I've mentioned before about our pool car, a completely unloved, and unwanted car - it's a car nobody wants to drive. But as luck would have it, a new starter can use it temporarily, I thought, until his new car arrives - he might be waiting up to a year. Anyway, he came to the office for induction, then drove away in the car. 

A couple of days later, he phoned to say all sorts of things weren't working - his phone wouldn't connect, the sat-nav screen showed he was in North Africa, lots of squeaks and rattles, the front driver's window kept jamming halfway up. My Dad used to call a car like this a 'Friday Car', a car built on a Friday afternoon, when the car factory workers wanted to get home - regardless of it not being finished properly! Mrs Sinclair over the road had a Friday car, it was always in the garage. My Dad would say, "I see Mrs Sinclair is taking the Friday car in again," as he peeped from behind the front room curtains.

So, our new man booked the car in the following week, but no loan car was available for him, so I organised a rental car to be dropped at his home address. No 32. On the allotted day, no car arrived, so he called the rental company himself. "Oh yes," they said, "We delivered it earlier, to No 23. Keys are in the box on your driveway." "But I live at No 32!" It appears a driver misread the address.

He called me to say the car was indeed at No 23, and there was a post box on the drive. But the homeowners were away in Spain for a week. He somehow managed to get their phone number and called them to ask how he could get into their post box, to retrieve the keys. "You can't," they said. "The box keys are in the house." 

He called me to ask what to do, I told him to use his common sense, or words to that effect. Off he went home to get a selection of 'implements' to help him get the keys. I was talking him through the process on loudspeaker all the time.