Pushing for that extra mile

Leaving the office on Tuesday the petrol gauge on the car informed there were zero miles left for the journey.
Pushing forwards on emptyPushing forwards on empty
Pushing forwards on empty

Rather odd, when turning on to the M55 that morning there were approximately 50 miles in the tank and the little bleep to serve as a reminder the fuel was now low.

There were two choices either a five minute detour to Tesco to fill up there and then or take the chance and drive home anyway.

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Five minutes later I was in the middle lane with the uneasy sense of the decision beginning to play on the conscience- was the gamble really worth the aggravation that a call from the hard shoulder home could potentially cause?

No one wants to phone home ever saying they’ve run out of petrol - it’s a fool’s mistake.

To date it hasn’t happened, although I confess I am one of those who once added a full tank of petrol to a diesel car.

So there was also an odd feeling of motoring success in having cheated the car’s intelligence when pulling on to the driveway.

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Minutes later I drove off again for a tense netball game, this time completely forgetting a petrol stop was necessary.

The car was still reading zero miles Thursday morning when the panic really did set in, would it last out to get the kids get to school and onwards to work and, more importantly scramble, the few hundred yards to Asda.

Somehow it did - the 15-year-old Mondeo, once belonging to Grandma, never ceases to amaze me, despite the battering its undergone by the children and I.

The silver (sort of) five door beast would no doubt would serve us well in any survival situation. Firstly, we would never run out of water, with the number of bottles accumulated over a week.

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It is almost an extension of the home, full with gym kit, football socks, Polly Pockets and Pokemons, on odd occasions even a toothbrush.

The seats often have to be cleared just to fit an additional passenger.

But 2020 is likely to be its last hurrah - with more than 100,000 miles of the clock and the cost of tax now more than it’s worth - the last time I checked ‘We Buy Any Car’ I was minus £50 come the final deal...

The Mondeo (called the Mercedes by the youngest) and I have been on a long journey but it seems having pushed it to the limits on far too many occasions it might now be time for it to reach it’s final destination while it has a few miles left.

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