So, here I am again on a night, and I thought I would relate a little story of my driving exploits from the other day. I have recently passed my driving test, so I am still learning to drive around Exeter (where I live, in the UK) by myself, and not having someone there to say "LEFT NOW!!". I'm really crap with directions, and don't have a sense of direction either, so suddenly being able to drive by myself is both exhilerating and scary!

I'm really having to rely on the roadsigns now, and hope that the little amount of direction sense I have picked up recently will be enough to get me home again once I go out! So, anyway, I have been given a car stereo as my old one was awful, and the guy didn't need this one, so I've planning for a while to get around to fitting it into my car. He initially told me it would be a simple job of buying the right connectors, but it soon turned out that he was so so wrong...

So, to the other day, when I suddenly decided that I really needed to sort this stereo out, and went driving towards one of the industrial estates hoping that there would be a car audio type shop that could a) tell me which wires connected to which, and give me the missing wires and bits I didn't have! On the way to the first industrial estate, I couldn't actually find it (yes, I know, it's huge, yet I still couldn't find it!), so I ended up at the *other* one. I was slowly driving around this estate (and annoying many drivers in the process), until I had to give in and accept there just wasn't the right type of shop there. I then decided to head to town...

Once I hit town, I thought I would head for the centre and look for a shop on the way. After going very slowly along the main road, I opted to go down one of the side roads, and saw a car garage and swung in there. This was my first example of looking like a fool! I told them I knew they didn't deal with stereos (yes, there were piles of tyres outside!!), but could they point me in the right direction of somewhere that sold wire (yes, I said that). Luckily, the guy in there took pity on me and gave me simple directions to somewhere close-by (otherwise I would have been buggered!!).

So, I headed up the road, and I actually *found* the place I was looking for first go! I went inside and explained my dilemna, and they agreed to come and look at the stereo/car to see what I would need to do. The first guy didn't really have a clue (so why look?!), so he sent the "stereo expert" out instead. This guy was actually pretty helpful. Told me which wires went where, etc., and that I could use the wire I already had as the bit I was missing, so that was good! So I thanked him and shut the car door ready to be on my way.

It was then I noticed that I had accidentally locked my KEYS in the CAR!!! Of all the stupid things to do... I had to crawl back in there, and ask them to come and break into my car (which took 2 minutes, by the way. That was a little scary, especially as the guy who did it implied he had been to jail for 13 years for breaking into cars before! I recommend good car safety...), for which they used a piece of plastic packing strip and a screwdriver. Maybe I shouldn't be telling anyone this... I think I should have a disclaimer: This information is to allow you to laugh at me only, not to gain knowledge of breaking into cars!!

I then thanked him AGAIN, and got away as quick as I could! My problem then was to find my way home. That isn't as easy as it sounds! I went all over the place, and eventually found a road that linked to the top of my estate and went down there (after getting lost in another part of the estate!!). That's housing estate, not estate with a mansion, by the way!!

I eventually got home around 2 hours after I had started out, but I managed to fit my stereo! So I suppose the moral of the story is: get a map. And get someone else to fit your stereo!