Problem with lights

I'm giving myself an easy day, because I'm getting over a disturbing experience (no harm done though) which I had last night. I'll share it with you, and hope you don't have anything similar, and also hope that I don't have a repeat.

Yesterday evening I went to my course at University College Cork. That kicks out at 21:30, so after a chatter with "the wimmin" I set off home. On the way out of the car park I noticed something odd. Why are the headlights of the car behind me making my car cast a shadow? After a short distance I pulled into a convenient car park and checked my lights. Both dipped beams have failed. That means I have sidelights, main beam and nothing else and I'm 40 miles from home. What do you do? I thought for a moment about kipping in the car (no sleeping bag etc), or finding a B&B (it's 22:00 and I'm not actually standing outside one) and took the typical Irish decision - "oh, it'll be grand" and decided to set off home. The next decision was "which route?" The choices are: "over the mountain", which is the way I normally go, or up the main road (N20). The main road is straighter, and has more lit sections. "Over the mountain" is curvy, through woods, some steep drops, thoroughly scenic. I plump for the N20.

Getting out of town was "grand". The rest wasn't. I had thought that I would have enough light from the sidelights to reflect off cats eyes to keep me on track when I doused main beam. I was wrong. The Irish don't have as many cats eyes as you do in Britain. If I left main beam on, people coming the other way thought "selfish bastard" and I got dazzled, and if I switched it off, I couldn't see the road. This isn't a straight dual carriageway, so this is not a safe situation. There are enough turnings off to make it possible for someone to pull in front of me when my lights are off. I decide that I'm likely to either have an accident or cause one, so I really ought to stop. New problem: there is nowhere to stop between the North side of Cork City and Mallow. Pulling onto any of the side roads will only make matters worse and pulling up on the hard shoulder is positively dangerous. Probably 20-30 of the most stressful miles I have driven in a very long time. Eventually I get to Mallow and pull into The Roundabout Inn (the only roundabout between Cork and Limerick). It's only 10 miles to home but I've had enough and really don't think I could justify driving to a Garda. I ring Noreen, tell her what has happened and check in to the Roundabout.

The room reminds me of some of the places I used to stay when on the road. Even smells the same. I don't mean "it smells", nothing like that. It just has a characteristic odour which evoked memories. The décor in bar is odd. It would have been tasteless in the 70's. Sort-of mock something or another. Fake wooden beams, but wood beams are rarely curved like that, and copper coloured?! Weird! Two pints of Murphy's, good night's sleep, a shower and a full Irish breakfast and the world looks a lot better and I'm Euro 45 poorer.

This morning I took the car into my friendly local mechanic and ask him nicely if he can fix it _now_? He says yes. How many men does it take to change two light bulbs? Answer: three, one who knows what he is doing, and me and another customer watching! The mechanic had to take out the air filter to change one of the bulbs. He needed a socket set and a couple of different screwdrivers. It would have been impossible for anyone other than an AA man at the side of the road. The mechanic said that I had probably had one failed for a while but not noticed. He said that the spread of the beams is such that you can do that, especially as most of the time I'm either in town or on main beam. He said I'd probably have been better off going over the mountain because there would have been very little traffic. He may be right. I'm certainly not going to do the experiment. The car was due a service so I've booked it in for next week. He's going to add the bulbs and some labour to the bill.

Could I have got away with it? Very likely. What should I have done? Definitely stayed down in Cork. Either found somewhere to doss or slept in the car. Having started, I think I did the right thing and I got a couple of beers and a breakfast out of it. The advice for sailing and hill walking used to be "avoid getting into a situation where you have to finish". I came dangerously close to doing that. No harm done, but I'm letting myself wind down for the rest of the day. This is definitely one for "the annals".