Peugeot

Our new car has arrived!

It looks something like this, but it's army green. When we told Wolf the name of the colour, he was a bit disappointed when it arrived because it has wheels instead of tracks and no gun turret. I can't say I don't agree, but sadly we had no money for these useful options.

I was at work last Monday morning, when Mrs.B called me. The moment I heard her voice, I realised something was wrong. 'Bart, I had an accident with the car. I'm fine, but the car is a total wreck!'

It took a moment for that message to sink in.

She had been to the horse riding club that morning, and on the road home the car started to act funny in a curve of the road. Things got much worse however at the next bend: the car drifted to the right, but when Mrs.B tried to correct it suddenly swerved to the left - which is in this part of the world the wrong side of the road. With oncoming traffic approaching fast, she tried to turn to the right again, at which point the car veered off the road, down a slope and sliding into a ditch. During that slide, the roof made contact with a wrongly parked tree that gave no right of way.

When I saw the pictures of the car later that day, I could feel cold sweat seeping down my spine:

Granted, from the back it doesn't look that bad. But then the tow truck came along and pulled it out of the ditch:

That tree had made a mess of the back of the car, and the roof, which meant that it is beyond repair. Notice that little red children's seat? That's were Wolf is normally strapped in. Luckily, he was at school that day.

The tree in question had taken a beating, but was otherwise fine. Well, at least it was in a better condition than our poor old car.

Well, the most important thing was that Mrs.B was ok - shaken and stirred, but otherwise unhurt. As a matter of fact, the moment she arrived in the garage with the tow truck, she inquired about buying a new car. We're going to France in six weeks time, you see. So on Wednessday she looked around for a car loan - while I was enjoying a nice old gastric flue - and on Friday we went to the bank to sign for the car loan and today the car was delivered to the garage and tomorrow we'll get the plates and on Wednessday we can go get the new car. That's how Mrs.B deals with car crashes!

We opted for the new version of the Peugeot Partner. We were quite pleased with our previous car, apart from that minor tendency to violently swerve all over the road at random moments. The garage made us an offer we couldn't refuse on a car they had in stock. It's army green, so the next time we have a collision with a tree we can just let it there because it will blend right in with the scenery. Saves us the cost of a tow truck.

Okay, before someone explodes because of a critical combination of curiosity and impatience, I will end the mystery about the choice we made for our new car:

Indeed, the Peugeot Partner ‘Totem’ 1.6 HDI 75hp diesel with double sliding doors, oodles of space, handy shelves above the doors, steering wheel, fold-away tables in the back, wiper on the back window and more cup-holders than you can imagine possible. Move over Porsches, this baby does 0 to 200 km/h in… Well never, because it has a top speed of only 150km/h. But we’re told it drives like a dream, thanks to no less than four (4) wheels. Eat your heart out, you with the old motorbike with sidecar with your lousy three wheels.

It has enough room to move three babies fully packed with diapers, prams, changing thingy, extra clothing, feeding chairs, playing cribs and overflowing diaper emergency changing tents with garbage processing oven. Or alternatively you can pack it with three saddles, two sets of riding boots, a cool box stuffed with sandwiches and half a horse. And for the handy DIY-er: the Partner can handle every piece of equipment you can buy or rent at your favourite DIY shop, including that high-powered professional series roof tile cleaner you’ve always been dreaming about.

Two more weeks and we’re mobile again.