/karen/

Breakdown

Saturday, 10 September, 2005

So last night we drove to Wollongong to have dinner with the bishop (which isn't as fancy as you think). I've found that the Wollongong Anglican diocese (which also encompasses the Shire) is very proactive and friendly. Every year they hold a dinner/dessert night for people thinking about doing theological study or who are about to launch into theological study to get them to meet each other (which helps if you're going to college and you know no one at all) and then Reg prays for us. Every year they also hold a dinner for people who are already undertaking theological study so that we can enjoy catching up together in a relaxed environment and Reg can encourage and pray for us. I'm not sure if other dioceses do that too.

The dinner was lovely and it was good catching up with old friends and meeting new people. We left fairly early (except I left my scarf behind and had to call Andrew to bring it back to college for me). Our car made it through the wilderness but, just as we were approaching Sutherland, it suddenly died on us just like it did in Melbourne in July and even Canberra last December. We were thinking we'd let it sit for half an hour and then it would re-start the way it normally does but it didn't. I called the NRMA. They said it had been a quiet evening so it ought to be no more than a 60 min wait. The evening must have gotten progressively busier because the man didn't come until one and a half hours later (and then he couldn't find us because the operator had keyed in Old Princes Highway; apparently, technically, our car was on Acacia Road, the only bit of the Princes Highway which is not the Princes Highway in Sutherland). He looked under the hood and told us that our alternator wasn't working and that there was no way we'd get to Stanmore. He also asked us if we had gotten a new one recently because it looked quite shiny and new. (Today I checked the paperwork and it doesn't look like we have—at least not in the last 12 months.) He suggested that we get it towed.

I could see Ben was starting to stress out majorly. I suggested that we get it towed back to Stanmore and then deal with it there because that would be far easier than dealing with it in the Shire. The NRMA guy gave us approximates for the towing costs, then gave us enough juice to get around the corner and out of danger before calling a towing truck.

“How long will it take?” I asked. “No more than half an hour,” he replied. But it was more than that—I fell asleep and then the next thing I knew, the tow truck was here and I got out of the car and watched them load it onto the back. By this stage it was about 2 am and I was really starting to lose it. I've been tired all week ever since my 4 am Biblical Set Books take-home exam effort plus studying for a New Testament Survey exam I sat that day on top of that. All I wanted to do was go home and go to bed and I was really starting to envy Pete and the Roedigers who had decided to forego dinner with the Bishop to have a lovely night in with a DVD.

We hopped in the tow truck with the driver and he drove us back to Stanmore. The truck jerked and bounced and the ride probably would have been quite fun if I hadn't been so wasted. We unloaded it in a No Stopping zone near the mechanic's, then walked home and went to bed. It was 3 in the morning.

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