Difficult Days

I always knew Tuesday would be difficult, how could it be anything else? The funeral of an auntie, the first of her generation (my Fathers generation) to die.

The day was horrible, but no more horrible than I imagined it would be. I had no words of comfort to offer my cousins. Although we know age has little relevance in such matters, the truth remains that she was my youngest Auntie and her children are my youngest cousins.

It was good that I made the effort to go, well timed within my week-off and appreciated no doubt. It was almost a full gathering of the Todd clan, obviously my 92 year old Nana didn't make the three hundred mile journey from Richmond and two of my cousins also didn't attend (one had a baby last week, a fair excuse)  

Returning back to the car following the wake, the plan was to drive Amy back to her new flat in Blackheath, make all the right noises, spend some time together and then head back to Stone the  following morning. 

Unfortunately my brother-in-law was unable to join us as he had a screening of a BBC drama he has a part in, more unfortunate still it appears that much of his performance has ended up on the cutting room floor.

Turning the ignition a message came on the sat-nav screen. "Enter code:"

This has never appeared before and no apparent code came to mind. Without the code I was unable to bring up the sat-nav, sound system, clock, parking sensors, reversing camera and it subsequently had an effect of the power steering and clutch assist. So in short it was like driving a car from the 1970's.

Calling the dealer we were simply told a code should have been given on purchase and could be found in the vehicle handbook, the vehicle handbook safely filed with all my paperwork back here at Huckleberry Heights. Liz was at school and there was no one else available who I could redirect to find it. Even if I could I wasn't entirely sure the code was in my documentation; I scrutinised that manual on collection and was sure I'd remember a code card.

After some discussion and explaining my predicament the dealership gave me a code to try, but on imputing it it immediately locked the system!

Consequently I had to drive from Horndead to Blackheath without the sat-nav, etc

It may sound dramatic but it was probably the most difficult driving experience of my life; driving through central London at rush hour with no clue of direction or route. Amy did her best from the passenger seat, but it was as difficult for her as it was for me I suppose?

Amy & Paul's flat is lovely, in a beautiful, picturesque and hip location; perfect for the pair and certainly a location they could put their hallmark on.

I remained stressed to the eyeballs so we ventured out into Blackheath to grab a meal, finding a quirky and rather stylistic pub in the centre of the town. Sadly I remained distracted about the whole car debacle and the prospect of another horrible drive the following morning   

Contacting Nissan assist later that evening they could offer no assistance, so the following morning once again I drove without any of the travel luxuries that I have become dependant on. Because I have had fourteen months without any technical issues I long ago discarded the batter road atlas that I had carried around in my boot for many years before.

I managed to pull up a route planner on my iPhone, so although without sound I was able to use the updated pictures as a rough guide to exit the city and head back north. It was horrible driving without music or radio distraction. So I just stuck my iPod on shuffle and fixed it to the band on the sun visor.

The drive back was better than expected, the drive from Amy & Paul's flat back to the Midlands is actually rather straightforward, going through the Blackwall tunnel a few miles from the flat and  accessing the M25 and then the M1 towards the North. Sadly it was tremendously busy for the three miles approaching the tunnel, and the ten or so on exiting. Desperate for fuel, running on fumes, scouring the roads for a service station or garage forecourt and worse still nearly exploding needing the toilet. I had visions of not only breaking down in roadworks because I'd run out of petrol  but also shamefully pissing and / or shitting myself in the drivers seat. Now embarrassing would that be when assistance finally arrived; stuck in a malfunctioning car, with no fuel, sitting in my own filth!   

When I returned home I collected all the Juke manuals and every item of paperwork given from initial purchase, to collection and on to recent service and every piece of written correspondence, nowhere within any of this documentation was there anything regarding radio codes or the like.

 In fact I am sure that I raised concern about the lack of code when I returned the car at purchase for the second tank of petrol? Knowing that I certainly didn't have a code, again I contacted the local Nissan dealership not content to be fobbed off this time.

I laid it on thick & heavy; the disruption it had caused, the situation prior to and following the system failure and my utter dissatisfaction at the level of care I had received from Nissan at all points. At which point they offered a full apology and admitted that we have never received a radio code at purchase, the code given the previous day was incorrect and once they realised this a note had been put on the system and this should have been relaid to me when I contacted Nissan Assist later that evening. 

Thankfully they gave me the correct code and on imputing it all issues were swiftly resolved. Now if only they'd given it me 24 hours previously I think my day would have been very different.