November 27, 2005
Snowed under
If you were to get up at, oh… say 4.30 in the morning, and begin travelling west, where could you hope to be by midday ?
Sipping coffee in Manhattan ? Enjoying a G&T while flying over the Atlantic. I wasn't even drinking cold tea from a dirty shoe in a bog in Mucklagh*. Instead, I was stuck in Ahascragh (pronounced aagheraahghhaayyrrygrgh).
I had intended to take the early train east. It leaves Galway at 5.30, but, on the spur of the moment, I decided to drive instead, so that I could visit my parents after work. As soon as I left Galway, the snow began. It was heavy but the roads were clear and didn't seem icy. An hour into the journey, the car shuddered, lost power and stopped. I didn't have time to pull in so the car was slightly jutting onto the other side of the road. I was stuck.
I switched on the hazard lights, and took the breakdown kit out of the boot. The kit had a collapsible reflective triangle that you're supposed to place on the road behind the car. As I struggled to assemble it, my mocking words to a lady friend (who had admitted that she'd never looked inside the boot to see if there was a spare tyre there- "that's what the AA is for", she said) came back to haunt me. I was still struggling with the triangle when a car came along the road. The driver slowed, manoeuvred his car carefully past mine and sped off. [If only half the prayers that I said for that D-Reg Good Samaritan come through, he won't see Monday]. The next car that came along did stop, and the driver helped my push the car off the road. I assured him I'd be OK, because I had AA [Automobile Association] cover.
Ah yes, the A feckin A. I rang the help-line a little before 6.30 and gave them my location. Because I had an Ordnance Survey map in the car, I was able to locate for the operator almost exactly where I was (which was still the middle of nowhere). "No problem", said the switchboard operator, "it might be up to an hour before the tow truck gets to you but he'll call beforehand". One hour later, and no calls, I rang back. A different voice didn't seem to know about my predicament. "It could be hours before some one calls out to you". Some words were exchanged. The voice said that she would call the tow-truck driver and he would call straight back to say when he could call out. Another half-hour passed.
While I was stuck on the roadside. I occasionally tried to restart the car. No luck. While I was waiting (in vain) for the truck driver's call, I had another go. It started! And it stayed running!. I looked at the map. The nearest village was Ahascragh. I made a run for it. Once I got to the village (where, mercifully , there was a petrol station where I could get coffee), I rang the AA for a third time. A third voice didn't seem to know when, or if, I would be rescued. He gave me the number of the truck driver so I rang him myself.
You're WHERE !?!, came the response, and no, I wasn't on his list. He gave me the number of the other tow-truck handling the Galway calls, commenting that 'you could be waiting a while…'. I had to make some other calls explaining that I was stuck in Ahascragh - for some reason, everyone found this hilarious. Except me.
Then I got a call. The first truck driver had rung another driver who handles some of his overflow work - that driver was coming from the scene of a crash (not serious) and would be there shortly. When the tow-truck arrived, the driver had a look under the bonnet but couldn't see anything wrong. Just as he was about put the car up on the truck, another driver parked at the petrol station came over. AA?, he asked. He had just filled up his van with petrol, gone in to pay, and returned out to find that the van wouldn't start. No power (maybe there's an Ahascragh triangle). And just at that moment, my AA guy had pulled into the courtyard, in front of him. What luck.
I had one bit of luck myself. Because the car would start, I had no power, and therefore no heat. The temperature had below freezing, and normally, I would have frozen in the car, or had to walk to a nearby house in the snow (I was dressed for the office. But I had planned to go walking for the weekend, so I had mountain boots, fleece, jacket, gloves, cap and even salopettes (ski pants). So I could have walked back to Galway if I had to. But the only reason that I was rescued at all was due to the initiative of the drivers, who are subcontracted to the AA. But the organisation itself, for all it's fancy call centre, website etc., were no closer to helping me after a two hour wait than it was when I first called. If I had urgently needed assistance, they wouldn’t have been much help. I'll be sending them an Email , but if they're as prompt in replying as they were in helping me, I'm not expecting a prompt reply.
Later, I rang my parents to tell them of my adventure and that I wouldn't be able to visit them that evening. "Oh, we're not at home - we decided to go up to Dublin this weekend", came the reply. Just wasn't my day…
*Not all it's cracked up to be.
galway,ireland, irishblogs,monasette
Posted by Monasette at November 27, 2005 11:11 AM