Crash!

Big excitement in the office today…

One of the ladies at work ordered herself a new bakkie (I know… kinda weird, but that’s beside the point…). She organised for it to be delivered to her at work this morning. So she eagerly awaited its arrival in the parking lot today. The guy who delivered it must have taken one look at the excited expression on her face as he bounded out of the bakkie to hand over the keys – forgetting to pull up the handbrake in the process....

The brand new bakkie then rolled into the shiny black Renault Modus in front of it…. which in turn then rolled into the silver Corsa lite parked next to it.

My office managed to have a three car pile up without one car even being turned on! Incredible huh?!

I’m sure I’d be finding this all a lot less amazing if my darling Troy (my car) had been involved – but he just sat parked in the distance enjoying the show.

I couldn’t help but feel absolutely terrible for the poor delivery guy, as he stood by watching helplessly while the drama unfolded in front of him.

And I kinda know how he feels… having inflicted damage on someone else’s car myself.

It was quite a while back… The Ron was coming to stay with me for a couple of weeks while he was in between homes. He had quite a lot of stuff to move across, so he illegally parked while we unloaded all the boxes. The people in my complex can get quite sticky about illegal parkers, so I suggested that I move his car into one of my parking spaces while he carried stuff up.

Now The Ron’s car was his baby. It’s one of those fancy new silver Opel Astras – and it was his pride and joy. After my suggestion he stood there looking at me and asked:

The Ron: “Mozi… are you sure you can do this??”

MsMozi: “Oh come on – I’m driving it a couple of metres down into the parking basement, what the hell could I possibly do wrong?!?”

The Ron: “Hmmm…. (thoughtful pause) Ok, I guess it’s fine.”

So I grabbed the keys, started the engine and gave a cheeky wave as I drove down to the parking basement.

Upon reaching the parking spot – I realised this may be a little bit more complicated that I initially anticipated for two reasons:

a) The parking spot is next to a pillar – and there’s something about pillars that magnetically draws me, and the car I’m driving, into them.

b) At that stage I was used to driving a Corsa – significantly smaller than the Astra

So I made a couple of attempts to get the car into the parking space, concentrating on not making contact with the car on the one side, and the pillar on the other. Eventually, after about 5 minutes of trying, I decided to get out the car, swallow my pride and go and ask The Ron for help. As I climbed out – I thought to myself “Come on Mozi! Don’t be stupid! You can TOTALLY do this!”

Turns out I couldn’t.

As I turned into the parking spot, I heard the heart-stopping, cringe-worthy, sob-inducing sound of metal buckling as the car made contact with the pillar.

Now I faced another predicament. As the car had now become one with the pillar – do I reverse, or continue forward??? Which would result in the least damage??? I decided at this point, the only solution was to go call The Ron.

I ran up to my apartment and informed The Ron that I had decided to attach his car to a concrete pillar. I think my tears (not put on, I swear!) said it all and he was his fabulous, understanding, incredible self and didn’t freak out. He somehow managed to unattach his car from the pillar without inflicting any further damage, and spent the rest of the evening consoling me.

The Ron – you’re a total rock star.