On Thursday I had a long day doing a museum outreach workshop at an infant school near Doncaster - very pleasant, well organised, nice children, well prepared, friendly teachers - just a very early start and motorway driving which I don't like at all.

While I was driving a light came on on my dashboard which I had never seen while in motion before - a red exclamation mark in brackets.

"Hey-oop" I thought (being in Yorkshire at the time) "what's this?" So as soon as it was safe and legal to do so I stopped and had a look in the owners handbook.

"Brake Warning Light" it told me, and sent me to page 121 where I was told to stop immediately and contact my nearest Toyota dealer. So I rang my father who told me to nurse the car home.

I now know that my car was busy leaking brake fluid and that my brakes could have failed at any time.

Fortunately Margaret had suggested a non-motorway route home by which she had come and which would take me back into Scunthorpe where I could leave all the Florence Nightingale stuff at the museum en route for home, so nobody hooted at me or tried to climb into my boot for driving comfortably under the speed limit.

Knowing that I would be late I had bought two Morrisons 'Finest' seafood dishes which Pa and I could just do in the microwave. Suffice to say I should have known better. If I didn't feel like cooking, beans on toast would have been preferable.

So Pa went out to his meeting (reason for quick food) and Jacob came along and drove the car up to the farm where he and his cousin could have a proper look at it. Roger was so alarmed by what he saw that he wouldn't let Jacob drive back the half mile, but brought him back to collect his own car and to explain why my car was stopping the night at Roger's.

In the morning we phoned the Toyota dealer. They sent a break-down chap with a trailer to collect the car on the understanding that I would have to pay if the car had suffered accidental damage rather than a failure. Fingers crossed time, and hasty arrangements for cover at work next week in case I am transportless. At this point what Jacob and Roger told me has led me to believe that it might need a major replacement of the braking system. Fortunately Damien, the Toyota mechanic, is able to find and repair the leak. He tells me that he personally has never seen this particular failure before and that we are pretty well in rocking horse shit territory with it - not difficult to deal with, but virtually unknown.

Anyway everything is done under warranty, so nothing to pay. And we are back to plan A with work.

In three weeks time my car celebrates her third birthday, and if it had happened after that it would have cost me a small fortune. So I am now going to book her in for her first MOT just a little early so that anything they pick up can be dealt with under that same warranty.