The colour of friendship (present)

Last week, the colour of my friendship with Lynette was black and white. Thinking about it, I guess she is pretty much a black and white friend too. Things are that way with her. They are wrong or they are right, it is in or it is out…


Last week, it was the black and white of paper & ink. Once again, she trumped the Garmin and I am seriously thinking of taking this up with the Garmin people. Not only do I now need to pay the price of a new Garmin to upgrade maps (oeps – another non programmer like lapse – didn’t update maps. Who knew THAT), but the latest Garmin maps don’t know where my brother-in-law works. Tsk Tsk tsk.

The whole thing began when my darling, trusted Toyota Corolla needed a service. No problem, thinks me. Book the service, take hubby to work – and start my day doing Tax man programming stuff.

The phone rings.
' Mam – we notice there are chips in your windscreen.''
(and I’m thinking – so how many people drive on our highways with road works and don’t sport a few of those).
'Can we fix them? '
Yes (how much can that cost).
A cool R270.

Some more Tax man stuff, phone rings.
'Mam, the coolant water bottle leaks.'
Hello – fix it.
' Um- no can do – it is a plastic bottle. '
Here’s me thinking – ok – plastic – that must be cheaper to fix than some chips in the wind screen right?

Buuurp – WRONG - please leave – you are the weakest link.
That costs “windscreen chips” x 10 plus some more = R3300.
Yes – that bottle costs R2200, and then another R1000 for labour. Now was I being diddled there?

The service cost R6000 and on the spot I decided, I am bailing out. The car had done her time, given me good service…. But I cannot personally fund Toyota’s recall program.

Brother-in-law sells cars. He is an awesome salesman, came all the way out from Pretoria to show us the Mazda 3, worked out finance, paid me an excellent value for the old car, and wala – the deal was struck. That was easier than even servicing the Toyota. Anyone need a new car – I got awesome service! Just say the word.

Now, if you are sharp – you will notice the mention of Pretoria? If you are sharper still, you will remember my previous run in with the place? I got LOST with Garmin in tow...

Well, I needed to fetch the new car in Pretoria last week. The Mazda dealership is in Equestria – and Garmin has NO CLUE….

Werner was not much help there either. He fatal mistake started with: It’s easy - you know where my parents stay……

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We ALMOST got cross with each other –and that is something we NEVER do. We came so close!

Brother-in-law came to some compromise and gave Garmin an address she knew how to find. Full of confidence, and a big dash of sadness for my old trusty Toyota – I went to work on Thursday, to trade it in after work. Ummmm – anyone hear about the MASSIVE accident at the Atterbury bridge last week, the 2 trucks, the cars, the fire … and the CLOSED highway for 25 hours. Yup – that sure got me in the middle of a big pickle.

Lynette just smiled at me. I’ll get you there, she said giggling at my total directionlessness. She disappeared for a long time, behind her desk and computer, and churned out a 2 page missive of directions and love.

Speckled in-between the huge explanations, were written some notes like :
Don’t worry – carry on going (when she knew I would be going through some township stuff), and loads of info like – you go across a bridge, and past a this kind of tree and that kind of petrol station….2 pages worth of detailed instructions. She even appealed to the programmer in me with: if the highway looks clear – proceed to point A , or point C etc.

What would I have done without her? I eventually got to Equestria – but sort of not along the route described by “GarLete” ( my new name for Garmin and Lynette combined). But I got there. I picked up the new car and managed to find my way home.

So, I got to thinking about the colour of friendship – and I am so thankful for such a darling, clever friend, who spent a long time writing it all down in black and white for me.

Thank you!

The car? Well, awesome.
(But can I share a secret: it’s bestest feature? - it has no Prof associations what-so-ever) . The Toyota was bought by the Prof for me. So – standing that night looking at the brand new car in my garage, it suddenly symbolised huge achievement. I had move on, and did so on my own. A sense of being able to stand on my own 2 feet, being able to afford my own new car…says a lot about the long way I have come.

And my last update SARS didn’t loose any smoke this weekend! -The latest system is up and running. Yah!