Tuesday 19 May 2009

We have the technology, we can rebuild it



It is walk to school week this week. Which is fortunate as the car is currently in the garage having major surgery. Such major surgery that in fact I did wonder whether to let it just pass away quietly and send it to the great scrap heap in the sky. But we need a car for our holiday next week and the thought of buying a new car in a week just filled me with horror. So its being mended as we speak.

Whats more it does feel a bit like one of the family. Its the first car I bought all by myself for a massive £450. I like the way it has got actual bits of bare metal on the top. I like the way it brings down the tone of the road I live on. I like the way that white is my least favourite colour in a car but driving it makes me feel like a cop in a terrible '80's drama. I like the way the sunroof doesn't shut properly when opened. I like the way I forget that at the beginning of every summer and wonder to myself why I don't open the sun roof more (yep, did it again this year, had to rope in brother-in-law to help me close it). I like the way it took me and the girls all the way down to the south of France a couple of years ago. I like the way how, on the trip down, eldest could pay the tolls from the passenger seat side because, you guessed it, the drivers window doesn't work either. I particularly like the fact that the satnav will be worth more than the car. I like the fact that I have forgotten to lock it like a hundred times but it is so knackered that no-one has ever tried to nick it. I like the fact that early one morning I once found a well dressed young man asleep on the backseat who presumably was unable to make it home after a night out. I particularly like the fact that after I kicked him out and he had rather sheepishly apologised he had the gall to ask which way I was driving so I might take him home.

And in case you are wondering why I am sad enough to take a picture of my car, I'm not. Eldest daughter did. I can only assume that she feels the same way about it as I do.

11 comments:

  1. In Mexico my ceel phone was worth more than my car and I had one of those old crap phones that didn't even have a camera.
    It was good to own a piece or scrap metal though when the lock on the door stopped working.
    Now I drive a (slightly) newer Daihatsu, but I still get looks from the weirdos in the 'Tuscan' castles that I live amongst.
    Also, you have a SUNROOF. How lucky are you.

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  2. Nice. I have a ceel phone. Some sort of new technology perhaps?

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  3. How lucky am I? Why my cup runneth over. :-) But a ceel phone is right up there on my "wish list of cool gadgets" to own.

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  4. I love the guy sleeping in your vehicle asking for a lift.

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  5. Iasa - must admit that after the shock it kind of made my morning!

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  6. It amazes me how we can get so attached to a vehicle. I am the same, think of it as part of the family!

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  7. they are a part of the family....that's why they usually get named and loved and abused a little.....

    love your story !

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  8. Lorac and Beth - so relieved to hear its not just me!

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  9. I'm a stubborn walker... not for some ecological reason... I'm only afraid of all the other cars that populate the streets... I'd like to drive in a desert with no other people around!!! I've got driving license and I had a little, funny, red coral car... when I had to drive her (yes..."her") to the scrap yard my kids cried... and me too! ...it's not just you :)
    Bye!

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  10. A whole car for 450 pounds? It must have a whole history to it for this money. Old cars are definitely much more interesting than new cars.

    And I love it that this guy asked you for the lift.

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  11. Polly - Yup whole car for that money. It came with a free tube of super glue which is unfortunately stuck to the dashboard. I can only imagine some repair incident that went horribly wrong. I expect the would be repairer narrowly escaped getting getting his fingers stuck to the radio or something....

    Chiara - I SO understand the crying thing with the kids. Exact same thing here with a different car.

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