I wish... I looked after my car properly (part 2)

I hold my hands up. I failed this month.

At the beginning of November I wanted to learn how my car works and do some maintenance on it before it had its MOT. If nothing else, I wanted to change a tyre.

Did I do any of those things? No, of course I didn't.

Here is a list of excuses that I considered making to you:

• I was too busy with work.
• It rained all the time and I would have got soaked.
• It was too dark in the evening so I couldn't see anything.
• My car is parked on a slope and it might roll away with me under it.
• I could damage the car because I don't know what I'm doing.
• I can't work on the car today because I need to use it later and what if something goes wrong?
• My Mum and Dad are on holiday so I've got nobody to drive me around if something goes wrong.
• What if something goes wrong?

The fact of the matter is... I didn't want to learn how to look after my car. I mean, I did want to, but I didn't want to enough. It doesn't really interest me. I would rather be doing other things like drawing and painting and setting up a small business and selling stuff. Not to mention sleep. Has anyone noticed it's dark by half past four? Again with the excuses!

I'll tell you what I did do though: I took the mats out of the footwells and I vacuumed the inside of the car. That was good. I also put some petrol in the car. That makes it go.

Erm, what else? 

I talked to my friend Adam about car maintenance, which was very insightful. I wish I knew as much about cars as him and his Dad. They're the type of men who have a 'project' car in the garage. Men who build cars. An alien breed to me.

And after that...

I booked my car in for a service and a MOT. This involved going against the advice of my parents (which is never a comfortable thing to do) and asking the car mechanic who owns a unit next to my studio, Lee, if he would do it. My reasoning was that Lee is someone I see everyday at work, someone I am becoming friends with through our daily encounters, and someone who - I hope - would not risk sh***ing on his own doorstep.

My car passed its MOT on Thursday. Lee fitted one new tyre and a couple of brake pads. I wasn't surprised about the brake pads at all; I'd hammered them pretty hard on the winding hilly roads to work and back and recently they had been sounding and feeling a bit 'scrapey' - I think that's the official term for it.

I'll tell you one thing: From now on I'll be a lot gentler on the brakes. Less foot to the floor, more changing down gears.

I still wish that I looked after my car properly. OK OK I was crap this month, but I do value my car more than ever now, and I want to care for it. I won't do a car maintenance course or anything like that, but I will ask people who know about cars for their help and advice on little things that I can do.

That's something.

Did you fulfil a wish this month? Or were you rubbish like me? Nevermind, join me in December for a new wish of the month.

If there's a time of year to make wishes come true, surely it's Christmas.