Belsay Hall, leaking petrol

51 pictures I took .

I needed to get over my anxieties in the RS2000 and to appreciate that the banging noise from the exhaust is a desirable attribute which even has a name ( a burble , when its attached to a Subaru anyway ) . I managed to relax a little in the passenger seat by flicking through the Sunday Times magazine and avoid looking at the other trafic and tuning out the noise of the engine and whatever else was making all those awful noises that get me in a complete panic and make me feel we are caning it at 100 miles an hour quite unnecessarily . My excitement about Belsay hall helped . Half way up the dual carriageway though , the smell of oil , or burning rubber , or something scary got too much for me and even eating a sour cherry sweet only worked for a minute or two . Turnd out D could no longer ignore the smell on the grounds that it couldnt be happening ( not so soon after Toad Alarm anyway ) and he pulled over on the hard shoulder and we both looked under the engine , which looked very clean and nice and no smoke .

So far so good .

Having parked in a field as ordered by an English heritage person , we walked past her on our way to the exhibits and she called us over and told us we were leaking oil and showed us the evidence on the road . It seemed best to proceed with our day and shelve Broken Down Car Stuff till later .

The art was amazing . The cheese scone was ok . The birds and the flowers and the gardens were inspirational , but when I got back to the car and D told me it was indeed leaking , petrol though , my heart raced thinking of how cars with petrol pouring out of them explode when you see them on Casualty . I wanted to stay there and sleep in the car all night , or ring for the AA man to come and tell us what to do , or even do it for us . I didn't under any circumstances want to be a passenger in that car driving home Far Too Fast ( to beat the explosion )but .....

here I am , downloading my 51 photographs .

The man who bought the Toyota was supposed to call tonight to make arrangements to collect it (and pay for it)and guess what , neither . D , who has been edgy throughout the whole buying and selling of cars business , is looking tense, and threatening to trade the RS2000 in ( at a garage) for a nice big old Honda , and has almost conceded he hasnt the nerves for Trading .

We shall see .....