The morning after.

Right.  Up early and determined to sort out whatever the problems are.
First stop halfords for a set of fuses, a socket set and a trolley jack.

Job 1.  Fix the lights.
Please let it be the fuse.  Please let it be the fuse.  Find the fuse box and wow, the fuse is blown! Joy! So replace the fuse and and let's test the lights.. and... nothing.  Check the fuse and it has blown again.  Oh dear, this is not good.  A wiring problem :-(

Where to start? Maybe pull out that stereo that has got to come out anyway.
So I start pulling it out and it becomes apparent that it has been wired in by a blind man.  A drunk blind man.  There are wires taped to all kinds of other wires, so I pull the whole lot out, trim down and insulate all the wires in the dash and get rid of the stereo.  Might be able to ebay it for a few quid anyway.

Now to see if this has helped the lights by some happy chance.  New fuse in, lights on and YES! All the lights have come on!  Job one sorted in an hour :-)

Job 2. Horrible grinding noise
Now this has me worried.  It sounds like a brake problem, but I can see there is plenty of pad and disc left.  Maybe the caliper has seized.  Better get the wheel off and take a look I suppose.  So I roll the car back onto the flat ground and take a look underneath to find the jacking point and.. what the ***?

What the hell is that plastic thing wedged under the car? You have to be kidding me, the front plastic undertray has only come loose and bent over and got stuck under the car.  A couple of tugs and a quick unscrew and off it comes, and lo and behold no more grinding!  This is fantastic!

So take the car for a quick spin and everything is fine.  Oh what a difference a couple of hours can make :-)

Now that the urgent things have been taken car of, it's time to start the serious work.  And the first things to do are make a list of everything that needs to be done, and get some standard 15 inch wheels.