Idiot. More fool you. Serves you right. What did you expect? These were some of the things people said to me when I told them about something I had done, or rather not done, or rather – as I saw it – had done to me. I thought I was the victim. Others just thought me a bit of a pillock.
For years I had breakdown cover with the same well-known name. Let’s call it SMBOBU Recovery. Skilled Mechanics But Otherwise a Bit Unscrupulous. I can’t tell you how long I’d been with SMBOBU Recovery because I can’t bear to look. I never had any problem with the service, not least because I never broke down. To be fair, the one time I remember calling on them, when my motorbike’s battery went flat, the bloke turned up promptly and played a blinder. He couldn’t get at the battery terminals to clip on his charger cables, so he executed a devilishly clever manoeuvre he called chopsticks. This involved poking a couple of long screwdrivers on to the terminals and clipping his clips on to them. Nice work, credit where it’s due, etc.