Puncture!

I had a puncture today with the Goo - there was a flat on the left front tyre. It was there the whole day whilst I was in the office and never spotted it till the security guard in the office complex informed me - PUNCTURE LAH!

I looked that the tyre calmly and then thought to myself: OK get ready to get your hands dirty and getting all sweaty. Sigh!

I DO KNOW HOW TO CHANGE A VEHICLE TYRE JUST IN CASE ALL YOU PEOPLE THINK I AM SOME HAPLESS FEMALE!!!

So I took out the wrench and started trying to undo the nuts. I struggled with the nuts, then some guy came along and used his large shoe and foot to step on the wrench. I am not going to spoilt my wonderful Ferragamos to step on that wrench. :-p

After that I managed to loosen all the four nuts and went to the back of the Goo to undo the spare tyre from the bottom of the Goo. There is this nut and bolt system securing the spare in some bracket under the Goo. I had to undo the nut to drop the bracket that kept the tyre and the jack. Then I had to sit on the road to figure out how to undo the latch that was securing the bracket. Voila! The whole bracket dropped and I dragged the spare and jack out.

Then I managed to secure the jack to the reinforced bit and started the tedious process of raising the Goo. This is actually the OK part of the whole job - just tedious because the wrench does not rotate the jack in a full rotation. I had to take the wrench out then fix it back then turn it in a semi-circle and start over.

I also have a problem bending over because I get dizzy, so I had to stop many times to catch my breath and let the blood flow back in the normal way - away from my head.

Some guys from the medical company in our building saw me struggling with this wrench to raise the Goo and they offered to help. But this liberated char-bor declined their assistance saying that I can do it. I think they were a little amazed at my gung-ho attitude.

When the Goo was sufficiently raised, I managed to pull the flat off. I rolled it and chucked it in the back. Then lugged the spare to the front. The tedious part of trying to lift the tyre and aligning it with the nut and bolt holes. Hooray for my colleague J who came down and aligned the holes for me to put the nuts in to secure the tyre. After that came the next tedious part of lowering the jack and the Goo. The exact reverse of trying to jack it up and the wrench does not move in a complete circle.

I managed to get the whole process over and done with in about 3o minutes with my hands and fingers totally grubby after that.

I think I did quite well today - changed the flat and gained some reputation as some capable female who can change her own tyre with the guys in the office building, Heh heh!

Next question - will these same guys come to my rescue if there were a creepy crawlie (snake or centipede or worm or scorpion or lizard) around and they hear my shrieks of terror???

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