Women can do anything - but do we really want to????

Today, after dropping my children at school in the pouring rain, I sped down to the shops to grab a few things, hoping to get back home before my sick 9 year old realised how long I'd been.

I rushed into the shops and endured the usual shopping dramas. Declined card...no probs, just reached further into the wallet and pulled out the credit card. Baby screaming...just assumed my "screen-out-child-noises" mother's ears and didn't even hear the child anymore. Grabbing my few purchases I raced out into the gale force winds and horizontal rainfall.

Reaching the car, I jumped in and yanked the door shut. Gunning the engine, I released the clutch and the car hesitantly crawled forward. It felt a bit strange but I had the music blaring and didn't realise at this point that I had a flat tyre. It was as I was about to exit the car park that I heard the thump thump thump above the blaring music and pulled over, jumped out and saw the completely flat tyre. At that point, I could of used a few choice words but instead, being the woman that I am, totally used to crisis, I calmly pulled the car into a side bay and sat for a few minutes deciding what to do as I watched the rivers of water running down my windscreen.

Fishing my mobile out of my bag, I phoned the RAC (Roadside Assistance), as for the first time in over 10 years I'd decided to take our membership!

The young woman on the phone asked me a series of standard questions. "What is the number plate of the car?" I dumbly said, "I don't know. It's raining and the number plate is on the outside of the vehicle." Then she asked me, "What street are you on?" Once again, feeling a little stupid I responded, "I don't know. I'm only new to the area." I heard her take a deep breath then ask me, "Do you have a spare tyre with you?" This time I felt the size of an ant and responded, "I don't know. It's a borrowed vehicle." A long pause ensued, then she said, "No problem." I could almost hear her thinking aloud, "Yep, got one of those week, wishy-washy women here who don't know one end of a car from the other and are hopeless at managing their lives?"Eventually she let me know someone would be out within the hour and hung up.

Being the impatient person that I am, all I could think of was my poor sick child at home alone and this was my fretty child who would be upset at having been abandoned. The next thought was, what are you doing, Hayley? Aren't you the Chairperson of Women Can? Why don't you get out of the car into the torrential rain and change the blasted tyre yourself? Why are you going to sit there and wait for God knows how long when you can probably do this yourself?So, for some stupid reason, I decided to prove to the world (but mostly to myself) that I was not some poor defenseless woman who needed a man to do everything for them.

I got out of the car in the pouring rain, went to the boot and lifted the lid. I found the wheel, which was bolted in place. It took me some time but I eventually located the tool to unscrew it. The whole time the rain is pelting my back and I started to feel cold, as I was totally unprepared for wet weather.

Eventually I got the tyre out and found the jack. I wheeled the tyre to the side of the vehicle and stood looking at the jack and lever. I had only ever seen my husband and father change a tyre, so I had some idea but not much of what to do. I looked under the car and at the jack and under the car and at the jack again. I decided it had to hit something solid, so placed it carefully some way under the car. Then I attached the lever and started to turn. It was so hard going, that I found it really hard to turn, but managed to start to lift the car.

I had gotten the car high enough to take the pressure off the wheels, but low enough so that I could untighten the nuts before lifting it right off the ground. It was then that I discovered that a tyre has a hub cap thingy and I had no idea how to get it off.Temporarily challenged, I went back to the boot and realised that the water had saturated my work things which I had stashed in the boot because I had not thought to close the lid! DOH!

Sighing, I searched frantically for something to take off the hubcap. Eventually I found a tool with a flat end and decided to take a few minutes break out of the rain under the shelter of the shopping complex awning.

All the time I was doing this I kept telling myself, "Hayley, you are the Chairperson of Women Can. You can do anything!" While internally a small voice was saying, "But didn't you join the RAC so that they could take care of things like this?" I quickly silenced that wise inner voice - after all, I was a woman on a mission!

It was as I was standing there contemplating what to do next that I saw a flash of yellow out of the corner of my eye. I have never been so grateful to see an RAC van in my life! The guy hopped out and met me at the car. When he saw my handiwork he turned to me with a smile and congratulated me on getting this far as I'd done everything correctly. Internally I warmed a few degrees, but assumed the weak female position for his benefit, saying, "Thanks, I ran out of steam."

He took about 2 minutes to have that tyre off and a new one on, which he had to pump up using his machine in his van. Imagine if you will how I would have been had I got that blasted tyre on and then realised it too was flat!

Suffice to say, as I watched him easily wind the jack lever and I looked down at my hands which were now black from the brake pads powder from the inside of the tyre I had lifted into the boot, in that moment I decided that I'm glad I'm not a man and that they can have all that goes with the practicalities of maintaining a car! After all, women can do anything they set their heart to, but in some instances it pays to choose not to! As the saying goes, why have a dog and bark yourself?