Lazy-Ferret
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2012
- Messages
- 5,217
We just spent £412.50 on a tank of diesel
As some of you may have guessed from the name, we have pet ferrets, and actually quiet a few.
Now Ferrets are not your every day pet, so finding good vets that firstly not only likes ferrets, but secondly has a good working knowledge of them, and does not actually want to rip all her clients off, can be very difficult. Luckily for us, we have a "Ferret Friendly" vet, but unfortunately she happens to be 35 odd miles away in Crawley.
Today, we have to get up early to fight the rush hour traffic on London' s M25 Orbital car park, and the M23 Gatwick Approach road, to get to the Vets with a ferret suffering from internal bleeding, so pretty urgent.
We jump in the car and realise we are low on Diesel, but there should be enough in the tank to get us there, and then fill up at one of the garages that are local to the vets, so we set off to find our slowly moving parking place on the motorway. Actually for once the traffic was moving at nearly 20mph, instead of the more usual 5mph, so we actually arrive a bit early for our appointment. I decide to productively use the time by popping down the road to the local Sainsbury's to fill the tank back up.
As I pull onto the forecourt, I check out for the Black Diesel pumps, but there are not any, only Yellow "City Diesel" ones. Having never encountered this, even at our local Sainsbury's, I do a thorough check round, and decide that as the fuel light has been on for 25 plus miles, I had best put up with that. I pull up at the pump, and find that the car in front is so far back, I can not actually get the rear of my car close enough to the pump, but just then the driver of the car comes out, and gets in to drive off. I jump back into the truck, and pull forward now to the front pump, so the car behind can get on the pump I was on. I then fill up, Empty to full, £97.50, and Suz goes off to pay.... As I look at the pump display, I realise that the pump does not actually display whether you purchased Diesel or Petrol, and I have this sinking feeling that I put the unleaded pump back in the cradle. I have been driving for 33 years, and most of that time has been in unleaded cars, so it is sort of natural to pick up the green one. Panicking, I rush in to where Suz is paying and ask whether she is paying for petrol or diesel, where the attendant cheerily replies, that it's OK, I put Petrol in......
One or two expletives later, we push the car off of the pump, and set off to walk the 2 miles to the vets. Half way there I call her to explain that we are running a bit late, and admit why. After a lot of merciless "P" taking, she actually comes out in her car to pick us up, then to add insult to injury, not realising that I had Suz with me, she only has a 2 door car, with no rear seats, as she uses it for her dogs, so I have to climb into the boot, with the dog blankets, food and water bowls, plus our ferret cage, which gave both the Vet and Suz even more to laugh about.
Having finally got through the vet examination, and being given reassuring news about the ferret (plus suffering endless "P" taking from not just the Vet, my wife, and the nurses, but the receptionist as well), they kindly charge me nearly £100 for the pleasure and send me on my way. Actually the vet did very kindly run us back to our car, but I think that was just to prolong her enjoyment, as all the time she was still giving me a hard time about it.
Once back with the car, we set to work sorting out what we are going to do with a Diesel car containing a full tank of Unleaded.
Eventually, after a ride on the back of a recovery truck, and parting with £210 to have a man stuff a Vax nozzle down the filler, sucking all the petrol out, then he kindly puts £15 of diesel back in the tank, they send us on our merry way to re-fill the tank again, only this time with diesel, which by the time we get to a garage costs us another £105.
I am now going back to bed, and going to try starting the day again...:doh
As some of you may have guessed from the name, we have pet ferrets, and actually quiet a few.
Now Ferrets are not your every day pet, so finding good vets that firstly not only likes ferrets, but secondly has a good working knowledge of them, and does not actually want to rip all her clients off, can be very difficult. Luckily for us, we have a "Ferret Friendly" vet, but unfortunately she happens to be 35 odd miles away in Crawley.
Today, we have to get up early to fight the rush hour traffic on London' s M25 Orbital car park, and the M23 Gatwick Approach road, to get to the Vets with a ferret suffering from internal bleeding, so pretty urgent.
We jump in the car and realise we are low on Diesel, but there should be enough in the tank to get us there, and then fill up at one of the garages that are local to the vets, so we set off to find our slowly moving parking place on the motorway. Actually for once the traffic was moving at nearly 20mph, instead of the more usual 5mph, so we actually arrive a bit early for our appointment. I decide to productively use the time by popping down the road to the local Sainsbury's to fill the tank back up.
As I pull onto the forecourt, I check out for the Black Diesel pumps, but there are not any, only Yellow "City Diesel" ones. Having never encountered this, even at our local Sainsbury's, I do a thorough check round, and decide that as the fuel light has been on for 25 plus miles, I had best put up with that. I pull up at the pump, and find that the car in front is so far back, I can not actually get the rear of my car close enough to the pump, but just then the driver of the car comes out, and gets in to drive off. I jump back into the truck, and pull forward now to the front pump, so the car behind can get on the pump I was on. I then fill up, Empty to full, £97.50, and Suz goes off to pay.... As I look at the pump display, I realise that the pump does not actually display whether you purchased Diesel or Petrol, and I have this sinking feeling that I put the unleaded pump back in the cradle. I have been driving for 33 years, and most of that time has been in unleaded cars, so it is sort of natural to pick up the green one. Panicking, I rush in to where Suz is paying and ask whether she is paying for petrol or diesel, where the attendant cheerily replies, that it's OK, I put Petrol in......
One or two expletives later, we push the car off of the pump, and set off to walk the 2 miles to the vets. Half way there I call her to explain that we are running a bit late, and admit why. After a lot of merciless "P" taking, she actually comes out in her car to pick us up, then to add insult to injury, not realising that I had Suz with me, she only has a 2 door car, with no rear seats, as she uses it for her dogs, so I have to climb into the boot, with the dog blankets, food and water bowls, plus our ferret cage, which gave both the Vet and Suz even more to laugh about.
Having finally got through the vet examination, and being given reassuring news about the ferret (plus suffering endless "P" taking from not just the Vet, my wife, and the nurses, but the receptionist as well), they kindly charge me nearly £100 for the pleasure and send me on my way. Actually the vet did very kindly run us back to our car, but I think that was just to prolong her enjoyment, as all the time she was still giving me a hard time about it.
Once back with the car, we set to work sorting out what we are going to do with a Diesel car containing a full tank of Unleaded.
Eventually, after a ride on the back of a recovery truck, and parting with £210 to have a man stuff a Vax nozzle down the filler, sucking all the petrol out, then he kindly puts £15 of diesel back in the tank, they send us on our merry way to re-fill the tank again, only this time with diesel, which by the time we get to a garage costs us another £105.
I am now going back to bed, and going to try starting the day again...:doh
