Ganeida's Knots

It takes 8 460 bolts to assemble an automobile ~ & one nut to scatter it all over the road ~ unknown Sending me to buy a car is a little like sending a lamb to the slaughter. I do not do well with aggressive high powered sales types. Either I cave completely at the first onslaught or I refuse to deal with them at all ~ & you cannot buy a car like that.
Liddy does even better.

Car yards are notoriously inaccessible via public transport. We umhed & ahed, weighing the pros & cons of borrowing a vehicle [Dearest hated this one: both his women loose in Brisbane in unfamiliar vehicles that belonged to someone else!], being driven in by someone or catching a cab. In the end we got a fixed price on a cab & taxied in.

My experience with car buying is notoriously limited. Cars & food: necessary evils. However when the taxi stopped I was rather expecting to see a car yard. No yard. Rows & rows of rather grubby sheds in the sort of neighbourhood you expect the Mafioso to inhabit. Hm.

I am people oriented so I had carefully noted the name of the gentleman I had been dealing with but not the name of the company. Liddy was horrified. Saturday however was the day the Lord wanted to deal with my preconceived notions of how the world works.

Firstly I have major issues with Indian gentlemen. I was unfortunate enough to work with one just after I left school & his attitude towards women was so downright apalling I have struggled ever since to be fair & unbiased about his countrymen [men, not women; my experience with their women is they are charming & lovely & their men are far less so] ~ particularly when faced with an accent I can barely understand. No, I am not the politically correct sort but I do try very hard to accept people as they are, not always easy when you are as opinionated as I am.

Our Indian driver then proceeded to take a most peculiar route to our destination in a large, multi seated, very old & rattly cab that smelt of curry & reminded me pointedly of some of my hairier experiences with Indian drivers in Fiji. Not just me worried about that. Liddy commented.


However, just to make sure I got the point, our driver dropped us exactly outside the address I had given him for exactly the price quoted ~ & we were all very happy little vegemiters: we arrived safely & he was paid without a quibble.

There were 3 or 4 cars parked in the yard but no blue Barina but a little wander about showed us we were indeed at the right destination. Any other time I have been involved in the buying of a car I have had Dearest with me & he has fended off the loud, aggressive types who seem to take jobs in sales. I had certainly encountered a few as I was ringing round making enquiries after checking the net but Dearest & I have this little game where I say upfront I am ringing for my deaf husband & can't commit to anything. It stops them dead in their tracks with frustration as there is no point in pressuring me. I just keep saying, "I'll have to consult with Dearest & get back to you on that." Now I had no Dearest, just Liddy in her "Don't involve me in this" mode.

And you know, the Lord really does look out for the vulnerable ones when they belong to Him. No high pressured salesman came out to greet us, just this really sweet older man who explained they were actually in the import/export business & was most anxious that I was happy with the car. He was really upfront with the cosmetic damage to the roof but in all seriousness! The car gets parked out in the open & used only a couple of times a week. You don't want something that is going to attract attention & thieves. You do want mechanically sound & totally reliable. He carefully took me around the block ~ & I hate driving unfamiliar cars! I refused to head out to the main street which was chock~a~block with traffic & would have necessitated a right hand turn with dubious traffic lights but it was enough to tell me it drove better than Liddy's old Barina. The price was dropped quite a lot. The stamp duty & other fees was not paid by us & we were offered petrol money. Eveyone was really patient & kind with us though the seller, who could have been Liddy's grandfather, looked a little anxious when I handed Liddy the keys & let her pull out into the midst of Brisbane traffic. Truth be told, she's probably safer than I am. She certainly has a much better sense of direction.

No, the insides aren't sparkly shiny new & it doesn't have that new car smell but everything is in good repair; new tires, new brake pads, working clock & I'm sure Ditz will know how to operate the radio. Reverse is unusual but the gentleman sat with both Liddy & I until he was sure we had it worked out & answered all our questions patiently & honestly. I felt it was safe to sign papers though I really wanted Liddy to test drive it too before I signed on the dotted line but driving anywhere with a strange & unknown man was never going to happen. She just kept saying she trusted my decision & would go with that. As soon as we had the insurance & registration papers Liddy wanted the car key! Yep, she drove us home. First time driving on the mainland since her accident. A little paranoid but I suspect that is a good thing. She is borrowing it for mainland church today & I will run her into Garden City tomorrow so she can hook up with her lift back to the Alpaca farm where she has more work for the next 5 months.

At home Dearest was waiting anxiously for news. A little taken aback to realise I had barely driven it at all but in these things Liddy is far more like her father than she is like me. How does it drive? Dearest enquired anxiously ~ & Liddy was actually able to tell him something more than, fine. Strange girl.