Laura Green dislikes the cold

Laura 'Daisy' Green, my faithful steed

This morning, after I had shoved Nelly and her mate out the front door to go to school, I wombled out the back gate to my car with the intention of going to work (picking The Oracle up on the way).

Blast, frost on the windows, why didn't I park Laura in the garage at night? Lazy. The trouble is, Laura has always had a problem with the cold, I put it down to her being Spanish. If we have a particularly cold snap, the locks and door seals freeze solid and i cant get the doors open, especially the drivers door. My usual solution is to heat the car key up with a lighter, insert it into the passenger door lock (the driver's one doesn't work at all) and after 2-3 goes, the doors unlock.

Then I climb over the gear stick into the drivers seat coz the door will not budge. I've tried WD40, silicon spray, vaseline, once I even inserted a shovel in the gap of the door and tried to pry it open, the result? a massive paint chip popped off the body work. (Another daisy required - me thinks) I have, in the past, had to climb in through the boot to get in when none of the doors would open. No mean feat with my physique, I can tell you.

Anyway, this morning, the cold wasn't the problem. I opened the passenger door without incident, reached in, knocker her out of gear, started her up, got the heater and wipers going and proceeded to scrape the ice off.

All done in a couple of minutes. I opened the drivers door, no problem, did up my seatbelt and closed the door. BANG! ouch, that sounded bad, like I'd got the seatbelt buckle jammed in the door. When I looked, the door locking mechanism was locked but the door was open. when I closed the door, the metal bar just smashed against the locking bar on the door pillar. Bugger.

I poked it, pressed it, locked and unlocked the doors. Nada.

In the end I found some green garden string, sat inside, tied one end of the string to the internal passenger door handle and the other end to the driver's internal passenger door handle and drove up to the local garage.

How many people pointed and gestured at me on the way there? - loads.

So now it looks like a new lock for Laura or I weld up the doors and enter the car Dukes of Hazzard stylee for ever more. 

Addendum
It is now 2 hours later, I've just taken a call from a puzzled mechanic who says he can't find anything wrong with the car, all doors open and close properly. Oh blooming heck, does that mean there's a poltergeist in my car?