The Travels & Adventures of Flog-It Removals.

Well the plan was that after a long period of working 7 day weeks we would try and get away for a few days down to Calella Costa to unwind. After working until around 5pm Friday we drove down the coast about an hour, dropped all the stuff at the hotel and just as I was about to enter the car park (about a mile from the hotel) there was a loud clunk from the back of the van followed by a horrible metal grinding noise and lack of effective brakes. Pulling to a halt on the beach front I jumped out and took a look at the rear wheel from underneath and behold, there was one of the brake pads, well worn & broken, trapped between wheel and disk but totally out of the calipers!! Oh bugger!! Here we go again!! Park it (Pay & Display), go for dinner and drink and leave the damned thing until the morning. Next morning after multiple unanswered phone calls it was decided that all Spanish repair centers obviously have too much money as they don't work Saturdays so down to the van I went, took off the wheel and looked in confusion at how the pad could actually come out of the calipers leaving me with just the piston pushing against the brake disk making the awful noise. Now being tight, I needed to get out of the pay & display asap so off came the calipers altogether, clamped the piston, and tied them up with washing line (yes I have everything in the back of the van) to the suspension so at least I could move the van without any noise past the police station to a car park nearer the hotel that was free. Don't try that at home. So Sunday afterall became an enforced day of rest after half of Saturday spent under a van getting well oiled in totally the wrong way while a certain other person sunbathed on the beach. Monday morning, off to Blanes to buy new brake pads and then Monday lunchtime fit new pads to rear axle while somebody else sunbathed on the beach. At last job done, back on the road to Ikea so we could spend another couple of hundred Euros and then on to Barcelona airport to collect the youngest off of his first solo flight from the UK at 10pm. Delayed!! Oh this is just the perfect end to the perfect weekend. Thank goodness now it's Tuesday and back to work, far less stressful than having time off.

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