On Saturday, after nearly a week of almost constant rain, which bought flooding and slips to much of Otago, it was fine. I got up late and helped Dad pull all of the rabbit cages out of the lake that was now our backyard. Afterward I decide that I would go up to Ariskah's place to see if I could work out what was wrong with the heater in her car. I thought, since all of my tools were in the boot of the Blue Commodore, and I needed to put gas in it, I would take it. Mistake #1. After putting $50 worth of 98 octane in the Blue Commodore and getting only half a tank full, I carried on along Andersons Bay Rd and up Ratray St. I got stuck behind a late model Mazda (obviously not a zoom) that had no idea where it was going and ended up stopping for the orange light near the top of Ratray St. Mistake #2, I should've run it, the Mazda had pulled into the turning lane. When the light went green I went to take off, the commodore had other ideas. The clutch, which had been slipping, decided it was going to slip badly! I managed to crawl through the intersection and pull around the small one-way street to the left. Once I was back on the relative flat the commodore was happy going again, not knowing the area very well, I took the first right to get back onto Ratray St. Mistake #3. The street took a slight downhill path and came out on what must be the worst corner to try and enter Ratray St, complete with convex mirror to show you the traffic coming up the hill that you can't see. There was no traffic coming so I pulled out onto Ratray St, again the commodore decided it didn't want to play ball. Then I noticed traffic coming up the hill in the mirror, so I pulled as far to the left as I could and put my indicator on (the road is almost two lanes wide going up the hill). Once the traffic was passed and I had some momentum going I managed to make it up the hill, albeit quite slow. Once I was on the flat on top, again I was fine. After unsuccessfully attempting to repair Ariskah's heater I left and went to visit the Railway Engineer, fortunately I didn't have to stop going up Taieri Rd and so I managed to make good speed all the way. No one was home at the Railway Engineer's place and so, because it was starting to rain, I headed home and parked up the commodore. I'm supposed to be taking it to the Panel Beaters on Saturday to get yet another patch put in it, but his driveway is probably at least as steep as Ratray St so this might prove to be a bad idea, might have to put it off until after the clutch is done.
