MMMotors to the rescue.
I was commuting home this afternoon after plodding the streets of Basingstoke in the rain delivering the mail, when I came across these guys.
They were pulled over on the side of the A331, a very busy & very fast stretch of dual carriageway just off the M3 near Aldershot. Two Dutch guys on their way to this weekend's "Hotrod Hayride" rod meet at Bisley. They'd set off from Southern Holland at 4.o.clock this morning, reaching our soggy sceptred isle through the Channel Tunnel. I pulled in behind them to see if I could help. Fortunately they spoke very good English as I speak very bad Dutch. They'd run out of petrol. No problem. Hop in & I'll give you a lift to the nearest filling station. 10 minutes later we're back. Fill up. Won't start. Bugger. The hard shoulder on this road's very narrow so they'd run the nearside wheels down into a drainage gulley to get as far out of the raging traffic as they could. That meant the outlet pipe on their fuel tank was higher than the fuel we put in & we couldn't push the old sedan back out of the gulley onto level ground. They'd also flattened the battery trying to start it.
A quick phone call & soon the cavalry arrived in the form of Postie Dave in his trusty Consul with a set of jump leads -luckily he lives 5 minutes away. What did we ever do without mobiles?! Their battery was behind the driver's seat & we couldn't turn Dave's car around to bring his battery closer, so Dave unplugged it & heaved it over to their car. I took the petrol can & did another trip to the filling station. A bit of fiddling, a splosh of fuel down the carbs & the Chevy motor burst into life. We exchanged business cards, shook hands & they were on their way again, following Dave back to the filling station. I'm hoping they'll repay us by emailing a write-up on the car.
Feels good to be able to help & maybe we've done our little bit to help Anglo Dutch relations.
Thanks for your assistance Dave. Ain't it nice to have mates, especially mates you've never met before.
