The Easter Incident

Happy Easter everyone! What an eventful day! Though perhaps not in the way I would have liked. So let me tell you a little story...

This is the roundabout outside of town that I take to get on the motorway (running under the roundabout) to drive north to my Parent's house. I've posted this shot before.. but I love it and it's relevant to the story I am going to tell you. Some there, a great excuse to use it as a pretty cover photo but don't worry I'll reward you at the end with some nice new shots!

So today is Easter.. and every Easter I head north to my Parent's house for brunch. Today was no different, so in the morning I got up, had a coffee (no breakfast) and got ready to leave. I stop to get some gas for the car on my way out of town and before I know it I am turning onto the above pictured roundabout and onto the motorway. Everything is fine, the traffic is light and smooth I settle in for the cruise, then suddenly a few miles up the road.. WHAP! A pothole appears out of nowhere on the side of my lane and my front passenger side wheel goes over it at 75mph.

I flinch at the bump as I knew I couldn't avoid it and could just watch as it approached and went under the car. The car carries on and all seems fine. But a couple miles up the road I hear a weird whining noise and the car starts to pull slightly to the right. I turn off the radio to try and listen to the problem when the car starts to stutter and shake and rumble. I slow down but it only gets worse. I know I cannot ignore this or hope to make it another 15 miles to my Parent's house so I pull over into the breakdown lane and stop the car.

I thought about taking my gopro with me and recording the ride this morning but then decided against it.. When I stopped the car a plume of smoke billowed from the front passenger side and I suddenly wished I had taken the gopro to record the ride after all. This would have made for some dramatic footage!

I get out of the car and go around to the smoking side of the car to find this:

My tyre had been torn to shreds! Going over the pothole must have ruptured the tyre and as the air seeped out of the tyre over those two miles it got worse and worse. When the car started to shake and rumble there must have been no air left and the tire was on the verge of shredding apart and coming off leaving the rim to spark over the highway causing all kinds of damage and probably sending me into an accident. So glad I stopped when I did!

After getting over a bit of shock at how dramatically screwed the tyre was I called my parents to let them know. My dad jumped in the car to come down and help in anyway he could and I set about changing the tyre and putting on the spare. It had been a few years since I last needed to change a tyre so it was a real pain. But I got it done and when my dad arrived he drove ahead of me to a local garage where I could get a new tyre.

Brunch became lunch with the delay but at least the drama was over and a new tyre isn't as expensive and a multi-car pile up on the motorway.

Check this out. See, didn't I say I'd reward you? Ok this is a sunset shot out the front window of my apartment taken around this time last year. The clouds just made this really interesting shape and the colour the sunset drowned them in was quite unusual. That hill you see in the distance is called "Arthurs Seat" and happens to be a dormant Volcano.

You know, the incident with the tyre today reminds me how important it is to listen to the sounds your car makes. Sometimes an out of place noise can be the first symptom of a larger problem. People do ignore problems with their car. The craziest things too. I once saw a person driving their car down the road as if nothing was wrong while one of her tyres was missing. Just the rim remained and it was scraping and screeching and sparking down the road! Or a guy whose exhaust pipe was dangling off the back of his car sparking on the road. How can you ignore that?!

This is a shot of the city rooftops at sunset that I can see from my bedroom. Taken around the same time as the last shot it was another dramatic and colourful sunset. I also quite like the silhouettes of all the old buildings and spires in the distance.

So that was my easter story. A little bit different then my usual easter but on the bright side, I got a new tyre.

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