Martin Hesp on Saturday

Read Martin’s column every week in the Western Daily Press

- 

HERE was a moment this week when I had time for reflection.

The period of inaction was forced upon me after my car slowed to a standstill with all its warning lights flashing.

‘Not good when you're on a motorway, and quite upsetting when you have a five-hour drive in front of you. Luckily, I managed to limp off the Mll and find a dual carriageway roundabout where there was a disused approach road leading to nowhere. It was in this rubbishstrewn haven, just a few feet but safely away from the rush-hour traffic, that I phoned the RAC which, I must say, did an excellent job.

‘The first reflection centred upon my own bad luck. Why me? Why now? Right here, near some god-forsaken commuter town 180 miles from home... And just a few weeks after I paid good money to a specialist garage for a major service with the explicit. instructions... “Please go through the vehicle and outline anything that may affect its reliability.”

It was duly serviced and given a clean bill of health. So why hadn’t they seen the badly-worn alternator belt which snapped this week?

Gurujeevan, the RAC patrolman, took all of two seconds to see what was wrong, after which he did one of those shaking head things delivered when someone sucks in their breath and prepares to say something negative: “No, I haven't got a replacement. There are thousands of different types and we couldn’t carry them all.”