Supermarket water saves the day

“If I’m putting water into my car, and it’s disappearing fast, and it smells like burning, that’s bad isn’t it?”

That was the first question I put to my long-suffering boss/occasional surrogate father (and Derby Telegraph editor) Neil White this morning.

“Yes that’s bad,” he said. “What do you mean?”

I explained that I’d noticed last night that there was no water in my car’s water tank. Not the windscreen wipers - the actual important running-of-the-car tank, so had topped it up.

But then this morning, after doing the 30-mile motorway drive to work, I checked in the office car park and noticed it had all gone again. And there was some smoke (just a teeny bit) coming from the bonnet. And a burning smell. Now I don’t know much about cars but I do know that a burning smell is never good.

“Could be your radiator,” advised Neil. “Best not drive it home. Phone the AA.”

But instead of the AA, I decided instead to call my mechanic, a lovely chap who tends to do most of my little jobs (tyre pressure, bulbs, wipers etc) for free and is fondly known as Sausage Andy after a recent request to bring him some lorne sausage from my trip to Edinburgh. Which I actually ended up failing to do. Which hopefully he won’t hold against me now, in my hour of need.

“Hmmmm, doesn’t found great,” agreed Sausage Andy. “Sounds like a leak in your radiator. Hopefully it’s not your head gasket.”

“What’s a head gasket,” I asked. “Is that bad?”

“It wouldn’t be good. Bring it round in the morning and we’ll take a look.”

So poor old Austin (yes my car is named after Austin Powers) has got to go and see Sausage Andy first thing tomorrow, and I could be looking at a medical bill in addition to the moving costs this month.

And on Sausage Andy’s advice I’m going to have a go at driving it home later, with regular stops to top up the water. Apparently, as long as I keep topping it up, I should be fine.

So here comes the supermarket link.... I need to make sure I’ve got a big bottle of water in the car later, and I’ve been so busy at work today I’ve not been able to take a break, so I had to ask a colleague to pick some up for me, and this is what she came back with....

Sainsbury’s basics still table water, which cost a whopping 17p.

I’m hanging my head in shame as I type, but hopefully it’ll stop Austin exploding half way up the M1 in a couple of hours.