Sometimes, it takes a while....

I am pretty sure if I were to read through this blog, I would be embarrassed about the number of references to old cars and my longing for a new one, a car that someone ELSE might look at and say "Oh....I wish I had one like that!"
My very first car was a beauty, a tiny Austin Metro but almost new, just a few years old and had belonged to my dad from new, so it felt like new. I loved that car, there wasn't a time I went out in it that I didn't feel happy and secure that it would get me where I needed to go ..and home again. I got it when I was 30, so the children I had then were 8, 6 and 4 and they fit in that tinycar just right, we were happy travellers and it served me so well for a few years, then it died and although it was fixable, the kids were bigger and longer and were cramped and grumpy when we wen anywhere further that a mile away.
Thus began my sojourn into a woman on her own, with little money, buying cars.
I had a Ford Escort ( old but OK) then a white car and the make of that car escapes me because it was foreign and people scoffed at it, I loved that one however and felt a pang when I sold it to move to America to live with H where we had a beautiful Ford windstar for a very short while ( well a year, which flew by and the joy was somewhat marred by 2 things, a) I was supposed to drive it in L.A...yeah right! and b) we couldn't afford those ridiculous payments, or the insurance that was as much as the car payment and so, well I really grew to hate that car and all the worry that came with it.
I love stuff, pretty things and posh things but I hate, really really hate having to pay for them once the novelty has worn off. For me something is only a joy to me if I can hand over the money and say " IT'S MINE!" When the Windstar went, i flatly refused to ever get another car on finance, no siree, if we couldn't affors it, we wouldn't have it and so oh my goodness, I may have shared embarrassing details with the internets in my past but even I have to stop short of describing every vehicle we drove in.
Suffice to say my bones were rattled, my hearing assaulted and my pride? Well, that was obliterated, one vehicle we had was a big old once white van, with no seats in the back. we bought one bench seat and had the car seats installed, anyone else either took their chances or used a lawn chair. I kid you not, we left that in a car park one night when the engine fell out, for REAL in the middle of the road as H said " Hey, this doesn't feel right....." there was an almighty CLUNK, a whole bunch of sparks and then nothing but humiliation and some really choice words.
We were carless for a while over here and then we bought an old but much loved ( for 2 years) minivan, that big old bus took us everywhere and we moved house 4 times with it, it carried sofas, freezers, you name it, that bus took it all and in payment it drank it's weight in petrol.
It was a relief in a way when it died and we got the black Kia Mentor on Freecycle, I bless the fanily that gave us that car because it enabled us to have our trip to California, it has enabled us to have a year without paying money in fees to get it fixed, we replaced the windshield when some idiot smashed it with a cement block and we bought a new battery. That's it in the whole year we used it.
But oh my word, you would not believe how much that car stank, that smell has made me cry, we were living in that hateful house with the smell of satan and when I Would escape, I would get into the car that smelled like Satan's feet. Or bum, who knows, but it was the dampest, most acrid smell and nothing got rid of it. The seats were torn and mouldy and the dash board had come unstucl and was curly, all out of shape and H, bless his heart 'mended' it, with wood screws.
I was so excited when we decided that we would not go to California again this year, that we would not take all year to save and then escape here for 3 weeks, only to come back and be even more despondant when we returned, to everything we had tried to leave behind. Such a relief to make the choice to make what we have HERE happier and nicer, to buil more joy here and make right here a place we like being.
I was even more excited when we decided that rather than pile more cash into the old smelly and by now very sick Mentor, good money after bad came to mind and I always hate to do that.
We were limited, with our budget on what we could afford but I knew if I looked hard enough, I wold find something that was safer and better for our family.
The Mentor had only 2 full seat belts in the back, the lapbelt was rusted and we couldn't adjust it so it wasn't safe for Seth, who sat in the middle. It was also very squashed and not one trip we took was without fighting. Not one. So help me!
Today, I found a car. It is a beautiful car. It smells of nothing but clean air, it has 3 seperate seats in the back, a huge boot to fill with shopping and strollers when I take Joshua out. It has fancy lights and air conditioning, it has storage cubby holes and trays for the boys in the backm it has cup holders and a clock, central locking ( yes! Locking, I have a car that LOCKS and a jazzy remote control key fob that locks and unlocks it and makes the lights flash and gives a heavenly clunk sound.
I have no idea why the last 2 cars I had started off with doors that locked and then something happened and they were very broken. Very.
Anyway I found a car, it is now MY car and the very best bit is that we paid for it, with money, in an envelope, right there and then and so I can go out and sit up high ( because it is really high up, I am queen of the road again, I so missed being up high when the Previa died)
Do you want to see it? Well you can!
Meet Besty .....we love her.









She is worth the wait.