Silence…not golden at all!

So, after owning my new little car for a few weeks now I have decided to do something about the stereo. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it was a very modern stereo when the car was new, but at 23 years old it is starting to look a little dated. Aha, I can hear you thinking, but isn’t my 23 year old car a bit dated too? Well, yes you have a point, but that’s a classic whereas the stereo was never destined to be a classic whatever you did to it. The best thing that you can say for it is that it is at least stereo, but when you can only save 2 UHF (not VHF note) channels and the dial only goes up to 104 (and my favourite station is on 105 – 106), well, it’s not really that great. The real clincher is the fact that you can only listen to whatever broadcasts with the strongest signals – it means that my choice of channels is well, interesting. At least I’ve listened to stuff I never would normally and that’s a good thing, Right? Broadening my horizons and all that?

Wrong – I need a new stereo!

All this in mind, I picked a very nice unit – plays CD’s and will talk to my MP3 player (which has about 16Gb of music on it at the moment so should keep me going on the way to the supermarket and back). I paid for fitting too (it was on special offer and I thought it would be easy) – but the waiting list was 3 weeks. Never mind, I said bravely, I can listen to Radio Crapola for that long; heck, I may even be able to find a cassette or two hidden under the bed with all the dust bunnies or something…So that was that, they ordered the ‘special fascia’ needed for my car and the ‘special bit of wiring’ (very technical they were in the ordering department) and I drove around for 3 weeks until my appointment time duly arrived.

That was yesterday, so at the appointed hour I turned up to find they had no record of me. How they forgot a 23 year old car with a short lady owner with 2 very funky walking sticks is beyond me but apparently I’m just not that memorable! Anyway, they said they’d fit it in but could I come back in 3 hours instead of 1 to collect it. Hey, I’m an easy going sort of gal so that’s what I did and off I went (to the gym and then shopping if you must know!). After 3 hours I return to find the old stereo still in the car – they couldn’t get it out – just didn’t know how as it’s an ‘older type fitting’. No, really? You could’ve fooled me – a 23 year old car having an older type fitting? Surely not!

So, I have to take it back again next week when they have a different expert in. He apparently knows lots about such things so it should be interesting to see what he does. As long as there are no breakages and he doesn’t use any kind of brute force on my car I may warm to him yet. Mind, I should have known I was in trouble with the first guy when he told me that he was only 2 years old when the car was first registered and …“ Er we don't see many of 'em in here”. Oh, no sh*t sherlock!

Just to add to this tale of woe, when I got home I looked at the ‘specially ordered fascia’. It’s almost as big as my whole dashboard and there’s no way it will fit in my car (unless you were to take a hammer to it, smash it to bits and stuff it in the glovebox) – on the box it lists all the models it will fit and none of them is mine – heck, not even close – not even the same model, let alone the same age! I feel more than a wave of sarcasm coming on here…. I think my next visit will involve a trip to the manager’s office, a refund and a very big fat apology….

Ah well, I hope to be rockin' on, just like the rest of you, soon.....