Well, well, well, what a palaver! As mentioned in the post below Marty took the kids to W5 this morning. Last week we spent 170 quid on a service and the car passed the MOT. But this afternoon Marty phoned me to tell me they had broken down on the side of the A1. Then suddenly he shouted out "oh my god the car is on fire! Get out! Everyone get out!" Then he signed off the call and I was left in utter panic at home alone in my kitchen! I didn't know what to do.

Five minutes later he phoned back to tell me that while he and the kids were sitting in the car he had noticed what he thought was steam coming out of the bonnet. Turned out, it was smoke. An off duty police man almost crashed his car when he spotted our car, complete with family, on fire! The flames were under the car so Marty hadn't been able to see them. The policeman came running at at them screaming "get out of the car!" and apparently a few 999 calls were made saying that 'a woman (hahahaha - cut your hair Marty!) and her kids were sitting in a burning vehicle!

Marty called 999 to get the fire brigade out. I felt so sorry for him. He had to get 3 kids out of the car, tend to a baby and a totally panic stricken Barney. Annabelle was a star though and Marty says she was the biggest help. The fire department told them to keep away from the car, but the off duty policeman had found a fire extinguisher and was trying to put it out. A crowd of onlookers had built up and one very nice lady took the kids into her car to shelter them from the wind. Poor Barney did so well, but was panic stricken. Amazingly the lady asked Marty "is he a wee bit autistic?" I was shocked as that is the first time anyone has noticed or said anything without prompting. He had his ear defenders on and his hands over them to protect himself from the horror of what was going on around him. And he wouldn't get into the strange lady's car, which is no surprise as he doesn't like traveling in anyones car except ours.

The fire brigade arrived with their sirens on, which was a big excitement for Barney! The front of the car is sort of melted together and basically is un-fixable. Huge thanks to our friend Davy who drove out to pick them all up from the side of the road and brought them home. What a star.

Well, what a shocking day! Now we are car less, but at least everyone is ok. It could have been a lot worse!