By Paul Harmer (Women and Wheels Video)

The day had started badly.

I lay in bed on the Sunday before Christmas and casually checked my diary only to see “job – Dunsfold” written in red. You’ve never seen me move so fast. As it turned out, I had enough time to get from London to Surrey. But it was unsettling that the pre-Christmas wind-down had gripped me so firmly that I’d completely forgotten about the commission. Either that or it’s old age.

There were five generations of a very important family (important to me at least, being one of my clients) expecting to see me, so I was immensely relieved to be on the road. The weather was beautiful; clear blue skies and sub-zero temperatures. There was a sharp frost in London which gave way to snow covered fields.

The previous couple of days had been carnage on the roads due to the weather, but today it was clear. Nearly there. I came off the A3 into Godalming, only to hear a modest little rattle from the engine, which I could also feel through the steering wheel. I turned down the radio for a better listen. I could only hear it between 1,500 and 2,000 rpm so I confidently concluded that part of the exhaust had come loose. I knew there were some bits rattling around in the catalytic converter anyway, and assumed it had finally given up the ghost. Nothing that would stop me in my last three miles anyway.

Then a lovely French lady started talking to me. It’s a French car after all. “Warning, oil level low” she explained. That had happened before I remembered. Diesels can burn a bit of oil, and I hadn’t checked for a while. Then she piped up again: “warning, oil pressure low, stop immediately”. Mmm. This was altogether more serious, and the picture quickly snapped into focus. I was loosing oil.

The noise had been the first clue, the oil level warning the second and the pressure warning the third. My only consolation was that my French lady friend had taken her time explaining all this. I figured if the oil had come out in one explosive discharge she would have been nagging me earlie

Fully aware that engines don’t last long without oil (minutes normally) but also aware that I just had to get to my job, I coasted as far as I could. I was prepared to sacrifice the car, but in fact just managed to get to the venue in one piece. So there I was, in the middle of the Surrey countryside at the end of a completely frozen single-track road on the busiest breakdown weekend of the year.

I called the AA with trepidation. The last time I called the AA my car had exploded. They sent a man in a van to have a look first (three hours) and the Relay truck which I knew I needed all along took a further two hours. Exasperating to say the least. So I explained patiently to the surprisingly calm lady on the phone at AA Central Reservations that I had no oil and the car wouldn’t run and we were all doomed. She assured me there would be someone with me within three hours and to stay near my phone. I expected the worse. But no. Less than two hours after my call I received a text telling me the Relay truck was five minutes away. I still didn’t believe it, but sure enough, like the cavalry arriving in the nick of time, Geoff arrived with his brand new yellow Renault flatbe

It took five minutes to load the Laguna and off we went. “It’s tricky when there’s ice like this”, Geoff said as he gingerly navigated through the lethal, un-gritted lanes, “once she starts sliding she tends to keep on going”. Righty-o then. I kept quiet, thinking that Geoff might not appreciate interruptions. M25? Empty. North Circular? Empty. We dropped my unlubricated Laguna at the Garage and Geoff then dropped me back to my door with a smile. He was genuinely reluctant to take a few quid from me, although I insisted. It was Christmas after all, and he’d just restored my faith in pretty much everything. Especially the rescue services – it all just worked, and the whole system must have been under some stress that weekend.

Never again will I complain about the cost of membership, which now looks like the best Christmas present you could have.