Writer's Block: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
May. 11th, 2010 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reynardo[Error: unknown template qotd]
Our current little Red Viva is Katie Scarlett. She's a bit of a tomboy, wants to go fast but still be a lady, so "Kate" is a very acceptable name for a tomboy. Follow that with her colour, and she's Katie Scarlett (but hopefully not as temperamental as Katie Scarlett O'Hara.
I can't quite find the right photo, but the car before looked like these.
The previous car was a 17 year old Ford Laser sedan we bought from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lederhosen's aging grandmother. Said grandmother had had to give up driving after several accidents, the last in front of a police car. In respect to the age of the car, it got an old ladies' name - Hilda. In reference to the number of accidents, she became "Hilda-garde of Bingles", (a very silly play on Hildegarde of Bingen.)
Previous vehicle (pre-lederhosen) was my mum's old Ford Laser, named (for some reason) by da_norvegicus as "Gaida". I have no idea where that came from. She came to a rather broken end the night I drove to Canberra to first meet lederhosen's parents.
Prior to that, I owned a red Renault Fuego who went like the clappers. As a sports car, he had to be male. As a Renault, he had to be French. I disliked "Pierre" or "Jean", so he became "Phillipe". The other possibility was "Thierry" (after a French boy I knew at one of those holiday camps), except that it would have then become "Theirry Del Fuego" which is not quite what I intended.
He, like so many men, took my money and my time and gave me nothing but heartache. (Average service 15 years ago was $1000, parts were very expensive and each tyre was $200. Although he did run on the smell of an oily rag.) In the year I had him, I had to replace the entire gearbox at a cost of almost as much as he had cost me initially.
Confession time: Also, when I got him, the car yard didn't give me the rego papers for another 6 weeks. I hadn't realised that registering the car in my name within 14 days was an essential part of buying a used car (yes, I was young and foolish) so I drove him until his rego ran out. At about this time, his brakes started to fail, and were going to cost another $3000 to fix, so I stopped driving him, and arranged to sell him to a car yard. And *that* was when I found out that I didn't have the right papers for him. He was only going to be about $800 sale value, but I ended up with nothing. What a hell of a writeoff :-P
Mind you, it meant I'd had a wonderful year of driving around a little red sports car, at a time when I was young, slim and had great legs. Thinking back, it was almost worth it :-)
And prior to that? This, but in olive.
Our current little Red Viva is Katie Scarlett. She's a bit of a tomboy, wants to go fast but still be a lady, so "Kate" is a very acceptable name for a tomboy. Follow that with her colour, and she's Katie Scarlett (but hopefully not as temperamental as Katie Scarlett O'Hara.
I can't quite find the right photo, but the car before looked like these.
The previous car was a 17 year old Ford Laser sedan we bought from
lederhosen's aging grandmother. Said grandmother had had to give up driving after several accidents, the last in front of a police car. In respect to the age of the car, it got an old ladies' name - Hilda. In reference to the number of accidents, she became "Hilda-garde of Bingles", (a very silly play on Hildegarde of Bingen.)Previous vehicle (pre-
lederhosen) was my mum's old Ford Laser, named (for some reason) by da_norvegicus as "Gaida". I have no idea where that came from. She came to a rather broken end the night I drove to Canberra to first meet lederhosen's parents.Prior to that, I owned a red Renault Fuego who went like the clappers. As a sports car, he had to be male. As a Renault, he had to be French. I disliked "Pierre" or "Jean", so he became "Phillipe". The other possibility was "Thierry" (after a French boy I knew at one of those holiday camps), except that it would have then become "Theirry Del Fuego" which is not quite what I intended.
He, like so many men, took my money and my time and gave me nothing but heartache. (Average service 15 years ago was $1000, parts were very expensive and each tyre was $200. Although he did run on the smell of an oily rag.) In the year I had him, I had to replace the entire gearbox at a cost of almost as much as he had cost me initially.
Confession time: Also, when I got him, the car yard didn't give me the rego papers for another 6 weeks. I hadn't realised that registering the car in my name within 14 days was an essential part of buying a used car (yes, I was young and foolish) so I drove him until his rego ran out. At about this time, his brakes started to fail, and were going to cost another $3000 to fix, so I stopped driving him, and arranged to sell him to a car yard. And *that* was when I found out that I didn't have the right papers for him. He was only going to be about $800 sale value, but I ended up with nothing. What a hell of a writeoff :-P
Mind you, it meant I'd had a wonderful year of driving around a little red sports car, at a time when I was young, slim and had great legs. Thinking back, it was almost worth it :-)
And prior to that? This, but in olive.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 09:40 am (UTC)Previously:~ Auric the Pre-Millennium Falcon a 1997 model Falcon in sort of goldy-brown.
Before that:~ Blue Meanie a 1978 Alfa Romeo with a heart of gold, but a body full of rust.
And before that:~ The Mid-Life Crisis a red Nissan Exa with targa convertible roof.
Even before that:~ a white Ford Laser I don't think I ever named. Boring!!
Before that:~ The Lemon a white 1982 Subaru wagon made before Subaru figured out how to make a good car. Rust, engine, gearbox... all gave me trouble in the years I had it.
And last:~ The Little Brown Jug a brown Suzuki Sierra which met its end on Crematorium Corner in Lane Cove at the hands of a Woolworths truck & then a handy tree.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-11 05:26 pm (UTC)And I have no idea where Gaida came from either. The output of subconscious thoughts at the time?