I thought about buying it, but it was a GL postcode, and Guildford is a bit of a trek. (Although it did used to be my preferred shopping centre, funnily enough. I think it was my nearest Lakeland at the time).
Yesterday morning, however, I decided to take a look.
We'd been out to Oxford the day before and the chooks had been shut in for about 4 hours. For Bertie and Ping Pong, the run seemed a bit small. I know they won't be here for much longer, and they are hardly ever confined to barracks, but it would be good to have a longer run, just in case.
It was actually quite a bargain, because it was actually two extensions, for less than the price of one new one. I contacted the seller to make sure that I was reading right, and I also checked that the end panel was included. It was. I checked on TOmTom, and discovered that it wasn't actually GUildford, it was GLoucester. It was only an hour and a half. Even with diesel, it was still a bargain.
So, I bought it.
I set off to collect it. I left at 12.45, I shoudl be there by 2.15, leave there at 2.30 and home by 4. I memorised the important bits of the route (which motorway junction, which turning to what village).
En route, the satnav changed and sent me further down the motorway. I assumed that there must have been an incident on the arterial A road, so I followed my SatNav. I got to the village I was looking for, it wasn't too bad, only 15 or so minutes later than planned.
And then it didn't go so well. The sat nav started to lose its signal, so it wasn't keeping up with my actual position.
I couldn't find the road it had told me to turn in to. When the signal came back, momentarily, it told me to turn round. I did, and the signal went again. I searched and searched, but the road I was looking for no longer existed. There weren't many roads to choose from, so I took the one nearest to the one that wasn't there.... and entered an under construction mahoosive housing estate.
In vain, I tried to find my way to the point on the sat nav, or to any of the recognisable points on the sat nav display, but I failed, and failed. The satnav kept losing its signal. None of the roads on the map were on the ground.
I parked by a local shop, and my phone didn't have a signal either. I looked ta the new names of the roads, and I could see that this must have been an industrial estate that had been converted, and the names were probably related to the industrial estate. I just couldn't work out how to get to the "x marks the spot" on the sat nav screen. The new roads were culs de sac.
Eventually, I did what I should have done some 20 minutes earlier. I drove away from the housing estate until I got a phone signal, and then phoned the seller. They gave me detailed directions, and I tried again. The seller waited outside their house to wave me in.
The run was partially dismantled, so it was in DH's car in seconds. I started home.
DH phoned me to say his friend was popping over to give him a lift to the pub, , and was I nearly home or should he put the chickens away. I explained that I was still the other side of Oxford and would be about an hour and a half.
Overall I was only about an hour later than planned. I'd made up a lot of time because I'd assumed it would take 15 mins to dismantle the run, when in fact that wasn't needed.
It's all piled up on the grass, and I'm just getting up the enthusiasm to go and re-mantle it.
Wish me luck.
