Cars and the Melbourne cup.

Despite all the blather and hype of the Melbourne Cup, the so called donkey  race that stops the nation. I for one member of this racing mad nation it did not.  being of the opinion that horses were meant for cowboys, ploughing, and hauling carts and carriages and riding for pleasure.  Mind you a horse may have come in handy yesterday when I heard the ominous clicking when trying to start Henry F, rego K G V 000.
That  car battery had been under the hood/bonnet for nigh on five years it had cost me $170-00 and a new one from the NRMA road service would be much more now, so borrowing my sons Car ; a Commodore which I had gazed at for about four years but never driven I eventually arrived at the service station to buy fuel, it the took at least ten minutes to locate the button/switch to operate the  opening of the fuel filler cap, an attendant came to the rescue and eventually we headed to   "El Cheapo" Motorists supplies. But wait, it's getting hot, I pull over, How does this ^$@#*^%$ air conditioning work- no air - so turning back and opening the doors twice after stopping we arrive back home and receive instruction how to find an unusual arrangement of wiring ***which provided us with the air required  for life support in the car and before you ask the electric windows were also associated with ***.
At last we arrived at "El Cheapo and the purchase of a similar battery as the previous one five years? back  costing $170-00; cost $145-00
Getting it back to the car parked 100 yards distant and I with artho in my starboard Hip joint was solved when I gave the change from the $200 bucks tendered to Er indoors whose 60 kilo frame carried the 40 kilo battery  but not without a lot of grunting.
Arriving home the battery replacement was completed with ease and we took off in our Henry F  to check the tyres and water and fill up with fuel at the servo, no one there - bloody deserted, then I. remembered that race that stops the nation. bugger.