406 RIP

I think I wrote my car off yesterday. Thankfully I didn't write myself off, although that would have been difficult at the speed I was going.

Talk about annoyed. I did the thing I'd been worrying about doing all year taking my eldest to and from school - shunted into the back of the car in front in slow-moving traffic. Stop, start, stop, start. You know how it is, a moment's inattention, ABS which fails, and there's nothing to stop your blocked up brakes skidding the distance needed to stop unless something gets in the way first...

Nose down, the bonnet struck the bumper in front thus forcing back the radiator and resulting in a good old leak of both water and some oily substance. The other guy's car was barely scratched, but I did knock off the licence plate.

I had to call the Assistance and get the recovery service in. The guy was happy to tell me my car was an 'épave', a wreck. I felt I'd made his day that he was able to go home satisfied that he'd dealt with a credible ruin. Recovery guys may not see life the same way as the rest of us. They were probably highly destructive little boys who spent much time in emergency departments and whose mothers cracked open a celebratory drink with each half decade they reached as a major achievement.

I empathised with my car, feeling pretty wrecked myself especially as it'll probably cost too much to repair and as an old car, I'd only insured it third party. Funnily enough, I had already been feeling highly broke, having just had my teeth done, and hoping fearfully that I wouldn't need a new car although the turbo has been playing silly buggers for some time.

Famous last thoughts. I must have had a feeling that something was brewing. So what now? I'll wait for the estimate of repairs and then faint, then cry, and then a little hysterics might be in order, followed by taking to my bed with hard liquor.

Yes, I'm kidding. I'll just throw myself under a bus.

Well, maybe not.

I'll probably have to face the fact that the car is dead and then look around for a replacement of some sort. Seeing as I have bikes to transport on a regular basis, there's no point buying a crappy old Twingo, but that's about all I can afford.

One thing's for sure, I won't be doing anything more to my teeth for a very long time, and it might be an idea to take up the lotto...

Maybe my eldest could also go to school by bike!

Valentine Nice

So here I am sitting in a flat overlooking the Baie des Anges. It's Nice, with Niçois sunshine, blue sky and not a cloud. I have yet to poke my nose outside to test the temperature, but it augurs well.

Yesterday I actually took my car and drove here. This is something I would never have done up until January mainly because I wasn't sure whether courroie de distribution (?) had been changed when I bought it. It's the one which, if it goes, costs you a good 2000€ to have it repaired because it jams up all the soupapes.

When I bought the car I asked if it had been done, and the owners said they had no invoices but the previous owner had sworn black and blue that it had. Hmmm, a not overly-reliable response there, so I tended to avoid taking it on long journeys.

Eventually though, it got to the point where it made me anxious about any trip outside Montpellier, and as the Peugeot garage was doing a regular maintence on it in January, I asked them to change the offending piece.

So now I'm happily confident that that bit won't break down I am able to drive to Nice. Freedom!

Thus I could be with my TWDB for Valentine's day. Not that I'm a great follower of it. I object to the overt attempt at commercial manipulation. Once a year at Christmas is quite enough, ta! Anyway, I sent a Valentine's message by email including a photo manipulated by obamicon.me. It's the site where you can turn any photo into an iconic poster like the one made for the Obama election in red, blue and cream with the word 'Hope' beneath.

Paste magazine have developed a smoochy version called 'luvicon.me' which uses grades of pink. Perfect for a Valentine's message without schmaltzy cheesey pap. Alternatively, you could try jimpix.co.uk for cool ecards - no pap, no cheese, no schmaltz - just good graphic design using Flash.

We're off to Antibes today where we'll have a nice little lunch somewhere by the sea and suss out the furniture he wants to buy for his flat.

Actually, every day is Valentine's day with my TWDB.