Wow, I'm equally impressed with your challenge to take on the boy racers and with your history driving police cars, Luisa!
Although I'm insured to drive our VW camper I don't often get to! When we're out together it's usually in the van, and Jim's the one who drives. He uses it for work, and of course we use it for its designated purpose as often as possible (yay for heading to the hills at a moment's notice!). I need to practise driving it, to be honest - otherwise we'll turn into one of 'those' couples......
And yeah, my determination, such as it was (!) was fine right up until driving straight past the pharmacy...!!!! 🤣
Brilliant. So much to respond to here. Firstly, we had a minor 1000 traveller, and somewhere in the Freedman archives there's a photo to prove it. Secondly,bthe committee I chair is obviously doing its work . My committee for the propagation and preservation of roadworks has an annual target. Our activities include digging up sections of road and filling them in again for no discernible purpose. Our speciality is 4 way traffic lights with each one on red permanently. When all else fails, we plant road closed signs randomly. Please complete our customer satisfaction survey.
Thanks, Terry! I've got a picture somewhere - I must dig it out one of these days. My car was a 4-door saloon in dove grey with limited-edition duo-tone interior - she was beautiful, and I'll always miss her.
Thank you for your unstinting contribution to the furtherance of road impassability and sustainability of highway havoc - NOT! 😉
😂 Those cars were great. The engine didn't consist of much more than a gigantic rubber band and a propellor. I think the only thing that went wrong in over a decade was the clutch needed replacing once. By the way, I meant to say that a good way of raising your confidence I think would be to do a course in advanced driving, like the one what I done. In fact, I was thinking of writing about it in my newsletter.
Modern cars are so confusing in comparison - all those wires, and moulded coverings over everything. I adored my car. She was a bit of an attention-seeker, though (wonder where she got that from?). Over the years she needed a replacement throttle return spring, a new speedometer, replacement window (vandals!), and her front pressed-aluminium numberplate was STOLEN not for use on another vehicle but just because it was attractive - it was a gorgeous 1960s 3-letters, 3-numbers registration. I was gutted when she failed her MOT - I cried for days (see 'attention seeker' comment above).
I think what had given me confidence in getting to Brighton without getting lost was the fact that I HAD to get there alone because Jim needed me to, so that was massive motivation not to mess it up. That only occurred to me this morning, but I think that's what was happening on Wednesday!
Thanks for the suggestion of an advanced driving course, and I might just look into that. My driving itself is actually really good - Jim says I'm better than he is, not that he gets much of a chance to experience my driving 🙄 - but anything to give me more confidence in myself behind the wheel of a car (and the fact that that puts me in the 'I've got to not get lost' zone) would probably have a really positive effect on the issues I have with finding my way around!
Modern cars are beyond the skills of many traditional motor mechanics. I completely understand your attachment and guttedness. I miss ours and my beloved ford escort with sun roof and air conditioning. 😨😨
I was reading this with baited breath. Wondering and pondering if you would end up in Milton Keynes (god forbid) or Oxford... Scotland? Glad you got there, quite literally
Thanks for getting us to your destination (and back.) Like in your car with the music blasting, it was a fun journey. I had a red VW Golf once too! Loved that car until it died on the way to a Joan Armatrading concert in New Jersey and had to be scrapped. 🚘
Wow, that's a great story, Julie - not that the car died, of course, but that it went out in style on its way to a Joan Armatrading concert! Please tell me that you didn't miss the gig?!
Until fairly recently I hadn't known what a 'turnpike' was - I'd always thought it was a roundabout, although I discovered in a Comments conversation with Tom Pendergast's 'Out over my skis' that it very much ISN'T. One of my favourite songs is 'America' by Simon and Garfunkel, and it has the line: 'Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike they've all gone to look for America'..... Oh, and it also features in the film 'Coyote Ugly'!
Well done you. I share your misgivings of unfamiliar routes and I always find that Sat Navs take you anywhere but where you actually want to go and I spend a lot of time mouthing off at 'that woman' as my mum used to call the Sat Nav voice.
I'm glad to have recourse to the SatNav - it's saved my bacon a few times - but at the same time I wish my built-in navigation system was up to scratch. Still, I'm working on it.....!
With Mum it was always the tone... 'that woman' ... of disgust because of course 'that woman' was at the end of a phone, in a lift, at the supermarket and so forth. Mum's life was plagued with Blodwyn in all iterations. ;)
Chuckle, chuckle. Oh you poor love! Congratulations though, really! You did SO WELL!!! Don’t worry about the last little glitch. When it doesn’t matter, it truly doesn’t matter. Grin.
Thanks so much for giving us that final ‘He’s ok now’ comment too! Hospital visits are always scary. For both of you I’m sure. I’m so glad that all that is now in the past. For now at least.
That's so kind Beth - thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed the read - and thank you for the congratulations. I really felt I'd nailed it, and am very proud of myself (well, I was until Thursday!!!)!
I'd almost forgotten to add the fact that Jim's okay to the end of the post! Don't tell him, will you?! 😳
🤣 When I first moved to the village I was introduced to a whole variety of people with a 'name + job' moniker: for example 'Jimmy the Snaps' (♥️), 'Charlie Shop' and 'Dave the Brewer'! We've been 'Mr & Mrs Snaps' to everyone ever since we got together! 🤣
There might be a future post in all of this somewhere... 😉
“With no obvious drop-off point in evidence I stopped just beyond the ‘NO STOPPING’ red route and flung my patient-to-be passenger out of the car, rudely disturbing a group of vapers and smokers in scrubs as I did so.”
I can just picture poor Mr Snaps now being flung not only from the car but into the fog!🤣
And I admit I have been so into my car karaoke before that I’ve missed an exit or a turn. I mean, when you’re hitting all the notes (in your head) with passion, it’s so easy to do. We once visited the San Antonio area and decided to drive into the city on the same day that their Fiesta parade was happening. Road blocks at every turn! I was thankful for my Waze app!
'...hitting all the notes (in your head) with passion...'! You are SO RIGHT, Holly!!! I am literally the BEST singer in the world when I'm alone in the car - although in polite society I can't hold a note! 🤣
Funnily enough, where I threw Jim out of the car was right by a sign stating: 'No smoking on hospital premises'. Those staff members were standing literally an inch away from the demarcation line...!
Love this crazy story. Loved your "battered – later scrapped – matte red VW Golf". It takes me back to my days of driving a rattle-trap, decrepit 1968 VW, which was SO embarrassing, but it usually got me where I was going. I also liked the way you slowed down to five miles per hour and "flung" your patient out the door at the hospital and took off. Perfect! Always entertaining, Rebecca. Thank you!
Since I am wearing my smarty-pants today, I thought I would mention that one wants to say "...with bated breath" (a shortened form of abated or suspended.) Baited would mean loaded with bait or a lure”. I apologize! I retired from English teaching a long time ago, but just cannot stop. Humor me, please, I mean no harm. Ha ha ha.
Rebecca! Your kidding?! A marathon (was the reason for the detour)...it is such a great metaphor for life thought isn't it?! I hope Jim is well and you are making a full recovery today. :)
Thank you so much, Julie! I'm glad to report that Jim is doing just fine, although perhaps a little quieter than usual for a couple of days, bless him.
Can I let you into a secret? I - and my artistic licence - had been very tempted to use the banner phrases 'Mom you got the guts' and 'Go Mama moose!!' in honour of Brindsley and Delaney's banners at your Boston marathon right here in this post! Please know that I was thinking of you (and them!). I kept it real, but I was soooooo in your/their space right there! 😊😊😊
Don't feel bad that you missed the pharmacy twice. I actually did that last week, though it was Office Depot. I had so much on my mind. I was thinking about driving home and then it hit me. My Mom was with me and she told me she was wondering where I was going. I ended up pulling into a restaurant's parking lot and going to the rear and out into the complex where all the stores are located. Then I worked my way back to what I thought was the route. By then, I was really discombobulated and I missed the turn. Then I had to go in front of another store and around the corner. Eventually, I finally made it there.
Glad Jim is okay now. By the way, I love how you said you flung him out of the car. 🤣
'Discombobulated' is absolutely right, Matt! Thank you so much for your comment. It's all too easy to miss somewhere even though it's familiar, isn't it? Just one little distraction and, well, that's all it takes!
Thanks for your kind words about Jim. And yes, he was definitely flung out of the car. Poor chap, right? I wish for both our sakes that the hospital had some kind of decent drop-off point - or maybe I missed it? I wouldn't be surprised...! 🤣
It's shown me that when I concentrate I CAN sometimes not get lost, and when I DON'T concentrate... and sing my head off along to the radio... well, that's my downfall. ONE of my downfalls! 🤣
Wow, I'm equally impressed with your challenge to take on the boy racers and with your history driving police cars, Luisa!
Although I'm insured to drive our VW camper I don't often get to! When we're out together it's usually in the van, and Jim's the one who drives. He uses it for work, and of course we use it for its designated purpose as often as possible (yay for heading to the hills at a moment's notice!). I need to practise driving it, to be honest - otherwise we'll turn into one of 'those' couples......
And yeah, my determination, such as it was (!) was fine right up until driving straight past the pharmacy...!!!! 🤣
Brilliant. So much to respond to here. Firstly, we had a minor 1000 traveller, and somewhere in the Freedman archives there's a photo to prove it. Secondly,bthe committee I chair is obviously doing its work . My committee for the propagation and preservation of roadworks has an annual target. Our activities include digging up sections of road and filling them in again for no discernible purpose. Our speciality is 4 way traffic lights with each one on red permanently. When all else fails, we plant road closed signs randomly. Please complete our customer satisfaction survey.
Thanks, Terry! I've got a picture somewhere - I must dig it out one of these days. My car was a 4-door saloon in dove grey with limited-edition duo-tone interior - she was beautiful, and I'll always miss her.
Thank you for your unstinting contribution to the furtherance of road impassability and sustainability of highway havoc - NOT! 😉
😂 Those cars were great. The engine didn't consist of much more than a gigantic rubber band and a propellor. I think the only thing that went wrong in over a decade was the clutch needed replacing once. By the way, I meant to say that a good way of raising your confidence I think would be to do a course in advanced driving, like the one what I done. In fact, I was thinking of writing about it in my newsletter.
Modern cars are so confusing in comparison - all those wires, and moulded coverings over everything. I adored my car. She was a bit of an attention-seeker, though (wonder where she got that from?). Over the years she needed a replacement throttle return spring, a new speedometer, replacement window (vandals!), and her front pressed-aluminium numberplate was STOLEN not for use on another vehicle but just because it was attractive - it was a gorgeous 1960s 3-letters, 3-numbers registration. I was gutted when she failed her MOT - I cried for days (see 'attention seeker' comment above).
I think what had given me confidence in getting to Brighton without getting lost was the fact that I HAD to get there alone because Jim needed me to, so that was massive motivation not to mess it up. That only occurred to me this morning, but I think that's what was happening on Wednesday!
Thanks for the suggestion of an advanced driving course, and I might just look into that. My driving itself is actually really good - Jim says I'm better than he is, not that he gets much of a chance to experience my driving 🙄 - but anything to give me more confidence in myself behind the wheel of a car (and the fact that that puts me in the 'I've got to not get lost' zone) would probably have a really positive effect on the issues I have with finding my way around!
Modern cars are beyond the skills of many traditional motor mechanics. I completely understand your attachment and guttedness. I miss ours and my beloved ford escort with sun roof and air conditioning. 😨😨
I drove my 1955 split screen minor for weeks without a clutch, just had to get the revs right! I now drive an automatic car!!
Blimey...! 😲
Hah! Suspicions confirmed...
😂🙂
I was reading this with baited breath. Wondering and pondering if you would end up in Milton Keynes (god forbid) or Oxford... Scotland? Glad you got there, quite literally
LOL - thanks, Melanie! I kept you guessing until the end, right?! 🤣
Absolutely. A traffic thriller!
🤣😊
Yes! Who would have thought there could be such a thing as a traffic thriller? Leave it to Rebecca.
Haha indeed!
LOL!
A rollercoaster, that's your life,
it has its ups and downs.
You took us on a journey through it,
full of smiles and frowns.
We read through it with baited breath,
we cheered when you did well.
And all of us learned something new,
when with your pride you fell.
😂
Oh, Punit - this is GLORIOUS! Thank you so much for such a beautiful - and absolutely on-the-nail! - poem in response to my post - it's made my day!
😊
Thank you for such kind words. Put a huge smile on my face! 😀😀😀
LOVE this!
Hugs to you both! And while there's no shame in the sat nav game, but what fun is in that?
Thanks, Nancy! Yeah, SatNavs take all the fun out of the game! 😉
Thanks for getting us to your destination (and back.) Like in your car with the music blasting, it was a fun journey. I had a red VW Golf once too! Loved that car until it died on the way to a Joan Armatrading concert in New Jersey and had to be scrapped. 🚘
Wow, that's a great story, Julie - not that the car died, of course, but that it went out in style on its way to a Joan Armatrading concert! Please tell me that you didn't miss the gig?!
We discovered while on the NJ turnpike that the concert had been cancelled anyway. I guess she heard we weren’t going to make it. 🎶
Oh nooooooooo....!!!
Until fairly recently I hadn't known what a 'turnpike' was - I'd always thought it was a roundabout, although I discovered in a Comments conversation with Tom Pendergast's 'Out over my skis' that it very much ISN'T. One of my favourite songs is 'America' by Simon and Garfunkel, and it has the line: 'Counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike they've all gone to look for America'..... Oh, and it also features in the film 'Coyote Ugly'!
Phew!
Well done you. I share your misgivings of unfamiliar routes and I always find that Sat Navs take you anywhere but where you actually want to go and I spend a lot of time mouthing off at 'that woman' as my mum used to call the Sat Nav voice.
Phew indeed! And thanks so much, Prue!
'That woman'! 🤣 My mum calls hers 'Blodwyn'! 🤣
I'm glad to have recourse to the SatNav - it's saved my bacon a few times - but at the same time I wish my built-in navigation system was up to scratch. Still, I'm working on it.....!
I love that! Blodwyn!
With Mum it was always the tone... 'that woman' ... of disgust because of course 'that woman' was at the end of a phone, in a lift, at the supermarket and so forth. Mum's life was plagued with Blodwyn in all iterations. ;)
🤣
Chuckle, chuckle. Oh you poor love! Congratulations though, really! You did SO WELL!!! Don’t worry about the last little glitch. When it doesn’t matter, it truly doesn’t matter. Grin.
Thanks so much for giving us that final ‘He’s ok now’ comment too! Hospital visits are always scary. For both of you I’m sure. I’m so glad that all that is now in the past. For now at least.
Another wonderful read. Thanks SO much. 🤗🤗😘😘🥰🥰💕💕
That's so kind Beth - thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed the read - and thank you for the congratulations. I really felt I'd nailed it, and am very proud of myself (well, I was until Thursday!!!)!
I'd almost forgotten to add the fact that Jim's okay to the end of the post! Don't tell him, will you?! 😳
Can we have a moment for his nickname being “Snaps”? 🥺🥰
You've caught me, Bryn! Yup!!!! 🤣 Check out his full name - including title - at the top of the screenshot! ♥️
😂🥹
I saw “Mr Snaps” in the screenshot and cackled!🤣
🤣 When I first moved to the village I was introduced to a whole variety of people with a 'name + job' moniker: for example 'Jimmy the Snaps' (♥️), 'Charlie Shop' and 'Dave the Brewer'! We've been 'Mr & Mrs Snaps' to everyone ever since we got together! 🤣
There might be a future post in all of this somewhere... 😉
What a great story!! Loved it! Especially missing the pharmacy while singing---twice! Thanks for starting my day with a giggle! ❤️
LOL - I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Sue! Thank you so much! 😊
“With no obvious drop-off point in evidence I stopped just beyond the ‘NO STOPPING’ red route and flung my patient-to-be passenger out of the car, rudely disturbing a group of vapers and smokers in scrubs as I did so.”
I can just picture poor Mr Snaps now being flung not only from the car but into the fog!🤣
And I admit I have been so into my car karaoke before that I’ve missed an exit or a turn. I mean, when you’re hitting all the notes (in your head) with passion, it’s so easy to do. We once visited the San Antonio area and decided to drive into the city on the same day that their Fiesta parade was happening. Road blocks at every turn! I was thankful for my Waze app!
'...hitting all the notes (in your head) with passion...'! You are SO RIGHT, Holly!!! I am literally the BEST singer in the world when I'm alone in the car - although in polite society I can't hold a note! 🤣
Funnily enough, where I threw Jim out of the car was right by a sign stating: 'No smoking on hospital premises'. Those staff members were standing literally an inch away from the demarcation line...!
Love this crazy story. Loved your "battered – later scrapped – matte red VW Golf". It takes me back to my days of driving a rattle-trap, decrepit 1968 VW, which was SO embarrassing, but it usually got me where I was going. I also liked the way you slowed down to five miles per hour and "flung" your patient out the door at the hospital and took off. Perfect! Always entertaining, Rebecca. Thank you!
Yeah, 'flung' is about right! Poor chap. I treated him with kid gloves post-treatment though, honest! LOL!
Since I am wearing my smarty-pants today, I thought I would mention that one wants to say "...with bated breath" (a shortened form of abated or suspended.) Baited would mean loaded with bait or a lure”. I apologize! I retired from English teaching a long time ago, but just cannot stop. Humor me, please, I mean no harm. Ha ha ha.
Rebecca! Your kidding?! A marathon (was the reason for the detour)...it is such a great metaphor for life thought isn't it?! I hope Jim is well and you are making a full recovery today. :)
Thank you so much, Julie! I'm glad to report that Jim is doing just fine, although perhaps a little quieter than usual for a couple of days, bless him.
Can I let you into a secret? I - and my artistic licence - had been very tempted to use the banner phrases 'Mom you got the guts' and 'Go Mama moose!!' in honour of Brindsley and Delaney's banners at your Boston marathon right here in this post! Please know that I was thinking of you (and them!). I kept it real, but I was soooooo in your/their space right there! 😊😊😊
LOL!! First I'm so glad to hear Jim is doing fine. Second...I love that you remember the posters my kids made!! You're the best!
LOL and thank you! But no, YOU'RE the best! 🏆 'Staring Down a Dream' has totally left its mark on me - hurrah to those glorious pics on page 111!
https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/59-review-staring-down-a-dream-by
I'm so thrilled!! :)
Don't feel bad that you missed the pharmacy twice. I actually did that last week, though it was Office Depot. I had so much on my mind. I was thinking about driving home and then it hit me. My Mom was with me and she told me she was wondering where I was going. I ended up pulling into a restaurant's parking lot and going to the rear and out into the complex where all the stores are located. Then I worked my way back to what I thought was the route. By then, I was really discombobulated and I missed the turn. Then I had to go in front of another store and around the corner. Eventually, I finally made it there.
Glad Jim is okay now. By the way, I love how you said you flung him out of the car. 🤣
'Discombobulated' is absolutely right, Matt! Thank you so much for your comment. It's all too easy to miss somewhere even though it's familiar, isn't it? Just one little distraction and, well, that's all it takes!
Thanks for your kind words about Jim. And yes, he was definitely flung out of the car. Poor chap, right? I wish for both our sakes that the hospital had some kind of decent drop-off point - or maybe I missed it? I wouldn't be surprised...! 🤣
Oh no, the curse of the catchy car singalong! Who hasn't been there? ;-) Glad everything worked out in the end!
It's shown me that when I concentrate I CAN sometimes not get lost, and when I DON'T concentrate... and sing my head off along to the radio... well, that's my downfall. ONE of my downfalls! 🤣