It just came off in my hand! (Fnar, fnar)

I've had a few motoring problems in the past. I've broken my big end, warped my head, endured a weak, then perished, diaphragm. I've suffered seized drums, blowing pipes, sticking floats and all sorts of other auto-mechanical indignities. More recently I have had other vehicular woes when my pride and joy was stolen from me (see here). The ne'er do-wells that took her did this to the poor old girl's dash board while extracting the ignition:

This is after I bent the bits back to be flat(ish)

So when a replacement came up on Ebay I jumped at the chance and after some frantic bidding and an afternoon of fiddling and swearing we now have this:

It's so shiny! Just like a modern car!

Hoorah! Awed by how shiny and lovely the new dash is, I couldn't help but notice the sorry state of neglect the rest of the paintwork was in (It was hand done by me, with a cheap brush, in a hurry, some years ago). Righty-ho, thought I, let's get a respray! and have some dents taken out! Let's make the old thing a thing of beauty once more!

So after some searching t'internet I found a spray shop (I also found that spray shops haven't really found t'internet yet). They only open Monday to Friday, so I set off bright and early Friday morning, had a chat with a nice bloke about a respray, got a quote and set off again. I was really happy that I'd been nearly to Croydon (Hell) and back and could still get to work on time. A mile from home, setting off from some lights I reached to put her into gear and guess what? The gear stick came off in my hand. So there I was, engine running, lights green, gear stick wafting around like a, er, like a.. well like a gear stick that has broken off. (I'm really stuck for an analogy for a lump of metal in your hand that really ought to be firmly attached to another bigger lump of metal on the floor, but suddenly isn't. If you have one please let me know.) So there I was. Ended up spending an hour waiting for the AA (A splendid, if rather young, chap), spent an hour with them trying everything we could think of to her into gear so I could limp her home using one of the other serviceable gear sticks (She has three - four if you include the the four wheel drive selector). Oh the embarrassment. A great big tatty green pile of no wheel drive.

Surely something missing here?

We Gave up, I got towed, and spent another spent half an hour pushing the heavy thing back and forth to get her onto the drive between the neighbours skip and upstairs' car. So now I'm waiting for the new stick I've ordered to arrive so I can spend a happy couple of hours fitting it. Tits. Next time I get a bright idea about improving something, remind me to stay in bed.

Ah, yes! Here it is!

Side note: Can anyone explain (preferably with diagrams) how a 1st 4½ month old baby girl can burp like a 20st 50year old trucker with digestive issues? She just isn't physically big enough for all that gas, nor should her throat/larynx be capable of such deep bass rumblings. It just isn't right. I think there might be devilry involved. I keep expecting her head to spin, the bed to levitate and a barrage of inappropriate blasphemic/sexual requests. Thankfully none yet, but I'll keep you posted.