embarrassing. Then the call came out.
"I've found it", from R. There is a small ring below the gear knob to lift and then you can move to reverse. Who would have thunk that.
The sat nav was as stupidly complicated as that in our own car at home, so we just used Google Maps on our phones.
We took a break at motorway stop and after three hours of travelling, we reached our Ibis Hotel in Chesterfield. The hotel is two star but it was good enough, quite good really and the buffet breakfast was fine. Our intention was to stay in Nottingham but nothing there suited us well.
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R has a cousin in Nottingham who we know and one in Chesterfield who we didn't.
That evening the cousin in Nottingham came up to Chesterfield with her husband and two of their three sons and their partners to join us for dinner at the Alma Park Harvester.
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There were some conversation gaps which R and myself quickly killed with meaningless babble. It was a bit awkward for no real reason. They were all lovely people.
WTF is this? I like my old architecture to look right to my eyes and this does not.
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I love it. I've drive auto and non auto for years but would still have been puzzled by the reverse switch. I should not have been because as soon as you said it I remembered I, too, had had that problem on one occasion. I have a forgettory not a memory.
ReplyDeleteThere is a church in Chesterfield with a strange twisted spire. Could it have been that one?
Damned French is all I should say at time Graham. And the wiper switch on the opposite side of the wheel. How many times did I switch the wipers on when I wanted to indicate.
DeleteOh, I think it HAS to be, don't you, Graham? Unless there are churches with twisted spires all over the UK that I somehow missed!
DeleteThat church spire is certainly eye catching. I am sure there is a story behind it too.
ReplyDeleteYou and R packed a LOT in. I am very glad that reverse was found.
EC, indeed there is a story behind the spire. I knew of it but I didn't connect it with Chesterfield.
DeleteHiring a car rental is usually a pain in the ass. The queue and the admin paperwork is a nightmare. The cost is huge these days as well. I had to do that every time I picked up on a contract job somewhere remote in Australia.
ReplyDeleteRoentare, from memory of last hiring a car in Australia, it is worse here, and yes very expensive.
DeleteYou were very brave to hire a car. Do we have a poor driving reputation over there? I'd love to see all the nationalities and the extra quids levied on them. I wonder if they do that here with some people who shouldn't be allowed on our (Great Ocean) roads.
ReplyDeleteCaro, those stats would be interesting to see. It may just boil down to being 'foreigners'. Yes, we've all seen the stories about foreign drivers on the Great Ocean Road. It is now a very tightly guided road with heavy speed limits.
DeleteI like the look of The Harvester, homely yet large enough for crowds. I'd have to be taking guided bus tours so I wouldn't get lost anywhere.
ReplyDeleteThe Harvester was nothing special River, but good enough and quite large inside. Nothing wrong with bus tours. We've taken a few.
DeleteI've been to Nottingham! I've seen that church in Chesterfield with my own eyes! As stupid as it sounds, it always gives me delight to recognize things.
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth do you suppose you pay a penalty for being Australian when you rent a car? And fitting that R made it kangaroo hope. It seems like such an Aussie thing to do!
*hop
DeleteDebby, it almost feels like five degrees of separation when you say you've seen the church.
DeleteI would guess it is foreigner surcharge rather than directed at Australians.
I wondered if everyone would know what kangaroo hopping a manual car is. You do at least.
I did my own kangaroo hopping when I learned to drive standard.
DeleteChange up - change down- clutch in - clutch out…..oh the memories of manual driving. Loved that ‘sporty’ feeling in my Gemini Coupe - then started to enjoy a new sort of ownership when my first auto arrived.
ReplyDeleteCar hire contracts scare the living daylights out of people - all those extra charges for this that and the other seem to be a rip off. We had a door ‘swing open’ getting out up in the windy Peak District, mentioned it expecting a ‘fine’, was told “no problem it happens all the time. If you hadn’t mentioned the ‘damage’ we’d have asked for repair costs”
Oh and it took 12 days before I tested +ve for covid!
Cathy, it is hard going back to gear changing.
DeleteI think car hire is worse here than in England. We returned our car with the fuel level just below the level when we began. Staff said, it is near enough and we won't charge you, especially as you looked after the car so well. Similar experience in a way to yours. It would be different in Australia.
Day ten after possible contact for us, so looking good.
You made me laugh about the reverse in the car and it brought to mind only recently there was a robbery either in NSW or Vic where by the thieves rob a house, stole the car but only managed to go a few feet, hopped out and ran off - they didn't know how to drive a manual car! ..lol
ReplyDeleteSome people had hard to talk to sometimes you have to squeeze 'talk' out of them, that's frustrating Andrew.
Margaret, that's funny. Hyper masculine young thieves, but oh, I can't drive a manual.
DeleteThe dinner wasn't helped by how people were seated at the table. We four older should have sat opposite, with the young ones beside.
When you began the booking process and had to pay £40 extra for being Australian, I would have been insulted. Firstly Australians are no worse than other drivers (and better than many). Secondly your partner is British! Remind them that our grandfathers sailed to Britain to save them in WW1.
ReplyDeleteHels
DeleteHels, you are correct about all of that. But R's home address is Australia as is mine. I do think it was just a foreign licensed driver surcharge. Antecedents seem to carry little weight in Britain now.
DeleteMaybe there's a levy on all nationalities other than British. I'd like to see the statistics for accidents.
ReplyDeleteJB, I think that is the case. The stats would be interesting. The only time I felt less than confident was when driving through large roundabouts.
DeleteThat is the twisted spire of St Mary's Church and the reason why the local football club - Chesterfield F.C. - are nicknamed The Spireites. I understand that the spire is twisted because the wood of its framework had not been fully seasoned before construction took place.
ReplyDeleteThanks YP. You've saved me from writing about it and adding a sense of drama. I can just paste in your comment.
DeleteHappy to have been of service young man!
DeleteI'm glad someone explained that spire. It's very weird looking!
DeleteYP answered the question. 2015 was the last time I drive a manual, and I had to ask for help to get it into reverse to get it out of the parking place at the rental office (a Ford as I recall.).
ReplyDeleteLol TP. Why weren't we told!
DeleteFunny about the car. I've seen those rings before -- they are confusing. I like Ibis hotels!
ReplyDeleteSteve, they seem to meet a certain standard, as we found out Premier Inns do.
DeleteWhile I don't know the term 'kangaroo hopping', I enjoyed reading the phrase. And thank you for this post; it brightened my dreary day.
ReplyDeleteKangaroo hopping is when you start off very jerkily as you release the clutch in a manual car.
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