Houdini and Orazio.

So...Will was off at 4.30 am as usual and I was awake too. After he had gone I heard a scratching and gnawing sound and got up to investigate and found a rat on the bookshelf in the corner. It was trying to hide behind the books. Surprisingly, for someone who has been fastidiously releasing his captives into the wild, I shocked myself when I rammed some books against the wall trying to squash it. I failed and went back to bed after it disappeared. I checked the rat trap was still set and noticed that the bait had all gone. Pesky Mice!I went back to bed and at 5.15 the rat trap clattered. We had another trapped rat. I took it outside and left it and went back to bed. I could hear its distant rattle before I finally dropped off to sleep.At 9.00 ish I got up and discovered that the cheeky thing had escaped. The trap was completely empty! How had it done it? It must have squeezed out under the door pushing hard against the spring.Damn! It will probably tell all its friends now to avoid it or how to escape!We had Roxy booked in to the Car Doctor today. Her clutch has been very loose. I was going to head into town to do some washing this morning, (Yes, I know that you thought we had solved that problem with Jaxy's charger cable and we did but now said cable is no longer working due to overuse.)I couldn't get Roxy in gear at all and was wondering how I was going to get her to the mechanic later when I remembered something about pumping the clutch pedal to build up pressure and it worked and I got her in gear. I started off for town and then came to my senses and thought 'Heck! What if I can't get her going in town?' so I reversed back to the house.At the appointed time 2.00 pm, I headed down to Glen Aplin and to Orazio, the mechanic to get the clutch sorted. He was running late and had not had any lunch so I asked how long it would take to get it sorted after his lunch. He didn't seem to know but his wife butted in and said "Come back at 4.45." We know who wears the overalls in that relationship!I had to walk home and had not brought a hat because it was only a 30 minute job apparently and I was expecting to wait. To say we live in Glen Aplin and the garage is in Glen Aplin it just goes to show how distances here in Australia are inflated compared to the UK because it took me over an hour to walk home. There were a few clouds to give some respite from the burning sun but all I had was a hanky which I knotted at the four corners and wore like some be-vested chap on Blackpool Beach. I whipped it off every time a car approached or I passed a house in case I was spotted looking so very British and like a Gumby.Luckily Will was back just as the time arrived for me to set off back on the hours walk to collect Roxy and he took me on Jaxy.It turned out that Orazio didn't do it in the end but the other mechanic, Nick did."I fixed your loose belt too, " he said.No more squeals from Roxy. Yay!We have booked her back in next Wednesday to get the radiator and water pump looked at. She needs to be shipshape for when the boys arrive next month as we are going on another road trip.