Not so long ago my mom, brother and I travelled to the Western Cape_which is always full of inspiration. That was a side note and has nothing to do with my story. We had travelled 1000km's together and then I had one stint where I would drive from Sommerset west into Cape Town_the hub of creativity. Yes that side note still has nothing to do with my story ;) I drove into town with the help of my maps on my Blackberry. But it was on the way back where all the 'fun' began. Not long into the trip I heard a 1. noise. It was a clattering noise on the side of my car. It sounded like it was slightly underneath the car. So I stopped, looked and nope I didn't see anything bizarre. I checked the tyres. Everything seemed fine. I carried on driving and the noise came on again and so I stopped. The noise went away. So I thought I was back on track. Then ahead of me I saw problem no 2. which was a long line of cars. That wasn't really the problem until the car started to overheat. I then realised problem no 3. which was my blackberry (iphone users totally scorning around about now ;) ) maps were no longer working. Oh and problem no 4 is that I was alone. I didn't have any water on me (i usually carry water to drink) and I could not see any petrol stations along the way. So I wanted to move forward (even if it was slowly) so when I could I would stop my car as it was stop start traffic. Other cars were also overheating, which made me feel a wee bit better but didn't help my 2-4 problems.
I took the next off ramp and problem no 1 started to rear its ugly head again. I phoned my mom which didn't really help as she was asking me 'where are you?' and I realised that I am problem no 5. LOST! I didn't really know where I was. I saw a garage which helped me put in water to cool off the engine but it had already cooled down, phew. But the noise was back. We duct taped a loose piece of plastic down which we thought would solve the problem. I then took the wrong road and the noise was back and LOUDER than before! The tyre had ripped apart. ONE thing I was sure of was that I was in a squatter shack area, problem no 5. Confession: by this stage my nerves were shot. I would like to describe myself as a calm person but not this time ;)
I slowly made my way back to the garage which they then put on a new tyre and put me on the right road. problem 1, 2 and 5 solved. Thank God for those hero's. I would've kissed them if I was not crying and was into kissing strangers ;)
Happy to be back on the road I phoned one of my friends who was concerned about me to tell him that I was A OK and A for AWAY. Until...
The police siren was ringing and they were after ME! A damsel in distress! I put the phone down and then pulled over. Not only ONE policeman came my way but Two (problem no 6 and 7). I thought to myself I would be able to get out of this one if there was one policeman but not 2, especially if one was being trained to be a policeman. I don' t think the chapter on how to be compassionate is in the police module ;)
I still told the policemen my story ( I may have blinked my eyelashes a little too) to which he replied "Girl, I can see you are stressed, go get yourself a cup of coffee. Sit down and relax". Not only did he let me off but he ENCOURAGED ME TO DO THE THING I LOVE DOING! what a man! "somebody give that man a bells!".
Was quite an stressful adventure but we now joke about being able to use my charm to talk my way out of things!
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