last night I had a look with a torch and found the problem was that a small clip (about 4cm by 4cm) was missing off the end of a cable, so the cable wasn’t moving the things it should have been moving. I went down the road in the snow with the shakey-torch to see if I could find the clip around the area where the gear had failed and couldn’t see it. So I went to bed, thinking I’d order the part online and fit it on Saturday.

Then, once undressed and a-bed, I realised I have to lead a salsa workshop TONIGHT.

In North Duffield.

And another one TOMORROW NIGHT.

In Terrington.

And the “regular” class in Riccall on Friday.

None of these places is likely to be on the railways, and none is likely to have buses back to York after 9pm, and none is less than 20 miles from my house.

Erk.

So I leaped out of bed at 7:30 this morning and had a look in the daylight. Turned out the clip was resting on a part of the engine and hadn’t gone very far. So I fished it out, clipped it on, and I now have a choice of 5 forward gears, reverse, and the one I never realised was so important: neutral!