THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF BETSY
The saga of the little blue car continues, the gentleman who drove out straight in front of me one wet afternoon hours before the Bright Ideas final s that I slowly slid into the side of him and caused my car to be declared a write off (can you believe, it has not had a crash for 15 years and then within 4 months of me owning it, it is a write off, honestly, what next) has still not admitted liability, so I am having to liaise with the insurance company to set the record straight. Why people think they can get away with being dishonest about an event is quite beyond me, especially with karma and all that!
So of course my car is not looking her best at the moment, bought from a debatable character in Devon who had about 100 cars in all manner of states littering his garden, I must admit we have not had the smoothest of relationships, not always keen to start on first ignition, and not always the smoothest of rides, backfiring (or something like that) from time to time and the petrol light flashing within days of me filling up with petrol so that I am never quite sure exactly when I am at the bottom of the tank has done nothing to help matters. And then of course the crash, at a very low speed may I add, which has cracked the front bumper and done something strange to the back seat, well none of this has helped my stress levels of late.
In fact the ongoing drama of Betsy (as I fondly named her when we first met and I was non the wiser) has been a source of much amusement to my friends and family who are too embarrassed to sit in the car with me, indeed my brother actually burst into laughter when he first saw her sitting on our driveway, and when I was away in London recently my parents actually moved her and parked her in the back driveway so that she was out of sight of the neighbours - honestly, what has happened to the world today so that we feel such a sense of vanity about the car we drive, a car is a car surely?!!!
Anyhow the saga continues so that my friend Vicki has said that she will shortly call bulk refuge to come and collect it for me! You see I am not only having problems with the insurance but I have also had problems registering it over here, not that I will bore you with the details but not helped by the fact the guy from whom I bought the car never completed the registration process properly and the car being declared a write off means that the registration certificate I need cannot be given to me without an MOT, which means that when it all got too much recently and I offered it to a lady in the UK for free (a long story, she saw it parked in the village of Chagford in the summer and asked me to let her know if I ever sold it as she has one of her own and you can no longer get parts), she turned down the offer not relishing a role in the drama that is the blue car called Betsy.
So I am still stuck with the car, waiting patiently to get the insurance and registration issues resolved before the end of the year otherwise I will have to drag my mountain bike from the garage and work out a way to cycle with 7 Yoga mats on my back and a plethora of props to add to the load until I am able to buy a second hand car from a friend who is going travelling at the end of January - and fingers crossed no new car dramas in 2010.
So of course my car is not looking her best at the moment, bought from a debatable character in Devon who had about 100 cars in all manner of states littering his garden, I must admit we have not had the smoothest of relationships, not always keen to start on first ignition, and not always the smoothest of rides, backfiring (or something like that) from time to time and the petrol light flashing within days of me filling up with petrol so that I am never quite sure exactly when I am at the bottom of the tank has done nothing to help matters. And then of course the crash, at a very low speed may I add, which has cracked the front bumper and done something strange to the back seat, well none of this has helped my stress levels of late.
In fact the ongoing drama of Betsy (as I fondly named her when we first met and I was non the wiser) has been a source of much amusement to my friends and family who are too embarrassed to sit in the car with me, indeed my brother actually burst into laughter when he first saw her sitting on our driveway, and when I was away in London recently my parents actually moved her and parked her in the back driveway so that she was out of sight of the neighbours - honestly, what has happened to the world today so that we feel such a sense of vanity about the car we drive, a car is a car surely?!!!
Anyhow the saga continues so that my friend Vicki has said that she will shortly call bulk refuge to come and collect it for me! You see I am not only having problems with the insurance but I have also had problems registering it over here, not that I will bore you with the details but not helped by the fact the guy from whom I bought the car never completed the registration process properly and the car being declared a write off means that the registration certificate I need cannot be given to me without an MOT, which means that when it all got too much recently and I offered it to a lady in the UK for free (a long story, she saw it parked in the village of Chagford in the summer and asked me to let her know if I ever sold it as she has one of her own and you can no longer get parts), she turned down the offer not relishing a role in the drama that is the blue car called Betsy.
So I am still stuck with the car, waiting patiently to get the insurance and registration issues resolved before the end of the year otherwise I will have to drag my mountain bike from the garage and work out a way to cycle with 7 Yoga mats on my back and a plethora of props to add to the load until I am able to buy a second hand car from a friend who is going travelling at the end of January - and fingers crossed no new car dramas in 2010.
On a positive note however I have learned an awful lot through this entire experience, not least to trust my intuition and embrace the concept of least effort (i.e. when things become hard work, do you really need them in your life?) but also that other drivers in Guernsey seem far more courteous to those driving UK reg cars than local drivers, never have I been flashed and waved through so many filters than I have driving Betsy, I wonder if people are scared I will just drive straight through if they don't give me the option to filter first. I have found it rather amusing, certainly encourages me to smile and enjoy the driving experience over here!