More of life’s adventures!

It’s been an adventure packed few weeks here in Tyndrum.

A couple of weeks back we had the Great Car Fire. A family were driving down the road towards Tyndrum and their engine warning lights came on. Lit up like a Christmas tree, by all accounts. Thankfully they parked up in the main car park and not on the forecourt. As soon as the family exited the car, it caught fire. Luckily our local Fire Fighters were on hand and arrived within a few minutes of 999 being dialled. By this time, the flames had got hold of the car. 10 minutes later it was a burnt mess.

So, pay attention if your dash lights up. Pull over and check. You just never know what’s about to happen. The family were never ever going to drive their car again. Thank you to the local Fire crew for their speedy and efficient attendance. Respect to them all for a brilliant job.

That was enough excitement for one week. So we thought. I was just about to sit down with a cheeky wee glass of wine on a Saturday night, at 6:30pm. I had missed a call from work on my mobile. I called back. You’ve never seen me shift so quickly. Off the sofa, into the car, down the road to see a white car mounted on pumps 7&8 on our forecourt. Holy crap. In the meantime, all fuel and electricity supply has been shut off and the Fire Brigade called, again, for the second time in as many weeks.

The driver of the vehicle, an Ultra Runner (*read, ‘nutter’) had been running the Devil of the Highlands race, running from Tyndrum to Fort William. He started his car which was parked outside the Filling Station. By reasoned deduction, I guess he had his foot on the clutch when he felt nauseous. He passed out and his car went forward at full pelt towards the petrol pumps. Viewing it on CCTV, moments before, a child then a woman walked between the two. Seconds later you see the car hammering the pump.

Three fire engines, Paramedic and an ambulance. Thankfully no one was hurt. The driver of the car was dazed and confused when he was dragged out the car by a Lix Toll Garage employee, who just happened to be sitting on the wall. He was very quick to fetch the buckets of sand to cover spillage; thank you mate! A couple of hours later, the car was rolled off the pump, the area made safe. Now, where was that glass of wine?

Pumps 7 & 8 are now in petrol pump heaven. There wasn’t much to scavenge / salvage from it. By all accounts the barrier in front of it took a lot of the impact, but the pump is dead. Now dispensing fresh air at this spot on the forecourt. Ironically, we had just spent a great deal of time and money lifting my brother’s lock-block work to re-lay diesel lines to the road-side pumps. It had only been finished for a couple of weeks.

Now, the Filling Station for some reason gives me the best laugh.

I was serving on the main till and a customer asked for an e-top up for his mobile.

“How much, sir?”
“£5 for a Virgin, please!”
“My, that’s cheap for a Virgin!”

A man was spotted in the ladies’ toilet the other day. How Continental.

We had a job application for Maintenance from a man. He was going to commute daily from Cumbernauld. Good luck with that.

In the Restaurant last week, Alena was asked what soups were on. She showed the American the list. “I want some soup with something in it.” Seriously, he did.

I was blethering with a customer. Weather and midges are officially big topics of conversation this year. He says, “The best thing for midges is honey. It doesn’t stop them biting, but it does make their teeth fall out!”

Weather this summer has been biblical, there’s no doubt about it. Thunder and lightning a couple of days ago flooded the kitchens. Lots of mopping and action from the carpet cleaner. Never a dull moment.

So, what made me cry laughing today? Two things:

A customer emailed us. “Is it true you are going to charge for parking?”
He obviously got the wrong end of the stick. We are installing Electric Car Charging. Maybe he got confused with ‘Parking for Charging’ (thanks Vinnie). I suppose it’s easy to be confused, however, who would want to be the person collecting the money from customers? Not me. There’d be a riot and a queue on to the main road. So, I do hope that customer goes back to the source of the miss-information and corrects them, before people start boycotting the business!

Then, Kamila told me that she got a phone call last night. A customer had been in and put £19.99 of fuel in his car. He handed over a £20 note. He said that he didn’t get his 1p change. He’s coming back to collect it later. No, really, it wasn’t a wind-up. Fair enough, my team member should have handed it over…. naughty…. I wonder how much the phone call cost him?