The other day, I fancied a day out. As a volunteer for a well known heritage charity, I get free entry into all of our properties – great for someone on a budget. All I have to do is get there.
I fancied going to Quarry Bank – I see signs for it every time I drive to Manchester Airport, but I’ve never been.
I checked the website, made sure of the opening times and what was happening today. Scribbled down the postcode and checked the weather. It looked like it would be an OK day – certainly better than the rest of the week. I dressed appropriately, fed the cat, and headed for the door.
Then stopped.
And remembered that I don’t have a SatNav.
My old car, the one I sold (you can read about that here), had a built-in one. My new car doesn’t. Bugger. But no, it’s OK, I knew my lovely little mini didn’t have a SatNav when I bought it, and I decided that when the time came that I needed one, I would go and buy one. The time has come. There’s a Halfords nearby. I checked their website – yes! They have a standard SatNav at £69 (reduced from £99). That’ll do me. Hit ‘add to basket’, and I’ll pick it up on my way to Quarry Bank.
It’s not available for Click and Collect.
Never mind. Maybe they have it in store anyway. I visit the local Halford’s own website – but they only have it at full price. I’m not wanting to spend that much really. But look – there’s a store just eight miles away (and kind of in the direction I’ll be going), and it’s available there! Whoop! They even show the postcode… But I haven’t got a SatNav.
I go back to the Halford’s main page, just to see what other information I can get. Turns out, for this particular SatNav, you can’t do Click and Collect and they don’t deliver. Hmm. Tricky.
I’ll ring them. Lines open at 9:00.
It’s 8:56.
It’s going to be one of those days, isn’t it.
Another store pops up!! And I know where it is! And it’s only four miles away!! I can go there, pick up the SatNav, and be on my way. While I’m waiting for 9 o’clock, I’ll check their stock online – but that doesn’t seem to be an option for this store, for some reason.
Never mind, it’s 9 now. I’ll ring the Help desk – apparently, if an item shows as unavailable for Click and Collect, and unavailable for Delivery, it means it’s out of stock. I suggested that maybe just saying ‘Out of Stock’ might be simpler??
Still worth checking this other store. I ring them. No answer.
I ring them again. They finally pick up – I’m through to Bikes, which from the tone of voice of the man who answered, was pretty much entirely my fault. Even though I pressed ‘3 for cars’. He tells me they’re not answering downstairs, and puts me through. They don’t answer.
Could I get to Quarry Bank without a SatNav? Yes, probably – it’s signposted on the way to Manchester Airport, so I can simply follow signs for the airport then pick up the brown signs for Quarry Bank in due course. BUT – coming home is a different matter. I really don’t want to go wrong and end up wasting a load of time (and fuel) driving around Manchester by accident.
Now, good people of Blogland – I know you’re out there, and I know you’re shouting at the screen, ‘Just use your phone!!!’
It’s a fair point – the best explanation I can give is that I’m 58 – and I can remember when we used to use phones for making phone calls, and maps for finding out where to go. It’s a hard habit to break. But yes, in the end, I decided to see if I could download an app.
I downloaded the TomTom Go Mobile app. Go me!!
Of course, I couldn’t just download the app. That would have been too easy. Apparently there wasn’t enough space and I needed to delete some data.
I deleted some videos, and a boat load of photos. I emptied my in-tray. Still not enough space. My husband (despite the fact that he left back in February) is still my go-to person for tech-related issues, so I gave him a ring. He talked me through how to go into settings and see how much data I was using, and then delete apps that I don’t use and so on. Got rid of enough to enable the SatNav to load. Loading was successful.
But now it’s 11:30, it’ll take me at least an hour and a half to get there, so probably not worth going. I wanted to spend a full day there. Ah well, at least I’ve saved £69 on a SatNav!!
This is all a bit of a learning curve for me. I’m not particularly tech-savvy – and I didn’t need to be until three months ago, because my husband was. If I had a problem I just let him fix it. I wasn’t interested, and I was happy to just let him get on with it.
Silly me.
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