Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The car drama

Stardate November 18, 2010

Last year as I was dropping daughter number two and some friends at soccer training, i reversed into a big square bin. I know I was being too reliant on my sensors, I also know that I've have frequented the University of Tasmania soccer grounds for the last twenty years so I should be able to successfully drive around there with my eyes shut. Well I may as well have been because I ran into the bin thing.

Every now and again I would think 'must get a quote on that and fix it'. Then I would tell myself- with my other voice- "Yes dear. Later". Hence a year and a bit later there's still a scratch and broken tail light.

A couple of months ago I went to a BBQ at the Tolosa Street Reserve. It was more of an 'I'll see how long the kids will last' drop in visit that lasted just over an hour. As I was loading everyone into the car and saying my goodbyes, a girl- who will now be forever known amongst our friends as random woman because she wasn't random at all- approached me to say that a man had just hit my car. On the other side!!

When I went over he was checking out his bumper and his first words were "I think I've done more damage to my car than yours". This may have been true as the resultant dent in my car was really only the size of a fist-but he didn't have to go home and tell the registered owner did he?

Luckily he was insured, we swapped numbers and off we went- I won't go into the screaming (in hindsight, possibly traumatised from the crash) children in the back.

Over the course of the following week I organised the quote and said I'd be in soon. A week passed, and they rang me. "Yep I'll be there". Another couple of weeks passed, they rang again "Yep, I'll be there" and so on.

So just before the number of  reminder calls entered double digits, I finally booked it in and it was fixed. Ready to be collected this morning. It was ready at 4:45 last night but I don't think I need to point out how inconvenient that was .So the plan was this morning- walk child number three to school, with four and five in the pram, catch a bus to the childcare centre, drop them off, and catch another bus to town.

Simple? You'd think so.

9:00 am: I dropped number 3 at school, and as we were about to cross the road to the bus stop a bus came, and stopped. I gestured to the driver that I wanted to get on and he shook his head and drove off. I checked the times on the timetables, contemplated ringing the bus company and continued to walk towards town until it was time for the next bus.

9:30 am: The next bus came. It had some steps, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I was on a mission. However my mission was thwarted when the pram wouldn't fit up the aisle of the bus. So I'm now assuming that's why the first guy shook his head. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt this time.

"How do I know when as bus is coming that I will fit on?" I ask.
"You need to ring headquarters" said the obviously sympathetic driver.

So off we got and the twins screamed. The lady at headquarters could tell me that the next appropriate  bus wouldn't be coming through until 11:30- as long as it didn't breakdown in the meantime. That was reassuring.

I continued to walk. Not 5 minutes later it started to rain.

10:00 am: I was over it  and called a taxi.

Pram wouldn't fit in the boot, so the driver had to occy strap the boot shut.

10:12 am: Got to childcare centre with no lunch for the twins so I said I'd be back before lunch.

10:30 am: Caught a bus into town where it started to pour, so I bought myself a $3 umbrella because nothing was stopping me now!!

11:30 am arrived at car repair shop to collect vehicle.

11:50 Phone call asking how far away I was with their lunches. Only two minutes as it happened.

As I got in the car to drive home and make some use of the rest of my day, I couldn't help but think "I could of just waited at home for the 11:30 bus- and stayed dry!"