A Day of Wet Socks and almost a $450 Wallet Flush!

Last Thursday, I took my car in for a service. It had rained all night, and just as I set off at 8.15 am, the heavens opened. Roads flooded, traffic crawled, and on the way I passed three ambulances, two police cars and a fire engine. Something serious was happening, but I never did find out what!
The garage told me my car might not be ready until 3.30 pm and couldn't take me home to Kallangur. So, rather than spend six hours wandering around a shopping centre, I decided to catch a train home.
Naturally, I had to walk through the rain to get to the station. Wet jeans, soggy shoes, squelching socks. The full British expat experience!
After drying off and changing my socks, I set off back to collect the car. On the way, a huge tree branch crashed to the ground about ten feet in front of me. Another few seconds and I might have been underneath it. That certainly put my wet socks into perspective!
At the garage, I learned my front tyres were illegal, and they recommended spark plugs, an injector and upper-cylinder clean, and an air-con sanitise. My wallet started twitching.
I bought spark plugs to fit myself, only to discover the box contained three instead of four. You couldn't make it up!
A bit of online shopping found me cheaper tyres, and I questioned whether the other recommended jobs were actually necessary. I've also ordered a steam cleaner to tackle the air-con myself.
The result? I've saved around $450!
The tyres are fitted, I've finally got all four spark plugs, and my wallet has stopped whimpering.
All in all, an expensive car service turned into a wet adventure, a near miss with a tree, several train journeys and a lesson in shopping around.
One question remains: what on earth were those three ambulances, two police cars and a fire engine attending?
Perhaps they were looking for the bloke who packed three spark plugs in a box of four!