For years I used to travel by train to Cape Town and back – through marriage and divorce, births and deaths – I sat in the carriage of a train, on some days for way longer than the timetable prescribed. It wasn’t a bad mode of transport, had the advantage of allowing a person to either read or sleep for the 40 odd minutes it took to get from Fish Hoek to Cape Town – it did however make an already long day longer, so when my company obtained a select few free parking bays and asked for motivation from personnel requiring one… I put my fingers to keyboard and motivated my tooshie off. Evidently my motivation was compelling enough because I have had the luxury of a parking bay for several years now, that is till today. No the company didn’t take the bay away from me – hell I’ve been compellingly motivating my tooshie off for years to keep that bay… no my flippen car decided to lose a fan belt.
Picture this…. really, really hectic day at work (for some reason the company believes I’m the cure all for all their woes) – heart set on a bottle of bubbly and a long soak in the tub (albeit a sideways soak as the tub is still too big)…. I set off home… stop off at the one shop to see if they have printer cartridges, figure I’ll go to the other shop for the bubbly – get in my car, half way there… it suddenly feels like I landed in a huge tub of treacle – and having experienced this feeling before and been scolded for not stopping immediately – I pull into a bay and switch off. Phone the man…. get told the man is busy with work stuff. Briefly contemplate taking a taxi home – look at the taxis, figure this is not a mode of transport I wish to experience so when all else fails.. I do what every girl does in a crisis…..
“Dad, can you please come rescue me?”
I wasn’t completely useless though – I did manage to get to a shop a minute before it closed and bought a new fan belt – evidently my vague description of what type of car I have …. “Opel Astra, blue with the fake wood pannelling” wasn’t enough to get the right fan belt as I was back on that carriage this morning, have to say I really don’t remember the truly awful smell.
I did get my bubbly though and rather than a long soak in the tub, I opted for an icy cold shower because it was flippen hot yesterday.
(Wouter is going to find the right fan belt and hopefully tomorrow I’ll be back in my compellingly motivated parking bay)